County requests adding 51 roads to Regional Arterial System

The County of San Diego has formally requested the addition of 51 roads to the county’s Regional Arterial System, including seven road segments in Fallbrook and Bonsall.

A resolution unanimously approved January 10 by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors forwards the list to the San Diego Association of Governments. The SANDAG board of directors will consider the proposed additions as part of the 2007 Regional Transportation Plan update process.

The Regional Arterial System is a region-wide network of arterial roadways under the jurisdiction of individual cities or counties which serve regional trips and supplement the freeway and highway network. The Caltrans freeways and state highways are also considered part of the Regional Arterial System, but currently Mission Road between Interstate 15 and State Route 76 and East Vista Way between the Vista city limits and State Route 76 are the only Fallbrook-area non-highway roads on the list of 45 road segments in the county’s unincorporated area. The Regional Arterial System is intended to provide additional regional transportation capacity, especially by diverting shorter inter-community trips from freeways.

Inclusion of a road in the Regional Arterial System is a prerequisite for many state and Federal funding sources. If SANDAG approves the addition of the road segments, those roads may be eligible for certain state and Federal programs. SANDAG has developed a process to prioritize Regional Arterial System roads for funding consideration.

The addition of the county roads into the Regional Arterial System will also allow the county to verify that appropriate Transportation Impact Fee charges have been used towards Regional Arterial System roads. The TransNet extension passed by the county’s voters in November 2004 includes a requirement that local jurisdictions adopt an impact fee for improvements to regional arterials. The TransNet ordinance stipulates a fee of $2,000 per dwelling unit for improvements to the Regional Arterial System, while the county’s TIF program implemented in 2005 collects fees both for local roads and regional roads. Legal precedent requires a nexus between the impact fee and the roads mitigated by that fee, so additional regional roads within a community will reduce the risk of a successful court challenge against the TIF charge for regional roads.

A road proposed for addition to the Regional Arterial System must provide parallel capacity in high-volume corridors, provide a connection between Caltrans facilities or other regional arterials, or provide for regional and/or corridor transit service. County staff reviewed the criteria and proposed 51 roads which meet at least one of those three criteria.

Before the list of roads is added to SANDAG’s Regional Transportation Program, it will be reviewed by SANDAG’s Cities/County Transportation Advisory Committee, Regional Planning Stakeholders Working Group, and Transportation Committee. A draft Regional Transportation Plan will be released for public review before SANDAG adopts the final RTP.

The 51 added segments include Camino Del Rey between State Route 76 and Old Highway 395, Gopher Canyon Road between East Vista Way and Old Highway 395, Old Highway 395 between East Mission Road and the Escondido city limits, Fallbrook Street between South Mission Road and Reche Road, Gird Road between Reche Road and State Route 76, Reche Road between Fallbrook Street and Old Highway 395, and Stage Coach Lane between East Mission Road and South Mission Road.

Note: An extension of Fallbrook Street is planned to arc over to Reche Road.