Smart Growth, Not No Growth

For years, the approach favored by slow-growthers in the San Fernando Valley and elsewhere has been that if you don’t build it, they won’t come.

That’s the tactic being used, for example, in Burbank to control growth of the Burbank Airport. By blocking replacement of the cramped, 70-year-old terminal, airport opponents hope to keep passenger levels from soaring from 4.7 million last year to the 9.4 million passengers the Southern California Assn. of Governments projects will use the airport in 2025. Don’t build a new terminal, and the passengers simply won’t fit.

But there’s a problem with this approach. The Burbank Airport terminal is bursting at its seams now. Finding a TV monitor to check arrivals and departures or even a vacant chair is a challenge. Then there’s the more than inconvenient fact that the old terminal, built to serve biplanes, is too close to the runway to meet modern safety standards.

Attempts to forestall growth are not the main reasons much of Southern California’s infrastructure is in such bad shape, but anti-growth sentiments make fixing things all the harder.

A study released last week by USC’s Southern California Studies Center confirms that sprawl has hit a wall in the Los Angeles area. Almost all the natural locations for urban development have already been used. We have simply run out of room to grow.

But the study also says that lack of room won’t stop growth. It won’t stop people--6 million is the number used, or two Chicagos’ worth over the next 20 years--from moving or being born here.

What the study challenges Los Angeles to do is to grow smarter, to make conscious choices about how land, water and transportation infrastructure are deployed; to grow together, to keep the geographical divide between haves and have nots from getting deeper: to grow greener, to ensure that all communities have equal access to open space and clean air and water; and to grow more civic-minded.

For the latter, the study suggests that we need to be more regional in our outlook, from governments to residents. The Valley, for example, should put aside its longtime antagonism toward downtown development if for no other reason than self-interest: Denser development there relieves pressure on development here.

Anti-development candidates won victories in Calabasas and San Fernando city council races last week. No one doubts the commitment of elected officials across the Valley to protect their communities’ quality of life. The challenge is to come up with ways to do it besides just saying no.