Environmental Groups Taking Initiative Path on Parks Bond

Frustrated by what they see as the Deukmejian Administration’s unwillingness to expand the state parks and wildlife system, a powerful coalition of environmental groups is trying to force a vote on a statewide parks bond issue that would bring more than $35 million to Orange County.

Signatures are being gathered in an effort to place the $776-million bond issue on the June, 1988, ballot as an initiative measure. If that drive is successful, officials say, it would be the first time any group outside the Legislature has been able to put a bond measure before voters since 1914.

Traditionally, the Legislature and the governor, negotiating within a self-imposed dollar limit, have agreed on a package of bond issues and sent them to the voters for approval.

Threat of Development

But Gerald Meral, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, said that method has shortchanged parkland and wildlife habitat acquisition at a time when rapid population growth makes purchases crucial.

“When you look at the various projects we’re familiar with, many are under the threat of imminent development,” Meral said. “If they aren’t acquired for parks or wildlife purposes they’ll be turned into some other use--housing, shopping centers, strip mines. They won’t be preserved for the value they have today. We’d hate to see that happen.”

In order to gain support for the initiative drive and the measure, its sponsors, calling themselves Californians for Parks and Wildlife, have spread the bond issue’s wealth among more than 60 projects throughout the state.

The money would be spent from the Tijuana River to Del Norte County, expanding state, regional and local parks, beginning new ones, restoring and expanding sensitive wildlife habitat, preserving coastal farmland and, in one case, buying new boats to help the Department of Fish and Game enforce its regulations.

Seen as a Challenge

Using a new strategy that has led some observers to dub the initiative a “park barrel” measure, the coalition included projects for funding in exchange for local groups’ pledges to gather a certain number of signatures or dollars in support of the measure, Meral said.

Meral said it was inevitable that the coalition’s approach, which seizes the power to set parks priorities, would be seen as a challenge by lawmakers and Deukmejian Administration officials who traditionally have kept that popular role for themselves.

“We figured we should try to get the support of a lot of local groups, and it’s no surprise that the only way we could get that support is if they were sure they would get funded,” he said. “There is general public support, but unless your local group is going to get funded, they’re not that enthusiastic about going out and getting signatures.” The result has been the establishment of a massive grass-roots organization formed to collect more than 600,000 signatures (only 375,000 are needed) and ready to roll into action this summer.

In Orange County, the Angeles chapter of the Sierra Club will be collecting signatures and funds for the measure, which would provide money to complete the Chino Hills State Park, begin acquisition of land for an Irvine open space corridor, nearly complete the Laguna Greenbelt and contribute toward the restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

In Chino Hills, the group that has been pushing for the park for more than a decade, Hills for Everyone, agreed to contribute $5,200 to the initiative campaign, which could provide $7 million for the park. In Laguna Beach, Laguna Greenbelt, another private, nonprofit group, has pledged $10,000 and 30,000 signatures. The initiative sets aside $10 million for the Laguna project.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran pledged $2,500 and 5,000 signatures to secure a spot on the list for $4 million toward purchase of the city’s open space corridor, which is planned as a corridor running along Jeffrey Road between the San Diego and Santa Ana Freeways. And Lorraine Faber, a past president of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, said she will be coordinating the drive for 7,500 signatures the group pledged in exchange for the $1.5-million allotment to the wetlands.

“We’ll be down on the beach or at the swap meets, the 4th of July parade, wherever we have to be to get those signatures,” Faber said.

Comfortable With Idea

Orange County activists behind the initiative said they were comfortable with the idea of pledging signatures or cash in return for park funding.

“I think any park worth having is worth fighting for,” said Claire Schlotterbech, a Brea nutritionist and president of Hills for Everyone. “If that means coming up with money to help protect it and working your tail off to do it, that’s fine.”

Nevertheless, the unique approach has caused some discomfort in the Deukmejian Administration and the Legislature, where lawmakers are used to divvying up park money themselves and taking credit with their constituents for park expansions in their districts.

Although Deukmejian Administration officials say the governor’s office has taken no position on the initiative, Henry Agonia, the newly named director of Parks and Recreation, says his department would prefer to work through the Legislature to set priorities.

Defends Parks Record

And Terry Eagen, deputy secretary of the Resources Agency, defends the Administration’s record on park issues, which he says has been geared more to making recreation accessible to large numbers of people than buying new land for backpackers.

“The governor campaigned on the basis that we should develop the holdings we have as opposed to acquisition,” Eagen said. “Obviously we continue to acquire, but not at the same pace as we did in the past. It’s been the principle of his administration that we’ve got to deliver that service to the people.”

Assemblyman Bill Jones (R-Fresno), who has authored a $350-million parks bond bill, says he worries that placing a bond issue on the ballot by initiative will set a bad precedent.

” . . . I question whether going out and asking different groups to gather signatures based on the fact that if you gather so many signatures we’ll put you on our bond measure is an appropriate manner to go about this process,” Jones said.

Linda Adams, an aide to Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who is carrying a competing $450-million parks bond measure, says Costa is concerned that the Planning and Conservation League’s measure could take away authority that traditionally rests with elected officials.

Setting the Priorities

“The Planning and Conservation League is setting the priorities for the state,” Adams said of the initiative.