San Juan locals oppose Caltrans’ plan for 156
A handful of San Juan Bautista area residents recently filed
suit against the California Department of Transportation, seeking
to derail Caltrans’ plans for a new four-lane Hwy. 156 paralleling
the existing route through San Juan Valley.
San Juan locals oppose Caltrans’ plan for 156
A handful of San Juan Bautista area residents recently filed suit against the California Department of Transportation, seeking to derail Caltrans’ plans for a new four-lane Hwy. 156 paralleling the existing route through San Juan Valley.
Some 60 people attended last week’s San Juan Town Hall meeting at the Community Center, and for nearly an hour-and-a-half they heard speakers decry the highway project that would bisect the small town.
“If we don’t win our lawsuit against Caltrans, we will have six lanes cutting through San Juan Valley,” said Richard Morris, a retired attorney who lives near San Juan. “I’d like all of us to think very seriously about a united community. Our enemy is Caltrans.”
But the suit may be coming a little late, according to staff at the county Council of Governments, the organization charged with coordinating regional transportation projects.
“Right now what they’re doing is buying the right-of-way that’s needed, said Lisa Rheinheimer, executive director of COG. “Right now the money is secured. They’re not scheduled to start construction until about 2012 or 2013. From my perspective my board has made it very clear that the board supports the Route 156 project.”
Rheinheimer said that even if Caltrans did agree to a new highway route through northernmost San Benito County as opponents support, studies show that growth would mandate four-lane Hwys. 156 and 25.
Morris was the first of six members of Save San Juan Valley, a registered nonprofit formed in an attempt to block Caltrans’ plans.
Supervisor Anthony Botelho, whose district includes San Juan Valley, sounded a hopeful tone.
“I’m committed to a political solution,” Botelho said. “I welcome the lawsuit, but as a political leader, I don’t buy it. One of the primary reasons why I ran for the board of supervisors is this issue.”
For a decade, Botelho has advocated a plan advanced by the county Farm Bureau, one calling for a new highway that veers south from the existing Hwy. 152 to serve the bulk of Central California’s east-west traffic. The Farm Bureau’s alignment would actually shorten Hwy. 156 through San Benito County by 3.5 miles.
“Our requests, our suggestions have been categorically rejected for 10 years,” said Dan DeVries, a San Juan attorney. “We were placated. We were patronized.”
DeVries told the group about a meeting last year between Save San Juan Valley leaders and Caltrans staff.
“I’ll never forget the words of a woman at that meeting,” DeVries said. “‘If you don’t like what we’re going to do, sue us.'”
Hwys. 156 and 152 are the primary east-west route for Calfornians between the Bay Area and San Luis Obispo County.
Given the amount of agricultural production, the existing highway presents a significant bottleneck. Traffic regularly backs up for miles along the two-lane section of 156 through San Juan Valley. Several intersections dump local traffic and farm equipment directly onto the roadway.
Caltrans would leave the existing road in place to serve local traffic and construct a four-lane highway south of the existing road, elevated six feet above the valley floor.
Ted Thoeny is a retired civil engineer who lives in a historic school building that fronts the existing highway. The new roadway would pass behind his home, effectively leaving him living on a highway median strip.
“They’re planning a full-fledged freeway through San Juan Valley,” Thoeny said.
“If we can accommodate trucks, well okay, we can do that, but on our terms,” Morris said.
The group already has raised $10,000, with pledges for more, but the estimated cost of the legal effort is $560,000, Morris said.
If the effort is not successful, “this town, which has been here since 1795, will cease to exist as we know it,” DeVries said.
Kathy Schipper lives and owns a business in San Juan. She was among those at last week’s meeting.
“I think it went well,” she said. “There’s a lot of passion behind it. All of us would just like to have some communication that wasn’t so dogmatically closed.”
