Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - Building a second train track along the entire San Diego County coast over the next two decades would be an economic disaster for Del Mar and an environmental disaster for North County's lagoons, two Del Mar residents warned Friday at a public hearing on the region's new transportation plan.

The San Diego Association of Governments' proposed 23-year blueprint for railroads, freeways and bus systems calls for putting a second track in a tunnel under Del Mar, something that would disrupt life in the tiny, wealthy seaside community during several years of construction, the residents said.

"There will be massive heavy equipment on the road," said resident Don Billings, a consultant. "It will be impossible to get around."

Billings and retiree Sharon Feierabend said after the hearing that they had been organizing opposition to the tunnel and have a couple hundred Del Mar residents on board.

"Del Mar residents will not accept a tunnel," Feierabend told the board.

The public hearing focused on the $58 billion blueprint the association, the region's transportation planning agency, proposed for handling San Diego County's travel needs through 2030. A half dozen people spoke.

Such plans are adopted every four years. As written, this latest plan would deliver a dramatic makeover of the county's 300-mile freeway system. The county has 13 miles of car-pool lanes today, and that number would soar to 143 miles by 2030. More than half would double as toll lanes for paying solo commuters.

The plan calls for widening Interstate 5 through North County with at least four new lanes, building two car-pool lanes on Highway 78 between Oceanside and Escondido, and completing a four-lane version of Highway 76 east to I-15, among other projects.

The board is set to adopt the plan Nov. 30.

The railroad tunnel project is far from set in stone.

Gary Gallegos, association executive director, said studies must be undertaken to determine its precise route and length, and to figure out what challenges must be overcome in burrowing under the city. Officials have proposed a tunnel because there is no room for a second set of tracks on the Del Mar bluffs, Gallegos said.

The blueprint - the 2007 Regional Transportation Plan - calls for the $475 million tunnel to be built sometime between 2021 and 2030. It is part of a $2.4 billion piece that aims to deliver a second track by 2030, to boost the railroad's capacity for moving commuters and freight. About 60 percent of the corridor has two tracks today.

There's just one problem with the project, Billings suggested.

"It's in the wrong place," he said.

Billings said the location close to the ocean means the second track would harm not only Del Mar, but also would hurt lagoons and Torrey Pines State Beach, one of two places in the world where the rare trees it is named for are found.

"Double tracking will needlessly disfigure every wetland in the county," he said. "And it will permanently disfigure Torrey Pines, the crown jewel of the county's natural resources."

Billings also suggested the double-track project is the wrong solution to growing congestion on coastal highways and roads. He said the agency would do better to pump the more than $2 billion into a rapid bus system on Interstate 5.

Gallegos said after the meeting the association already is planning such a system, with exclusive lanes. But he said there is still a need to boost the capacity of the Coaster commuter train because I-5 can't handle the traffic load on its own.

With 6,000 daily riders, the Coaster is in effect taking 6,000 cars off the freeway, Gallegos said.

"That's like adding another lane on I-5," he said. "I think I-5 would be a lot worse if we didn't have choices."

Gallegos said that having a set of double tracks would add the equivalent of another lane, if not more.

Billings maintained that the agency chose to lay more track rather than propose an entirely new transportation project because it was the easy thing to do.

"Are we building for the San Diego of 100 years from now? Or are we building just because the tracks are already there?" Billings asked.

Gallegos answered later that the agency is building a second track because it is needed. He said the packed Coaster cars during the morning and evening rush hours underscore that need, and show that more commuters would take the train to work if given the opportunity.

In other comments Friday, Encinitas resident Dagmar Landel said she supports widening I-5.

"However, I am concerned about the noise impacts, particularly through Cardiff and Encinitas," she said.

Landel urged the board to commit to sound walls that muffle noise and paving with a rubberized surface that ratchets down volume.

Sarah Turitto of Encinitas opposed the new toll roads in the plan.

"To ask the commuters and the voters, who are one and the same, to pay again through a toll to use the roads they're already paid for is absurd," Turitto said.

To increase the money available for projects, the agency proposes to build toll lanes on I-5 north of Oceanside to the Orange County and on Interstate 15 north of Escondido to the Riverside County line.

A home builder proposed, in a letter earlier this week, to reinstate a project.

In a Sept. 11 letter, Pardee Homes' San Diego division President Beth Fischer expressed disappointment that the widening of Highway 56 from four to six lanes was taken out because of a funds shortage. "State Route 56 is a vital link between I-5 and I-15, serving the rapidly growing residential, commercial and business communities in the north part of the city of San Diego."

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 745-6611, Ext. 2623, or ddowney@nctimes.com.