Developing the Coast

The booming economy has catapulted a number of waterfront projects in Orange County from the back burner to the front. An important public policy question stands at the heart of this push for development. If this pressure chips away at previous land preservation efforts, or threatens water quality, how good are the good times for the long term?

Careful oversight is important in any case, because available land is at a premium and there is dwindling opportunity to shape the landscape.

For Orange County, the coastline can be thought of as part of the area’s basic franchise. It’s an attraction that brings visitors from other parts of the state and nation. There is a special obligation for those who are making decisions about such things as how runoff from development will be handled.

Each development decision affects the whole, and becomes an opportunity taken or lost. It is a responsibility for local jurisdictions, the county and state to manage these assets well so they are preserved for future generations.

Curbing all development, as some would like, is out of the question. But managing it in a way that is sensitive to the surrounding environment is essential. The movement in recent years to set aside large parcels of open space amid sprawling suburban development represents progress in this area. This effort has created common spheres of interests for citizens, government agencies and private developers.

Voters have been willing to insist on set-asides, as happened at the Headlands. Long periods of negotiation and litigation have produced some compromise plans, such as the scaling back of housing planned for the Bolsa Chica area near Huntington Beach.

But the future of the development of coastal areas is far from certain. The recession of the early 1990s provided a timeout period for various parties with interests along the waterfront. The boom of recent years again has put old plans on the front burner, and created new pressures to accommodate development. Now the waterfront is coming to terms with a relatively recent phenomenon, the tide of runoff from inland areas and potentially from new local development.

State officials recently recommended a delay in implementing guidelines for runoff in areas that would affect developments such as the Crystal Cove project in the Newport Coast area. The state Resources Control Board says its staff wants to ensure a thorough review of runoff in biologically sensitive marine areas.

This comes at a time when there is a controversy over runoff discharges from Irvine Co. construction sites into the ocean waters.

The board’s staff, rather than disallowing runoff entirely, is engaging in a search for permissible discharge amounts that will meet specified water quality standards. Also under discussion is whether existing discharges would get a waiver from new stricter rules.

In making their decisions, regulators must not underestimate the cumulative affect of the runoff problem on the area. Recently, the county Sanitation District agreed to increase the amount of runoff it accepts. But this cannot be expected to solve everything. Development increasingly is going to have to be part of the solution since it inevitably is going to contribute to the problem.

The state Coastal Commission already is insisting on many things as conditions for approval of development, including storm drain filters, diversion and pollution monitoring. This, along with the open space efforts, represents progress from earlier decades. Also, the public is going to have to decide what it is worth to purchase open space to keep it from development, as happened near Laguna Beach.

In the current environment, protecting the coast is a way of managing the economic boom. For the region to enjoy the long-term benefit of growth, it must protect the shoreline.