Boisterous Crowd Packs Toll Road Hearing

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 6, 2008 at 1:03 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Several thousand supporters and opponents packed into a meeting hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The California Coastal Commission is considering an application for a toll road that would run directly

Boisterous Crowd Packs Toll Road Hearing

(Photo: Thousands gather for public hearing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on the "trestles toll road" project. Ed Joyce/KPBS )

Several thousand supporters and opponents packed into a meeting hall at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. The California Coastal Commission is considering an application for a toll road that would run directly through San Onofre State Park. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

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In a carnival-like atmosphere the state coastal commission took testimony from opponents and supporters. An Irvine-based agency wants to build a six-lane toll road across part of San Onofre State Beach. Supporters say it will relieve congestion on a section of I-5.

Coastal Commission staff Executive Director Peter Douglas called the toll road project the most significant issue facing the commission since the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant in 1974. Douglas: Because of the large area of environmentally-sensitive habitat, wetlands and other public resources it would destroy. That it so clearly fails to meet so many coastal act policies.

He says there are better alternatives including widening I-5. The staff also says building the toll road will have a negative impact on endangered species, severely damage San Onofre State Beach and destroy the popular Trestles surf spot.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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