Growth Debate Brings Some Agreement : Speakers on Opposing Sides Say That Restrictions Are Necessary

It was the political equivalent of a gunfight at the OK Corral, only more polite.

On one side, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran and veteran slow-growth activist John Gardner drew vivid portraits of an Orange County choked by traffic without tougher growth controls.

On the other side, developer Brandon Birtcher and building industry lobbyist John Erskine retaliated with bleak visions of recession caused by growth limitation measures.

The dignified setting was a face-to-face debate involving a dozen speakers entitled “Consensus Building on the Question of Growth in Orange County” held Thursday night at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel.

Some Agreement

When the dust settled, there was surprising agreement among the participants that some growth restrictions are necessary, even in a county known partly for its conservative, anti-government, anti-regulatory sentiment.

Moreover, both sides acknowledged a critical dilemma: While additional development will worsen traffic conditions, highway construction programs are now seriously dependent on fees paid by developers when they obtain building permits. Fewer permits, less road construction.

There were some salvos exchanged.

“Logic suggests that we ought to speed up infrastructure and need a slowing down of the rate of growth in order to close in on the infrastructure shortfall,” Agran told more than a hundred people attending the debate, co-sponsored by USC and the Orange County Register.

“Moratoriums (on growth) mean the best and brightest have failed,” Erskine replied and argued that they would mean the onset of a “publicly elected recession.”

Claim Misunderstanding

Gardner and Agran contended that the slow-growth movement has been widely misunderstood. They said activists within the movement want roads, schools and sewers to be in place before growth occurs.

“I don’t know of any city or constituency in Orange County that is anti-business or anti-growth,” said Gardner.

Irvine Co. Vice Chairman Thomas Nielsen said the public must be encouraged to adopt different life styles that include car-pooling.

Orange County Transportation Commission Executive Director Stan Oftelie said that most of the county’s transportation money will go for reconstruction of the Santa Ana Freeway in the foreseeable future and thus “growth or no growth really doesn’t matter.”

But Robert Fisher, the county’s top planning official, said the real question facing planners, political leaders and the building industry is “how much growth should be allowed.”

But on that issue there was no consensus.