County Should Remain in SCAG

A bill introduced at the request of the Orange County Board of Supervisors to allow the county to pull out of the Southern California Assn. of Governments is pending in the state Senate. It is bad legislation and should not be approved.

Orange County understandably has been pushing for independence in many areas and last year was able to persuade Caltrans to give the county its own district office. That’s fine. But pulling out of SCAG, the regional planning agency that covers the counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Imperial, would be ill-timed and ill-advised.

Orange County wants more local control. It also would like to have the $1.6 million in state planning funds that would come its way if it formed its own countywide planning group. But the most pressing problems facing the county are the same ones facing the region. They cannot be contained by artificial city or county boundary lines, or dealt with unilaterally.

There is a need for more coordinated planning between county government and the 27 cities in Orange County. But that can--and should--be done at the same time the county works with other counties on regional concerns such as growth control, transportation, air quality and hazardous waste disposal, all of which impact the entire area. Efforts in dealing with these concerns must be coordinated. That is why SCAG was created.

Smog covers the whole basin. People working in Orange County live in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Most Orange County residents who fly travel to airports in Los Angeles and Ontario to board commercial jets. Many Orange County residents also use freeways and surface streets in neighboring counties on a daily basis. Growth control measures are being pushed in other nearby counties. And sites must be found to dispose of hazardous waste.

All of these problems grow more acute each day. The counties owe it to their residents, and neighbors, to stay together and seek the solutions no one city or county can realistically provide.