Panel’s Growth Plan Aims to Ease Effects of Area Population Increase

The San Diego Assn. of Governments unveiled a growth-management plan Friday, said to be the first of its kind in California, aimed at maintaining the quality of life as the population continues to soar.

Sandag’s Regional Planning and Growth Management Review Board has outlined measures for San Diego County and its 18 surrounding cities to manage growth, focusing on eight environmental and economic factors.

The plan, in its initial stages, isn’t aimed at halting growth, but is designed to mitigate its impact, said Susan Baldwin, a senior planner with the organization.

The San Diego agency estimates that the population of San Diego County will be nearly 3.2 million by 2010, which represents an average increase of 35,000 people a year. In addition, 343,000 housing units will be built and about 300,000 jobs created.

The growth projections would mean an increase of about 700,000 people over the next 20 years.

“One of the major reasons we’re doing this plan is people are concerned with all the growth that’s taking place,” said Steve Sachs, senior planner with the association. “If we don’t watch carefully how we’re managing the environment and keep tabs on it, as things change and we go along, we’ll probably be in a lot worse shape than we would be otherwise.”

The plan centers on maintaining or improving air and water quality, sewage treatment, sensitive lands protection and open-space preservation, solid waste management, the transportation system and housing.

These “quality of life factors,” as they are termed by the board, are issues that affect the entire region, not just individual areas, Baldwin said.

Baldwin said each quality-of-life factor has been assigned standards, as deemed by federal, state and local agencies. To achieve the standards and diminish the impact of growth, people can car pool or conserve water, for example, Baldwin said.

Aside from the quality-of-life factors, the strategy addresses the rate and distribution of population growth, Baldwin said.

Sandag will hold public meetings to discuss the plan with officials of San Diego County and each of the 18 cities.

San Diego voters called for the implementation of a regional growth-management strategy in November, 1988, with the passage of Proposition C.

The plans have been coordinated with the Air Pollution Control District, the County Water Authority and other regional agencies. The plan could encourage other regions to follow suit in hopes of improving their own growth-management strategies, Sandag officials believe.

Linda Michael, spokeswoman for the Sierra Club, said that, although she hasn’t reviewed the plan in detail, one is definitely needed. She said growth management must be done on a regional basis, because it is difficult to do it city by city.

Frank Panarisi, president of the Construction Industry Federation, endorsed the board’s plan.

“We don’t have any problem with what they’re proposing as a design,” he said. “That’s OK at this point. We would like to work with them in the implementation stages.”