On Friday, September 25, 2021 California’s Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB1426 (Assemblywoman Boerner Horvath) that protects the northern portion of Camp Pendleton and San Onofre State Beach from road construction. AB 1426 prohibits Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA), any CA state agency, any regional agency, or any local agency from building a road through the northern portion of Camp Pendleton including San Onofre State Beach or the Richard and Donna O’Neill Conservancy. The bill also prohibits TCA from funding or building a road, or Caltrans from approving a major thoroughfare, in a larger area designated as the “Avoidance Area” that includes the northern portion of Camp Pendleton (including San Onofre State Beach), the O’Neill Conservancy, and significant additional habitat lands. The Avoidance Area is designated in crosshatch on the attached map (represents about half the area shown on the map). The measure does not prohibit widening the existing I-5 corridor, which requires USMC/Dept. of Navy approval, State Parks from doing internal road improvements, or the United States Government from building roads, the latter of which the bill could not do anyhow. The legislation should be the conclusion of two decades of discussions about putting a new highway through the northern portion of Camp Pendleton.