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Put on your protective goggles and brace yourself. You're in for a bumpy ride. If you live in the Inland Empire, you are witness to a prodigious explosion from ground zero. The blast is residential and commercial development that spreads through Riverside and San Bernardino counties like wildfire. The fallout includes increasing pressure on clean air and water, and the loss of a rural landscape that may have us wondering what became of the pristine, bucolic area where we planned to put down roots and raise our kids. There also is traffic approaching gridlock conditions in some areas, stealing away time with our children in these family-friendly environs. It does not matter if we have lived here long enough to remember when Moreno Valley was little more than a dull spot along the freeway called Sunnymead, or if we just moved into a new home in a development where our neighbors' homes are still under construction. We stand here together, and the decisions that we make together could determine whether or not we doom ourselves to the miseries of urban sprawl for years to come. Urban sprawl is here The term "urban sprawl" has become part of our vocabulary since late last year when Smart Growth America published a report with Rutgers and Cornell universities called "Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact." The report includes a list of the 10 most sprawling regions in the country. The Riverside-San Bernardino area topped the list as the worst case of urban sprawl in America, far outdistancing the second-worst region, Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, N.C. Andy McCue, associate director of the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development at UC Riverside, sees the report as "a wakeup call for all of us who live here to think about what kind of community we want the Inland Empire to be." He also adds this qualifier, noting that the report set out to study the density rather than the harder-to-chart issue of quality of life: "While Riverside-San Bernardino ranked worst in that survey, New York City ranked best. I think there are very few people living in the Inland Empire who would rather live in Manhattan." The report's authors take four factors into consideration - residential density; neighborhood mix of homes, jobs, and services; strength of activity centers and downtowns; and accessibility of the street network. They give the Inland Empire "especially low marks" in all of these areas. One of the factors drawing people to this area has been the ability to buy a large house, on a large lot, at an affordable price. As long as housing demand exists and open space is available, developers and local officials have satisfied that desire. And it is ongoing, with new neighborhoods sprouting north and south and into the high desert. The result has been low-density residential areas that place people miles away from centers of business, shopping and jobs. It has been suggested that the Inland Empire is in the same situation Orange County faced in the 1970s, experiencing growing pains until business and commercial development catch up population growth. There are some crucial differences, though. An advantage that Orange County has - at least in its South County communities - is a master-planned overview. The Irvine Co., under Chairman Donald Bren, owns one-sixth of the county land. Bren started his career master planning the city of Mission Viejo in the 1960s. Over the past 20 years, he has been the single force in master-planning the city of Irvine and parts of Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Tustin, creating parts that equal a whole. Communities are matched to schools, open space and parkland, shopping and education, and job centers such as the centrally located Irvine Spectrum. In contrast, the Inland Empire is challenged by competing forces that make master-planning more difficult. The number of landowners in Riverside and San Bernardino counties reaches into the thousands. Only recently, with the formation of the Riverside County Integrated Project, the "Blueprint for Tomorrow," has an effort emerged to make a whole from all the parts. The public is invited to participate in town hall meetings and advisory groups. The project is designed to accommodate continued growth by integrating a countywide general plan with transportation and environmental issues. Time is of the essence. According to DataQuick, which tracks the housing market in Southern California, a record 5,303 homes were sold in June in Riverside County, a record. And in San Bernardino County, 3,903 homes were sold, just off the record of 3,940 set in May. One challenge for the group is to define what the Inland Empire should be. "It's hard to point to any particularly strong job centers," says Mark Baldassare, research director for the Public Policy Institute of California. He has studied California growth and demographics for years. "They haven't figured out what their niche is in the California economy." With an enormous land mass - the Inland Empire stretches to the Arizona and Nevada borders, San Bernardino County is America's largest, and the area's 27,259 square miles is larger than Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined - Baldassare says there is time, and space, to do it right. "They have a great opportunity - there is so much land and land is relatively inexpensive - to really think through how they want this development to take place. Whether it will be compact or not, how to set aside open space, what mix of transportation to provide. It's all wide open." Those efforts include Rancho Cucamonga. City Planner Brad Buller works to strike a balance with housing density in that city. He says that more apartments are being built in Rancho Cucamonga than in any other community, which creates more living space on less land. "We are not anti-high density," he says. "In fact, we have a lot of high density, but we view our plan as a balanced plan. We have placed high density where we think it should be and we have placed lower density where we think it should be." He and the Planning Commission also have worked to provide an industrial-commercial base to provide the people who live in Rancho Cucamonga the opportunity to also work near home. "Our goal," he says, "is to allow whatever density is necessary to bring about a balance...We are very family-oriented as a city. Everything we do tries to elicit family and community." Continuing on that theme, Buller wants his legacy in Rancho Cucamonga to be that "I have created a community that has brought people together. It's all about people, it's not about the physical streets or the physical