Packard Undermined Parklands Rule

The public should be aware of the shameful role that Orange County Congressman Ron Packard played in assisting the Irvine Co. in depriving Orange County parklands of federal environmental safeguards.

From his position on the House Surface Transportation subcommittee, Congressman Packard was both author and prime mover of a small, technical amendment buried in the federal transportation package signed recently into law by the President. That amendment exempts specific Orange County parklands from protections afforded under a federal statute known as the 4(f) rule, passed by Congress in 1966 to protect parklands, wildlife and waterfowl areas, and historic sites.

The 4(f) rule prohibits the use of federal money for highway projects that plow through these sensitive areas unless the secretary of transportation first determines that there is no prudent or feasible alternative location for the highway. Common sense legislation, right?

But while environmentalists viewed the 4(f) rule as a safeguard from reckless planning in wilderness parks, the Irvine Co. saw 4(f) as a potential obstacle to building the Foothill/Eastern toll road, which would feed into its proposed East Orange development.

Did the developer fear that a 4(f) challenge might prove feasible alternative alignments to the Eastern toll road do exist?

Drawing upon its vast resources, the Irvine Co. hired the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm of William Ferguson & Associates to work Capitol Hill for an exemption of 4(f) in parklands and proposed parklands along the Foothill, Eastern and San Joaquin Hills toll roads.

The representative on the Surface Transportation subcommittee who skillfully guided the exemption language through the legislative maze was Congressman Packard, whose district takes in a portion of southern Orange County.

Orange County’s largest environmental groups worked all summer and into the fall to preserve 4(f) protection for all county parklands. National organizations such as the Sierra Club, the National Audubon Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council took up the fight for 4(f) in Orange County as well.

But throughout the entire debate it was clear that legitimate environmental concerns would lose out to the wishes of the Irvine Co. In the end, Congressman Packard listened to only one voice. Is it any wonder that no one trusts politicians?

MICHAEL PHILLIPS, Laguna Beach