By Pam Slater
To make certain Nursery Land doesn't have a lock on all things green, San Diego county officials have taken a giant step to preserve open space and quality of life.
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt visited the region on March 18 to congratulate the County Board of Supervisors for making the decision to preserve 172,000 acres of habitat over the next three decades. The plan, called the Multiple Species Conservation Program, will allow 85 sensitive plant species and dozens of other nearly extinct plant and animal species to survive urban encroachment.
But when the plan was drafted, plant and animal species preservation was not the only thing on my mind. Preserving the quality of life of all San Diego county residents ranked just as high. A San Diego Wildlife Refuge consisting of rolling hills, open fields and trees may make a nice home to squirrels and snakes, but it also makes an inviting backdrop to the human heart.
SLATER is a member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, chairwoman of the Multiple Species Conservation Program Policy Committee. |
If we wanted to become like Los Angeles, we would move there. If we wanted to live in urban sprawl we would pave every patch of dirt and build more parking lots.
Simply put, we crave open fields, hills, blue sky and wide forests. We buy our homes with that in mind. We like trees. We want the sun to shine through our windows. We want a view of the ocean from our decks. We want a view of the canyon, not the other guy's stucco wall. We visit the back country as well as the beach to see nature, not buildings.
Preserving open space in San Diego county makes good sense. Open space gives us peace of mind. An interesting sidelight is that open space drives up our property values which does wonders for our peace of mind, too. And to be frank, who lives in San Diego county because they value asphalt?
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Some people argue that we will never become another Los Angeles. Hopefully, that is true because we San Diego County residents have a different mind set. If we wanted to become like Los Angeles, we would move there. If we wanted to live in urban sprawl we would pave over every patch of dirt, build more parking lots and triple-deck our freeways.
Instead we elect officials whom we hope will only permit housing projects that provide for open space as much as affordable housing. Business growth is extremely important to our economy, but so is quality of life. In fact, when Secretary Babbitt visited to commemorate the MSCP, we held a ceremony on land that was once mapped for an 1,800-home subdivision. Due to the MSCP it will now become part of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge.
Should you judge your elected officials, judge them based upon their actions to stop crime, efforts to cut the bureaucracy, maintenance of the economy, ability to bring jobs to the region and their forceful attention to your quality of life. Judge them by a balanced preservation of open space as much as filled space.
My colleagues on the Board of Supervisors are to be congratulated for their hard work to preserve open space for the people of the city and the county. As the chairwoman of the MSCP Policy Committee, I believe what we have done is an investment in the region's future. It is time to admit that open space is good for squirrels and snakes, and good for us, too.
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