When typical Orange County residents are asked what they like the
most about living in Orange County, I can almost guarantee you that
the answer will be that it's because of the beautiful beaches, public
parks, recreational opportunities, low crime rates, good schools and
excellent job opportunities. When you roll all of that up into a
package and put a name on it, there is nothing else to call it but
"quality of life."
We have to constantly work at preserving and protecting this
quality of life that all of us hold so dear. Maintaining the
environment in our area means more than making sure we don't pollute
the environment. It means working hard to preserve the environmental
resources that we already have and at the same time enhancing those
resources by restoring or adding to them.
All elected officials who make the environment a priority in their
local or regional jurisdictions have the dual responsibility of
preservation and enhancement. I have chosen to assume these
responsibilities in serving the 67th Assembly District because it's
so important to my constituents. I am pleased that my involvement has
produced results, especially in my hometown of Huntington Beach.
For the past two years, I have been involved in an effort to
transfer some wetlands property that is not suitable for development
to a local agency known as the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy.
There are two particular parcels of land I have been working on for
some time. Both of them are located in the vicinity of Pacific Coast
Highway and Brookhurst in Huntington Beach.
The first parcel is known as the "Sand Dunes" property and is
located adjacent to Pacific Coast Highway. The California Department
of Transportation acquired this property several years ago in
connection with the widening of the highway. I wrote a bill in the
legislature that authorized CalTrans to transfer this property to the
conservancy. The conservancy already manages some wetlands adjacent
to the CalTrans property, so the transfer will help complete their
stewardship of this sensitive wetlands property. The official
transfer of this property took place within the last month.
The second parcel involves wetlands property in the same vicinity
that is owned by UC Riverside. The university obtained title to this
property several years ago by way of a charitable donation. Since the
land cannot be developed, the university has indicated it is willing
to enter into a land swap with another state agency. I have been
