RIVERSIDE - A panel of elected city and county officials gave a green light Thursday to negotiations on toll lanes between Orange County and Corona.

The decision by the Riverside County Transportation Commission follows its vote in mid-December to move forward with a broad range of highway upgrades using a variety of funding. Those sources included a half-cent sales tax, toll collections and as much as $950 million expected from bond issues approved by voters in November.

The panel's counterparts on the other side of the mountains had said earlier this month that they approved of the plans, but laid out a variety of suggestions and conditions for their cooperation.

That cooperation is important because the Orange County Transportation Authority owns the rights to develop toll roads along Highway 91, the major commuter route that leads from Riverside through Corona and northern Orange County and into the Los Angeles metropolis. The agency bought those rights from a private enterprise in 2003 after receiving permission from the state legislature in 2002.

Following requests from the Riverside County agency, a legislator submitted a draft bill for a similar provision in this county, said Temecula Councilman Ron Roberts. Like many "spot" bills floated early in the legislative session before an initial deadline, the draft was rough and the bill can be rewritten extensively before it comes to a vote, Roberts said. The bill would be open to input from the transportation agency in Orange County.

"Orange County and Riverside County are working together a lot better than they were in the past," Roberts said of joint highway planning.

In a memo approved Feb. 2, the agency said the bill should allow the two transportation agencies flexibility in deciding how to collect and spend revenue from the toll road. The two agencies should continue to plan jointly for possibilities such as toll lanes that reverse direction to accommodate heavier westward flows on weekday mornings and heavier eastward flows in the afternoons, according to the memo.

"Those are all concerns we expected," said Anne Mayer, deputy executive director with the Riverside County commission.

Transportation officials in Riverside County also foresee toll lanes along Interstate 15 between Lake Elsinore and Corona. The panel's governing board is made up of Riverside County's five elected supervisors and representatives of each city within the county.

The go-ahead for the toll lanes passed in a unanimous vote with little discussion. Roberts, Lake Elsinore Mayor Bob Magee, Murrieta Councilman Rick Gibbs, Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone and First District Supervisor Bob Buster were all present for the vote. Specifically, the vote authorized a $750,000 contract for a consulting firm that is analyzing current and predicted traffic flows on both Highway 91 and I-15.

Buster has spoken out against toll roads in the past, saying that the half-cent sales tax reauthorized by voters in 2002 was intended to cover additional lanes on I-15 without relying on tolls. But the toll lanes on Highway 91 would probably come with lanes that would be open to nonpaying drivers, Buster said.

Transportation officials in Riverside County foresee vehicles with three or more occupants being exempt from tolls on the local section of Highway 91.

- Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.