Embrace Sustainability, an Idea We Can Live With

Opponents of “sustainability” are quick to point to a wacky manifesto from San Francisco that argues for lab analysis of street drugs to prevent unintentional poisoning of substance abusers, limitations on the use of scented personal care products in shared indoor environments, and a fruit tree in every yard--all in the name of sustainability.

“Tsk, tsk,” you cluck. “That’s San Francisco for you!” In the City by the Bay, different strokes for different folks seems to epitomize local control.

Local control in Ventura County, namely ballot Measures A and B, is basking in the warmth of the national spotlight. Policy wonks with impressive credentials have at least one beady eyeball focused on us for fear we’ve closed off conversations about growth for good.

What, precisely, did our voters affirm? For some, it was about stopping suburban sprawl. For others, it was an effort to conserve corridors of crops. A few, however, remain convinced that Ventura County’s quality of life might only be preserved by hoisting the drawbridge and tossing the welcome mat into the murky moat.

Those voters who bought the contention that the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiatives would whisk away all developers are in for a rude awakening. Not only will the massive projects already in the pipeline funnel a flock of folks into our slice of paradise, but lower interest rates, according to the California State Realtors Assn., will enable 47% (up from 21% in 1990) to realize the dream of Ventura County home ownership. John T. Buse, an attorney for the Environmental Defense Center, says SOAR won’t halt transportation projects menacing agricultural lands, open space and air quality, either. Finally, unless we legislate against having kids, the population of Ventura County will continue to go cheerfully forth and multiply, multiply, multiply.

Allow me to propose this: Let go of the divisiveness and malevolence that clog the letters to the editor column and embrace, instead, the inclusive, multifaceted notion of sustainability.

What would sustainability in Ventura County look like? In addition to hanging on to our breathtaking viewshed and coveted standing as one of the safest locales in the nation, we would also be able to brag about miles of pedestrian-friendly streets, limited landfills, lofty library circulation rates, nary a trace of the saffron smog slumbering over the San Fernando Valley and, best of all, the capability of living and laboring in the same community. That would constitute an uncommon legacy for our children.

By some accounts, the Agricultural Policy Working Group town hall meetings floundered. Perhaps a different mediator might have been able to handle the more obstreperous special-interest voices. But although a fairly good mix of stakeholders turned out, too few were primed to grapple with such dicey dichotomies as density versus sprawl, revenue-sharing versus mall wars, or verdant vistas versus potent pesticides and “dairy air.”

Public involvement and education are critical to the implementation stage of SOAR. Richard W. Pidduck, president of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, is concerned that “the major players are making huge, long-term decisions without much citizen input.” Although the people have spoken, vox populi can’t live on political spots alone.

Carl Morehouse, past Central Coast section director for the American Planning Assn., is convinced for various reasons, including the fact that land use “is not a very sexy issue until it crops up in your own back yard,” that November voters lacked consequential information. It would seem Ventura County is ripe for the harvest.

Morehouse would like to develop an educational outreach preparing our residents to comprehend planning in all its complexity. His proposed package, price-tagged at $200,000, would consist of a brief video, printed materials, a speaker’s bureau and an abundance of region-wide dialogues. He is seeking a sponsor, preferably one with nonprofit status.

I fervently hope he will realize his dream. The best definition of sustainability turning up in my research was “meeting our needs without messing it up for our children.”

You don’t have to be from San Francisco to get behind that idea.