Carmel Valley planners ready to respond to I-5 proposal
Staff Writer
The Carmel Valley Community Planning Board is prepping its response to the Interstate 5 expansion’s draft environmental impact report. The deadline for response is set at Nov. 22.Neighboring Torrey Pines Community Planning Board has worked diligently on a 22-page response and the Carmel Valley board decided at its regional issues subcommittee meeting that it would endorse the Torrey Pines group’s response and highlight some Carmel Valley-specific concerns in its own letter.
“We need to be on record as a responder to the document,” said planning board member Scott Tillson.
The widening project includes adding high occupancy vehicle (HOV) managed lanes, auxiliary lanes and possibly one general-purpose in each direction from La Jolla Village Drive to Harbor Drive in Oceanside. Plans being studied include adding four to six lanes to the freeway, impacting surrounding environment, businesses and homes.
Carmel Valley’s planning group will address concerns with a $5 million bridge that will span over the freeway and connect Del Mar Hills with the East High Bluff area, a link the group feels is unnecessary and unsafe. Additionally, the group will address pollution, impacts to the San Dieguito River Valley, travel times and scenic protection, particularly where a 33-to-40-foot-high sound wall will eliminate the view of the fairgrounds and ocean from the freeway.
Copies of the EIR are available at
, as well as local library branches. To view the EIR and to comment online, visit https://www.keepsandiegomoving.com/I-5-intro.html