Plan Is a Triumph for Managed Growth : * Supervisors Opt for Preservation Over ‘Bulldoze and Build’ in Trabuco Canyon

Was that the Board of Supervisors insisting on setback requirements, aesthetic considerations and managed growth? It happened last week when the board engineered a compromise plan for the future of Trabuco Canyon, one of the county’s jewels. Hooray.

One is not accustomed in Orange County to hearing extensive, pre-approval development debate about the appropriateness of gas stations in pristine areas, setback, and height requirements for buildings. But in a highly commendable departure from its past inclination to willingly open the floodgates to development, the Board of Supervisors last week insisted on a unique blueprint for Trabuco Canyon, one of the county’s environmental treasures.

Recognition is due especially to Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez, who led the way with last-minute compromises designed to help preserve the special character of the area. The plan will eliminate a proposed four-lane highway through the canyon, and severely scale back plans for widening the magical Live Oak Canyon Road. It expands protections for oak trees and scenic ridges. It imposes grading, density and other restrictions on the up to 2,700 houses that will be permissible. It blocks one plan to build about 30 homes near O’Neill Regional Park, and specifies sites for limited commercial development around Cooks Corner.

The concerns aired last week, designed to balance the rural flavor with future development, are not all that unusual in places around the country that have taken care with their regional and local planning. But in its relentless suburban sprawl, Orange County has not generally managed its growth on a county level in a way that is always respectful of the land, local character, and history. It was no surprise, then, that one businessman in the Trabuco Canyon area said at last week’s landmark meeting: ‘I’ve done a lot of development, and you just go in and bulldoze and build buildings. This is the first time I’ve really been forced to listen and work with community people.”

That rare Orange County process of community give-and-take, of orderly planning for growth, was actually taking place as a result of some new-found environmental awareness on the Board of Supervisors. Let’s hope that the board, in its 5-0 vote for the new plan, signals a new willingness to insist on orderly, careful and environmentally sensitive planning. It would be a welcome change from the prevailing “bulldoze and build” mentality.