Long overdue start to increasing transportation routes for the growing region along Highway 50.
Decision paves way for road's future
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, March 9, 2007
In a surprise move two weeks ago, state transportation officials plucked a crooked little foothills back road out of obscurity and promised it $22 million in upgrade funds.
It was, El Dorado County Supervisor Rusty Dupray said, a "yee-hah!" moment.
White Rock Road, string-bean thin and bumpy as it runs through eastern Sacramento County into El Dorado County, suddenly has a muscular future as a multilane alternative to congested Highway 50.
"People don't want to spend an hour and a half to get to downtown," said Dupray, who was among many local officials lobbying for the funding. "We see this as a tremendous timesaver."
But up in suburban El Dorado, where officials struggle to transform yesterday's hill roads into broad avenues to match suburban growth, "yee-hah" moments can come with uh-oh caveats.
Days after the state OK'd White Rock Road funding -- plus another $20 million for more carpool lanes on nearby Highway 50 -- word surfaced that a developer expressed interest in opening several thousand more acres for growth, and more commuters than officials planned for.
The idea by Angelo K. Tsakopoulos, involving Sacramento County pasturelands on the El Dorado border, is merely exploratory, said Robert Holderness, an attorney speaking for Tsakopoulos.
Any change in the status of the land would need to be approved by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, which is scheduled to discuss the request at a workshop Wednesday.
Holderness said it's premature to speculate on potential impacts of development on foothills congestion. The Board of Supervisors has yet to say yes to even studying the idea. And, if they do, construction is years away, he said.
"My client doesn't have any (specific) plans," Holderness said.
The surprise request, however, puts a spotlight on a corner of the Sacramento region and its particular transportation issues.
Supervisor Dupray said El Dorado County residents literally are "paying for the sins of our forefathers."
The county for years allowed growth without building sufficient roads to support it, Dupray said.
In an attempt to make up for it, the county now imposes hefty transportation mitigation fees on new development, from $17,000 on a new house in outlying areas to $37,000 in the Cameron Park area, officials said.
The money goes not only to expand local feeder roads, but also to the county's de facto Main Street -- Highway 50 -- which serves as its transportation spine.
If something goes wrong on Highway 50, foothills commuters have few alternatives.
Lisa Lill of Pollock Pines recently found herself in a highway jam caused by an accident. "You're stuck there. Even if you know about the problem (beforehand), there aren't ways around it."
