Urban Sprawl

* Re “The Other Border,” Opinion, May 2.

William Fulton represents the dispute between Ventura and Los Angeles counties over the Newhall Ranch project as a kind of war. He compares it to the events in Kosovo (hence the headline). He asserts, “Amid a clamor to rid their county of ‘excess people,’ Ventura County voters approved the SOAR initiative (Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources), which prohibits new development of farmland without a vote.”

So there we have it. According to Mr. Fulton, the real intention of SOAR is revealed: The ridding of Ventura County of ‘excess people,’ as in ethnic cleansing.

For Mr. Fulton, it appears, saving farmland and open space is equivalent to population removal, metaphorically comparable to Yugoslavia. And the voters of Ventura County (67% of them), he implies, were not deceived or misled in adopting SOAR for the purpose he alleges, but on the contrary, we acted knowingly and intentionally.

The restrictive land-use policies of Ventura County, Fulton states, shift population growth to neighboring counties and portend increasing conflict. Population in the Southern California region is predicted to grow by 6 million within the next couple of decades, he reports without a hint of dismay. How and where within the region the additional population will be accommodated are the only questions he seeks to address. It’s a can-do situation, as he sees it.

Addition of 6 million people to this region, already having suffered great environmental degradation, periodically inadequate water supply, severely depleted farmland and open space and constantly threatening air and water pollution, doesn’t seem to faze Mr. Fulton at all. To me, it’s horrifying!

Stopping urban sprawl and preservation of farmland and open space are among the most popularly supported issues in the country and [they are] beginning to be heard in the national political discussion. I’m hopeful we will avoid much of the torrent of growth that Mr. Fulton appears all too ready to accept. It’s within our power to determine.

WOLF BREIMAN

Ventura