County’s Outback Deserves Protection

There are still a lot of people around who remember Orange County as a land of sprawling agricultural fields, before the post-World War II boom of the defense industry took place and with it the expansion of the suburbs. A lot of land has been paved over during a relatively short period of extensive change.

Today, as a recent series of articles in The Times Orange County edition noted, areas once considered the outback find themselves bordering shopping malls and expansive housing developments. Many of the more established areas of the county have been built out. Suddenly, places that have represented the county’s real country--like Silverado Canyon, Cook’s Corner and Trabuco Canyon--are feeling the pressure of change on the horizon.

Modjeska Canyon has new urban immigrants living in expensive homes near cabins that have been there for decades. New transportation corridors are viewed alternatively as a boon for some commuting to distant jobs and as a threat to a way of life for others.

The Cleveland National Forest offers some welcome protection to Silverado and Modjeska, but what protections will continue to be offered by the county itself? Increasingly, country residents have been viewing encroachment with alarm. While these areas have their own feisty grass-roots politics, they haven’t always had much clout at the Hall of Administration.

Meanwhile, new development is fueled by powerful larger forces--the arrival of newcomers seeking a better lifestyle, and economic factors such as the increasing reliance of local cities and county government on revenue from new commercial and residential development.

What protection there is seems at risk to these residents. In Trabuco Canyon, there are concerns over the fate of the Foothill Trabuco Specific Plan, the county planning document that governs land use in the area and is aimed at restricting growth. In Silverado Canyon, residents are fighting to maintain the Sil/Mod plan, a county-approved planning document.

Silverado fought successful battles to preserve its one-room library and a water district. Yet there are continuing concerns about further development. The advent of new subdivisions, and new projects under proposal, have residents worried that county government won’t stand up for them.

In previous years, development at the county level often has been approved first, with any questions asked later. This is a county with a history of overly cozy relations between developers and county planners. Toll roads now cutting through once-pristine areas were approved long before the residents affected by them could have anything to say.

Given this history, the burden of proof is really on the county to demonstrate that it will do more than pay lip service to preservation and environmental protection.

With all this uncertainty about change, there are clear successes. For example, the plummeting home sales in Rancho Santa Margarita several years ago has given way to the shaping of a real community. Now 10 years old, it has become a friendly and urban village, with long-planned projects such as a Town Center, library, churches and the Foothill Transportation Corridor moving forward. There is a fledgling interest in cityhood and related community development.

Residents in these newer areas are proud of their achievements and more savvy about the ways of politics, and some seem determined to keep unwanted development at bay. But the pressures are there.

Striking the right balance between preservation and managed growth must be a top priority. As these areas face the prospect of new development, careful planning is called for to preserve the environment and a special way of life.