SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Good Deal, If It Doesn’t Backfire

In one rather remarkable day this week, two of San Diego’s most longstanding environmental disputes ended in compromises that left just about everyone involved satisfied.

Consummation of the long-delayed negotiations to preserve the Famosa Slough in Ocean Beach is testament to the staying power of a handful of dedicated environmentalists.

The agreement to allow construction of the 3,360-home Miramar Ranch North housing project near Scripps Ranch--also an apparent win for area residents, environmentalists, the developer and City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt--raises some long-term considerations.

The two-year battle over Miramar Ranch North is one of those intra-community issues that proves that all politics are local. Before this garden-variety community-versus-developer struggle over the undeveloped hills on Miramar Lake’s north shore ended, it had served as a rallying point for the city’s environmental movement, which drew strength from the successful 1989 grass-roots campaign to stop the original project.

The newly formed environmental group helped defeat entrenched pro-development City Councilman Ed Struiksma and elect his opponent Linda Bernhardt, transforming the balance of power on the council. And now the new agreement is sure to become one of Bernhardt’s top issues as she attempts to avoid a recall motivated by her role in the city’s recent reapportionment.

The good news: Developer McMillin-BCED will build schools and parks and a badly needed east-west route between Poway and Interstate 15. Only 80 homes will be visible from the lake. Housing around the lake will be much less dense than first planned.

Credit goes to the Save Miramar Lake Committee for hanging tough, then compromising when it wrested the best deal possible; to Bernhardt for keeping the pressure on McMillin; to McMillin for continuing to seek a deal, and to the city for finding a way out of a lawsuit filed by McMillin.

But one city concession is troubling. In the agreement, the city gave McMillin as much as $24 million in credits toward citywide impact fees that it hasn’t enacted yet.

How many other developers will seek trade-offs on such fees--if they are enacted next month--in return for concessions? Will the city find itself tempted to trade fees that would pay for citywide infrastructure in favor of badly needed local facilities such as schools and parks?

Officials involved say those concessions were a one-time-only deal. That posture is a wise one.