COUNTYWIDE : Youngsters to Redesign the County

Like the players of “Balance of Power,” a global-conflict resolution game popular in high schools and colleges, 780 students at Rancho San Joaquin Middle School this week will plot strategy for a battle on Orange County turf.

But instead of attempting to spare the planet from another world war, the students’ goal will be to save Orange County from clogged roads and unbreathable air.

How? By designing a balanced, growing community.

In all of the school’s 25 history-social science classes, groups of about six students each will pretend to be land developers, environmentalists, county government officials, transportation agencies or community activists dissatisfied with the county and interested in forming new cities.

Each group will use county maps, minus real-life entities such as the Santa Ana Freeway and the county’s 29 cities, for example, to perform various tasks, such as planning freeway routes, transit lines, bike trails, housing areas, business parks and even airports.

And at the end of the weeklong program, on Friday, each group will share its results with an entire class.

With public opinion surveys showing that traffic congestion is Orange County’s biggest problem, county transportation officials hope that the pilot project at the Rancho San Joaquin campus will eventually be used elsewhere to educate future commuters--and taxpayers--about the complex public policy questions to be answered in trying to protect the quality of life.

The brainchild of Melanie Lane, a former intern-turned-community-relations-aide for the Orange County Transportation Commission, the school program is called “Transportation Into the ‘90s and Beyond.”

“We should end up with 20 designs on how Orange County should have been planned, or may be planned in the future,” Lane said.

The weeklong Orange County program is sponsored by representatives from each of the county’s transportation agencies and Partners in Education, a volunteer, business-supported group. The intent of the program is to get students thinking beyond the problem of jammed freeways, Lane said.

“Kids already know about traffic,” Lane said. “They are less aware of its effect on our economy, on land-use and air pollution.”

Activities scheduled this week include participating in a community planning exercise, attending transportation exhibits and role-playing games. Some prizes will be awarded, including one for the student who correctly guesses how many people pass through Irvine on the San Diego Freeway each day.

“Each group represents a special interest, and many of each group’s plans may conflict with the plans of another group,” states the written introduction to the game. “(But) each group member does have one thing in common. Everyone lives in Orange County and wants to make it a well-balanced community and a pleasant place to live.”