buildings, or the things that we work in or play on. It's people." He hopes that the city ends up as a place where people can connect and establish social relationships and friendships. "A lot of what my heart tells me is help people create interactive opportunities as a community, and do it in a pleasant way." Buller understands that, even with the city's best efforts and intentions, "we'll get critics who say this is urban sprawl. We think we've done a very nice balance given where we sit in relation to the region and Southern California. We've protected hillsides, we've protected open space, we've protected historic structures." He even sees the positive side of the conflicts and controversies that inevitably crop up. "There are a lot of decisions that are good to talk about, good to evaluate. That's where one's heart and soul comes out, and you begin to build community because you have to argue and debate over these really tough issues." Traffic, and more of it Another of the concerns, both immediate and future, resulting from the area's rapid growth, is managing traffic. It is an immediate concern for those who live in western Riverside County and work in Orange County, as they squeeze through the clogged artery of the 91 Freeway or snake through the twists and turns of the Ortega Highway to get to work. It is a matter of planning for the future of the rapidly growing San Gorgonio Pass as Beaumont and adjacent communities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties ponder how to improve the area's traffic flow. The most pressing concern is the increased demands that will be placed on I-10. The most frequently suggested remedies for the Orange County commute are freeway widening and improved mass transit, but a somewhat more radical solution has been getting some attention recently. The Orange County Business Journal recently reported on a proposal to cut a 12-mile tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains between Corona and Irvine to ease the 91 Freeway crawl. The tunnel would be large enough to handle commuters, commercial traffic, and even some utilities such as gas and water. The Journal reports that the project, which would cost an estimated $3.5 billion, counts Corona Congressman Ken Calvert and the Irvine Chamber of Commerce among its supporters, and Irvine Co. Chairman Bren as an opponent. Increased traffic on I-10 is something that is very much on the mind of Dick Riddell, mayor of the city of Yucaipa. He says there are plans to get the freeway widened to four lanes in that area, "but that probably won't be completed for another seven or eight years. That's going to be a problem, especially with the growth that's taking place in Beaumont and Calimesa. With all that going on, the freeway is really going to be a logjam." While Yucaipa also has had its share of growth with two major housing developments recently taking shape - Chapman Heights adjacent to Yucaipa Boulevard and The Whisper Ridge development in Wildwood Canyon - the city has shown that an interested and involved citizenry can help to make more growth more manageable. Yucaipa's City Council had, by a 3-to-2 vote, given approval for a Wal-Mart/Home Depot shopping center to be built. "The people took out a referendum, Measure O, to overthrow it," Riddell says. "They overthrew it significantly, and I think the main reason was the 'big box' was asking too much and doing too much. They wanted exemption from our Hillside Ordinance and all the hills down there (near the I-10/Live Oak Canyon interchange) were going to be pretty much leveled." Measure O's passage in 2002 was the result, Riddell believes, of the feeling among the people that, environmentally, it was a development that just did not belong in the area. "I think if they took advantage of the terrain and minimized the grading and tried to make the place look more attractive, I think it would have been much more acceptable to the people." Here is the challenge, as explained by UC Riverside's McCue: "I think the most crucial thing we can do in this region is to begin to think and plan as a region. There's no point in Redlands, for example, coming up with the best housing plan in the world if Highland, Loma Linda and Yucaipa all go in a totally different direction." Some people might look at what is going on around us and fear that there is little reason for optimism about the Inland Empire's future. Mayor Riddell begs to differ. "You have to be optimistic about the future. I'm not optimistic to the point that I'm not concerned, but by being concerned I think you can make better decisions." Inland Empire Family Magazine Executive Editor Craig Reem contributed to this report. Environment The air our families breathe and the water they drink By Katherine Noble-Goodman The Inland Empire has long been notorious for having the worst smog in the country. Now the region has topped a new list - suburban sprawl. The two are obviously related. Sprawl means longer commutes, more drivers, and more tailpipe emissions. Although cars are getting cleaner, tailpipe emissions are still a leading cause of air pollution. Sprawl only worsens that problem. Sprawl's impact on water can be less obvious. Sprawl undermines nature's own water cleansing system by paving over wetlands and building housing tracts and shopping malls in their stead. The construction and road building that are hallmarks of suburban sprawl destroy wetlands at a rate of 100,000 acres a year, an environmental tragedy when one considers that wetlands can remove up to 90 percent of water pollutants. Concrete keeps water from soaking into the ground to replenish local supplies. All that concrete also leads to more urban runoff, washing residential pollutants into streams and, eventually, to the ocean, without the cleansing benefit of percolating through the soil. Sprawl also tends to increase the amount of these suburban pollutants. Weedless green lawns are the norm in new housing tracts, and they are usually kept that way by regular doses of fertilizers and herbicides. There is also the issue of water quantity. "We have instant housing tracts, instant communities here and, as a result, the demand for water is increasing faster than we can supply it," says Penny Newman, executive director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) in Riverside. Water scarcity is also related to water quality in many Inland Empire communities where industrial toxins have seeped into the region's water supply. In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, 24 water systems are contaminated with perchlorate, a main ingredient in rocket and missile fuel that gets into groundwater through spills, leaks, and improper disposal. Because dilution is