Board Drops Regents Road Off Rail Plan : Trolley: Sudden change by transit panel chairman surprises opponents of plan. Routes along Genesee Avenue and west of I-5 are being considered.

The Metropolitan Transit Development Board surprised a roomful of opponents Thursday, killing two proposed trolley routes that had polarized residents and property owners in University City and La Jolla.

Gone from the so-called Mid-Coast Corridor--which will connect Old Town with the Golden Triangle--are proposed lines running east of Interstate 5 and along Regents Road through Rose Canyon.

The latter configuration had inspired a grass-roots protest movement and angered homeowners in the elite La Jolla Colony, where four $500,000 homes would have had to be condemned had the Regents Road route been adopted.

“Save Rose Canyon!!!” read flyers distributed in the neighborhood. “Don’t Let Light-Rail Lines Slice Into the Heart of La Jolla Colony!!!”

In past meetings of the transit board, former state Sen. James R. Mills, who chairs the 15-member group, had vehemently opposed any alignment parallel to I-5. Mills had argued for the Regents Road configuration or a similar path along Genesee Avenue.

The Genesee route, still a source of concern among the Save Rose Canyon Committee, remains alive, as does a new proposal, which would place tracks parallel and to the west of I-5.

But much of the drama of Thursday’s meeting reflected not so much the decision itself--which the 15 members approved unanimously--but Mills’ demeanor. The chairman, who in weeks past was confrontational and defiant, was, on Thursday, cool and contrite.

Mills had bitterly opposed residents and property owners in Harbor View and Little Italy, who fought the board’s recent proposal to elevate tracks in their neighborhoods, robbing them of prized ocean views, in the line slated to run from the Santa Fe Depot to Old Town.

After months of political wrangling, a hard-fought compromise was finally hammered out: Tracks through Harbor View and Little Italy will be constructed “at-grade,” or street level, except at Grape and Hawthorn streets, where they will veer underground, like a subway, and then go overhead at Laurel Street, near Lindbergh Field.

Despite the compromise, hard feelings remained. In recent months, Mills has tussled with public speakers at MTDB meetings over an East Line extension from El Cajon to Santee, the Harbor View-Little Italy route and the proposed corridor to University City-La Jolla.

“There’s no telling where this guy comes from,” Pat Arter, chairman of the Save Rose Canyon Committee, said of Mills after Thursday’s meeting. “He’s been this czar all these years. Finally, people are willing to stand up and say, ‘The king’s naked.’

“But now that he’s retreating--and he clearly seemed to be (Thursday)--we’re all looking at him and saying, ‘What is it that makes this guy tick?’ ”

Arter paused reflectively and added, “Right now, he has us confused.”

Businessman Leonard McRoskey, who opposed the Regents Road route, said Mills’ nonchalant dismissal of the two longstanding route proposals “was quite surprising to everyone, because of the very, very firm stance he had taken in the past.

“To have it pass by so quietly. . . . He must have realized that the City Council people (on the transit board) and community leaders and residents knew, in the end, what was right and that he would have trouble winning. I think he finally saw the light.”

But Mills said Thursday that the routes were eliminated “for a very good reason”--the lack of adequate parking at Nobel Drive on the I-5-East route and along Regents Road. Mills added, however, that he strongly favors Genesee over I-5-West.

“That’s always been true--nothing’s changed with me,” he argued, saying the Genesee route provides the greatest potential for ridership through the booming commercial area of the Golden Triangle, while provoking less opposition.

Mills disputed the contention of the Save Rose Canyon Committee, saying that, instead of running within 150 feet of homes--as the Regents Road route would have done--I-5-West poses the threat of coming within 50 feet of condominiums along the way.

“This is no black-and-white situation,” he said.

The North Line/Mid-Coast Alignment involves potential routes that would serve UC San Diego, the commercial Golden Triangle and University City, as part of the North Line that was originally conceived to run from Old Town to Del Mar Heights Road.

No one was ever angry about the north segment, which has virtually been eliminated because of cost concerns, or the south segment, between Old Town and Gilman Drive near I-5.

It was the center segment to which people so strongly objected: a vertical alignment within University City or along one of the three byways: Regents, Genesee or I-5.

The North Line The Metropolitan Transit Development Board has cut its options for a route servingUniversity City and La Jolla down to two: 1. Route would parallel Interstate 5. 2. Route would turn east at Gilman Drive, then go north on Genesee Avenue. The decision eliminates Regents Road as a possible route, ending a community outcry. Source: Metropolitan Transit Development Board