405 Toll Lane Plan Back from the Dead, to Frustration of City Leaders

By Jessica Carreiro

A controversial proposal to add toll lanes to the 405 Freeway is back on the table, much to the frustration of city leaders in Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and surrounding communities who thought they had successfully lobbied against it.

Los Alamitos officials plan to fight the proposed toll roads with a strongly worded letter.

The project drew the ire of the Los Alamitos City Council on Monday, after city leaders learned the idea was still an option after most North Orange County cities closest to the proposed toll roads came out against it and after the Orange County Transportation Authority Board of Directors shot it down by a vote of 12-4.

The tension mounted Monday as OCTA officials updated the city on High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes included in the Supplemental Draft of the I-405 expansion project.  

In 2012, many cities along the 405—including Lake Forest, Huntington Beach, Westminster, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos and Rossmoor—banded together against toll lanes being added to the congested freeway.   

OCTA board members responded by voting 12-4 to widen the freeway by one lane on either side from Euclid Street to the 605 without the addition of toll lanes.  

However, after that vote, there was a mass turnover on the board in which 10 members were replaced. The OCTA then reopened the discussion on toll lanes.  

After Monday's presentation by Niall Barrett, OCTA’S project manager for the 405 Improvement Project, Los Alamitos council members took aim at the politics of the OCTA.  

“[We] made sure that taxpayers would not have to pay to use lanes that their taxes have already paid for,” said Councilman Troy D. Edgar.  

“The people spoke out very clearly about this the first time,” added Councilman Richard Murphy. “They don’t want HOT lanes.”  

Following several public comments opposing the lanes, the council voted 5-0 to write a strongly worded letter to the OCTA board, County Supervisor John Moorlach and surrounding cities.  

A draft environmental report on the project is available on the OCTA website. The deadline to comment on the project is August. OCTA will hold a public hearing on the project at 6 p.m. July 24 at Hill Classical Middle School, 1100 Iroquois Ave. in Long Beach.

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