often the most economic solution to pollution, more residents mean less clean water to mix with water from contaminated wells. "What we find happening is that wells are polluted, instead of being put out of service. They are blended with cleaner water until we get just below the standard," says Newman. "More and more people are drinking water that has contaminants in it, just below the level considered unsafe for drinking." Effect on children Numerous studies have shown that perchlorate can cause problems in children and developing fetuses, such as reduced intelligence, hearing and speech impediments, poorly developed motor skills, and thyroid cancer. In adults, fatigue, depression and thyroid cancer are among known problems. Sprawl damages the environment and human health in less obvious ways, as well. If sprawl's polluting effects on water and air are not reason enough for parents to view the phenomenon with disdain, there is also the loss of natural habitat, which can also harm human health. In the "Geography of Childhood, Why Children Need Wild Places," Gary Nabhan and Stephen Trimble argue that natural habitat is important to a child's developing sense of place in the world. A recent medical study showed that systolic blood pressure dropped 10 to 15 points in hospital patients exposed to serene landscape paintings, and patients who can see trees and other natural scenes from their windows recover more quickly from illness than patients in rooms that overlook other buildings. A similar study found that office workers who have desks that face windows with a view of a natural setting are less stressed and have fewer sick days. Given such insights into the human psyche, it is understandable that if given a chance, people prefer to live in regions of natural beauty. Surrounded by mountains, canyons, and open space, the major cities of the Inland Empire have been such places. Today, much of that beauty is threatened by sprawl. Action needed now Dan Silver, coordinator of the Endangered Habitats League in Los Angeles, believes, "We have the worst land-use planning in the United States. Because (the Inland Empire) has lots of endangered species and beautiful habitat, it is very, very hard hit by sprawl." Looking at San Bernardino County: "The county as a whole continues to consume habitat unabated and as it does so, the quality of life of human inhabitants suffers as well. We are seeing a loss of the thing that could, if protected, make this area a more attractive place to live, with a higher quality of life." So what is our region to do? Smart Growth America, the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group whose study ranked the Inland Empire as the worst sprawling region in the country, has a few suggestions. Establish urban growth boundaries, preserve farmland and green space, invest in alternative forms of transportation, and build compact neighborhoods where it is easy for residents to walk or bike to the library, schools and stores. Newman says that the Inland Empire also needs to consider what type of industry it attracts. "We have picked the worst type of development to bring into this area," she says of the distribution centers that are popping up along the freeway corridors. "These centers bring in thousands and thousands of diesel trucks, which produce the very worst particulate pollution." But the news is not all bad. Riverside County has recently adopted a Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, an element of the Riverside County Integrated Project, that protects acreage from development. "This is a very important step for preserving open space and natural ecosystems in the county," says Silver. "It's the beginning of a trend to use land more efficiently and focus growth in community centers rather than in sprawling housing tracts." There are some bright spots in San Bernardino County, as well. Both Ontario and Chino have begun to incorporate habitat protection into their development planning, says Silver. A few towns, such as Redlands, have been built up as livable cities with libraries, schools, restaurants, and movie theaters all within walking distance of a densely populated downtown district. UCR's efforts A new think tank at UC Riverside hopes to help the region come up with more solutions. Andy McCue, associate director of the Center for Sustainable Suburban Development, says he is hopeful that the Inland Empire is leaving its worst suburban sprawl days behind. "One of the things that encourages us," he says, "is that virtually the entire political spectrum, from strong environmental groups to lobbyists representing the housing industry, agrees on a very fundamental fact: Growth out here is going to be overwhelming and unless we start now to plan intelligently, we are going to be overwhelmed." Says McCue, "There is a recognition now of what this place could become, as well as a desire to ameliorate the worst of those effects. I think people recognize that you can't pave over everything. People aren't going to want to live here if we do." There is also the issue of what kind of life parents want for their children. "Kids growing up in these housing tracts can't walk anywhere," says Silver. "They don't have parks, they have strip malls." Something parents can do to help reduce the impact of suburban sprawl and provide easy access to nature for their children is to plant native backyard habitats. A good place to start is the National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat program at http://www.nwf.org/backyardwildlifehabitat/. Urban sprawl, by region Metropolitan Region Rank 1. Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 2. Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, NC 3. Raleigh-Durham, NC 4. Atlanta, GA 5. Greenville-Spartanburg, NC 6. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton-Delray Beach, FL 7. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk-Danbury, CT 8. Knoxville, TN 9. Oxnard-Ventura, CA 10. Fort Worth-Arlington, TX SOURCE: "Measuring Sprawl and Its Impact," by Smart Growth America Population growth The Riverside County census of 1900 showed a total population of 17,897. That's about the size of today' community of Sun City. Here is a breakdown of Inland Empire population growth, past, present and future. Combined Population Totals for Riverside and San Bernardino Counties 1970: 1,143,146 1980: 1,558,182 1990: 2,588,793 2000: 3,254,821 2010: 4,303,434* 2020: 5,520,694* * Population projections from the California State Department of Finance, Demographic Research Unit. By contrast, neighboring Orange County, with a population of 3 million today, will have about 3.24 million in 2020. |
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