Sounding Board -- Tom Egan

A built-out city is like an aging baby boomer: You can’t get away with

the excesses of your youth anymore; you have to monitor your health; and

you have to seriously plan for the future.

This is why Costa Mesa should embrace the proposed Home Ranch

development.

The opponents have strongly made their case that quality of life is

the overriding issue. They say we have excessive traffic, we have failed

intersections and the noise threatens to deafen us. The future doesn’t

look any better. In fact, with rampant urbanization, it can only get

worse. The conclusion they draw is, we have to keep what health we have

by limiting Home Ranch development.

Now that’s an approach to quality of life that may slow its withering,

but won’t improve it.

There’s another approach that will actually improve the quality of

life in Costa Mesa.

It’s a counterintuitive approach that depends on letting Home Ranch be

developed as proposed. What makes it work is that we would take all the

net city revenue gained from Home Ranch and spend it on

“anti-urbanization” projects. These projects would cure the smothering

effects from the carpet of urbanization that has been rolled over us.

Just as with time’s arrow, we can’t turn back urbanization. But we

can ameliorate its effects. For example, a recurring complaint of the

opponents is that they have to wait too long at congested intersections.

Still, they say, just any old fix won’t do; widening streets would make

the city look and feel even more urban.

They’re right about that. However, if we had enough money, we could

install “smart streets” controlled by computers and the latest technical

gee whizzery, thereby speeding up traffic flow without widening streets.

If it works well enough, we could even narrow them.

Another example: From its beginnings, Costa Mesa has slighted the

finer things in life in a single-minded pursuit of fiscal stability and

security. As a result, the city appears nearly as sterile as a tar-paper

mining town on a barren hillside. Where are the overarching trees, the

lushly landscaped medians, the welcoming parks? Where do our kids play

but in places where they’re not wanted? If we had enough money, we could

buy “furniture” that would give us a suburban feel in the midst of our

very urban town.

The money would come from the golden goose known as Home Ranch. Two

million dollars in development agreement money would jump start the cure.

Each year thereafter, the golden goose would deliver $1.2 million of tax

revenue to pay for these anti-urbanization projects.

This approach can effectively compensate for the excesses of the past

and allow us to seriously plan for our future. It’s an effective way to

get the suburban character we want, the schools we want to send our kids

to and the high quality of life that attracted us to Costa Mesa.

Let’s not drive the golden goose away to Santa Ana, which is just

across the street. If we did, we’d have the same projected traffic on our

local streets, but wouldn’t have the compensation of a golden egg every

year with which to improve our quality of life.

* TOM EGAN is a Costa Mesa resident.