SOUTHLAND COUNTIES SEEK UNITY ON GROWTH.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

In an effort to tackle traffic, air quality and housing problems, six Southern California counties on Tuesday launched a comprehensive two-year effort to develop a regional growth plan.

The $2 million study, titled Southern California Compass, is the first serious foray into regional cooperation by the region's six counties and 186 cities. The goal is to create an overarching plan for tackling the growth issues that stretch across city and county lines.

For too long, officials said, local governments have acted as independent entities, ignoring or oblivious to the effects their decisions have on their neighbors and the region.

``Without a regional solution the only logical strategy is to act parochially and that's exactly what our local governments tend to do,'' said Mark Pisano, executive director of the Southern California Association of Governments.

SCAG kicked off the event by taking reporters on a helicopter tour of the region, offering a birds-eye view of the metropolitan area which is expected to add 6 million new residents 2030.

Thousands of new, tile-roof houses bump against lush hills and orchards. Miles and miles of freeway are crammed with crawling morning commuters. And vast expanses of asphalt stretch across the landscape with barely a green patch in site.

``It's really going to be a tight squeeze to fit 6 million more people here,'' said John Fregonese, the Portland, Ore.-based urban land planner leading the Compass project.

In Santa Clarita and Valencia, lots graded for homes and subdivisions creep into nearly every canyon and crevice. Housing and strip malls cover the floor of Simi Valley and are creeping up the hills. New cul-de-sacs border orchards near Thousand Oaks.

In the west San Fernando Valley, miles of asphalt and pavement come to a halt at the Ventura County border, where the newly approved 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch project is planned. Farther east, dense office complexes, apartment buildings and homes fan out from Ventura Boulevard.

The Compass project aims to get leaders to think regionally in terms of building transportation systems, housing developments and new businesses. That begins with some 20 public workshops scheduled to begin this spring in Los Angeles, Ventura, Imperial, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

From the comments collected at the workshops, Compass organizers will create a series of growth plans. The public will then be able to vote for a preferred scenario through mail-in or electronic ballots.

Ultimately, SCAG will use those scenarios to develop its regional growth and transportation plans, which dictate how state and federal transportation dollars are doled out. The findings do not bind land-use decisions by local governments.

The real benefit to this type of growth-envisioning activity, observers say, is getting local governments to work together.

``SCAG has had a long-standing difficulty in getting results because of all the counties. It's a coalition of governments that are all competing,'' said Dowell Meyers, director of urban planning at the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning and Development.

``The real benefits won't accrue right away, but if you get a sense of harmony and cooperation ... that could be a psychic boost,'' Meyers said.

Envisioning plans, such as Compass, also invite residents, business owners and community leaders to the table. As the public is more open and understanding to the issues, they are more willing to give elected leaders leeway to solve the problems, Meyers said.

Former Torrance Mayor Dee Hardison, a member of the Compass citizens advisory council, agreed. Angelenos feel that something is wrong with their region, and the worsening traffic, the lack of affordable housing, the development of open space are all concerns.

``Many think if you don't build another house or shopping center then people won't come and that will solve the problem,'' Hardison said. Since that's not an option, the answer is to let residents develop the solution themselves.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) The edge of West Hills backs up against Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County. An association of six Southland county governments has proposed a regional growth plan.

(2) Interstate 5 through the Newhall Pass is a major connector between Santa Clarita and the San Fernando Valley. A multicounty regional approach to growth has been proposed.

(3) As continued development encroaches on rural areas like this Moorpark orchard, Southland leaders seek a regional plan.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer