Housing and traffic top the issues in districts 1 and 3 supervisorial races.Residents, builders and political leaders have called growth the region's most vexing crisis.
A burgeoning population and the consequences that follow - more cars, more congestion and more homes - have dominated political agendas and community meetings. Millions of dollars and tens of thousands of pages of documents have helped draft precedent-setting plans for land use and habitat protection. In March, voters will decide who is best suited to shape the future of the region when two incumbents square off against three challengers for the Riverside County District 1 and 3 supervisorial seats. The mainstay issues of most elections - growth, transportation and crime - again top the list of concerns for the supervisor posts.
But the county is facing a housing shortage and a population boom unseen in the region's history that most agree will only get worse before it gets better. Candidates face a two-fold dilemma: If you build it they will come. And if you don't build it they will still come, Rick Bishop told supervisors at a recent board meeting. Bishop is executive director of the Western Riverside Council of Governments and scrutinizes land use and housing needs in the region. One estimate from the Urban Land Institute says that 6 million new people will shuttle into Southern California cities and counties by 2020, seeking more affordable housing and at least a little more land for their buck. The Inland area's approximately 3.5 million residents grow by 10 people an hour.
OUT OF CONTROL?
District 1 candidate Kevin Pape said growth is already out of control. He said that higher densities have already damaged the quality of life for residents along the Interstate-15 corridor, where acres of open land have given way to cluttered communities. He wants to see the county be more vigilant about approving clustered homes that should instead have half-acre lots. Pape, a former Lake Elsinore mayor, also wants to build a tunnel through mountains that separate Riverside and Orange counties to alleviate congestion on Highway 91. In one study convened by the USC Lusk Center for Real Estatecolor> and Urban Land Institute of Los Angeles, land-use experts said cities such as Hemet would have to grow to the size of Tucson,Ariz.- to nearly 490,000 people - to accommodate the number of residents expected to call Southern California home in the next 15 years.
PREPARATIONS
If you look closely, the county is already preparing for growth in unprecedented ways, counters District 1 Supervisor Bob Buster.He notes that the county has taken the lead in protecting vast areas of open space while balancing housing and highway needs through the Riverside County Integrated Plan and the Multi Species Habitat and Conservation Plan. Buster said planned roadway improvements costing more than $700 million are already under way, helping to ease congestion. The District 1 area stretches from Riverside to Wildomar and includes Lake Elsinore. The boundaries for District 3 have shifted for this election and include Hemet, San Jacinto and new additions Murrieta and Temecula.
STUDIES VS. PROJECTS
Still, Linda Soubirous, a candidate for the District 1 seat, said too much money has been spent on studies and not enough on actual projects.Money from the transportation uniform mitigation fee, or TUMF -that provides an estimated $ 2.6 billion over two decades for roadway improvements-is being used for studies rather than roads, she said. The county should be using that money for asphalt and not paper, she said.
WRANGLING WITH TRAFFIC
In parts of District 3, rolling hillsides have given way to development, pushing out horse farms and ushering in new homes and more cars in the past few years. District 3 Supervisor Jim Venable has offered up past accomplishments to show why he should be re-elected to address the county's growth. It takes experience, he said, like wrangling with the state to finally convince obstinate leaders that Highway 79 should be widened. Highway 79 travels through Temecula and Murrieta and winds its way into Winchester and Hemet. The road is frequently used by residents in the Hemet area or by commuters looking to bypass Interstate 215. Along that highway, Venable said he succeeded in getting stoplights installed to make the roadway, where several people had been killed and at least 60 injured in accidents dating back to 1997, safer. Venable is juggling several issues, such as the realignment of Highway 79 and trying to negotiate with San Diego County leaders to address Interstate 15 congestion. He also supports building a tunnel into Orange County if that's the voters' will, he said.
FOLLOWING PLAN
District 3 candidate Jeff Stone, a Temecula councilman, disagrees that Venable's experience will provide him the solutions needed for the region's growth. Stone said the county has failed to follow its own general plan and instead rubberstamps developments without providing for needed infrastructure improvements. Too much agriculture has given way to high-density residential communities that have created sprawl throughout the southwestern county, Stone said. In French Valley, parks are absent, Stone said. In Menifee and Sun City, county leaders haven't increased public safety, where some residents say it takes up to an hour for service calls, he said.