Anonymous - 10-3-2005 at 03:45 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051002/news_1h02en...
Many fear that problems with traffic, sewage and water supplies will arise
By Sandra Dibble
October 2, 2005
ROSARITO BEACH ? It was the chance for solitude and reflection that first drew Conrado Acevedo to a picturesque plot overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
That was 45 years ago, when a handful of settlers shared the rugged coastline.
Today, cars whizz by on a nearby toll road. Condominium towers rise next door. And tourists can sip margaritas and catch the scenery seven days a week
from Acevedo's property, a popular hotel and restaurant complex known as Calafia.
"I never expected to see this extraordinary surge," said Acevedo, looking out over the ocean one recent afternoon, while workmen raised beams for a
21-story condominium building inches away from his property.
Pristine vistas and laid-back lifestyles have for decades brought U.S. tourists and residents to Baja California. Now a new surge of U.S. buyers has
brought unprecedented environmental pressure to the coastal corridor that runs from Tijuana through Rosarito Beach to Ensenada.
Some warn that unplanned growth could result in traffic jams and sewage spills and water shortages, harming the very ambience that draws so many to
the region. Fragile habitats with endangered species could be threatened without proper precautions, environmentalists warn, and too much development
could lead to landslides on steep hillsides.
Lax enforcement and lack of resources has already led to deterioration along the coastline. When private treatment plants break down, untreated sewage
routinely contaminates the shoreline, say groups that monitor water quality. "Nobody has the teeth to enforce the laws," said Horacio de la Cueva, a
specialist in biological conservation at the CICESE, a scientific think tank outside Ensenada.
But many developers and government officials say the growth also brings an important opportunity for Baja California to benefit economically from its
proximity to the United States. They say they are hard at work meeting the challenges that lie ahead ? planning new roads, water lines and sewage
treatment plants.
State infrastructure planners have been struggling to keep up with the growth in Rosarito Beach, a city of 135,000 that has been the hub of the
coastal boom and is growing at one of the highest rates in Mexico.
About 40 percent of the city is not connected to the sewage system, and residents must rely on septic tanks or private treatment plants. State plans
call for a major new treatment plant at the southern end of town near Popotla by 2008. Beginning next year, new sewage pipes will channel untreated
wastewater from developments that have been using private systems to an existing state-run treatment plant.
Planners say enlargement of an aqueduct carrying water from the Colorado River by 2007 will help Rosarito Beach avoid water shortages and permit
further growth.
Long-term planning has been a weakness across Mexico, and this coastline has been no exception. The state has made attempts to regulate growth along
the 87-mile-long coastal strip known as el corredor turistico, or the tourism corridor, that runs from the border and spans three municipalities,
Tijuana, Rosarito Beach and Ensenada. But Diego Moreno, Rosarito Beach's director of urban development, say the plan, first adopted in 1995, is
overshadowed by the commercial realities.
"We have never seen anything like this before," he said. "The market is the one that's in charge."
Hugo Torres, a former mayor of Rosarito Beach, says planning is important, but should adapt to current realities.
"If we stick to very low densities, we'll be wasting opportunities," said Torres, who has been a partner in several coastal condominium developments.
But unlimited growth is not the answer either, he said: "We shouldn't have a barrier of pure condominiums. If it becomes like Acapulco where they
closed the oceanfront, then you lose the attraction of being on the ocean."
North of the border, growth along California's 1,100-mile coastline has been closely monitored for more than four decades by the California Coastal
Commission. The commission works with local governments to plan and regulate the use of land and water in the coastal zones, considering issues such
as shoreline public access, protection of terrestrial and marine habitat, water quality and development design.
In Baja California, "there is no regulatory agency that has the political clout of the Coastal Commission," said Lawrence Herzog, a San Diego State
University professor who has studied growth on the Baja California coast. "Developers can't get away with as much. They have to get permits, they have
to get their maps approved, they need to show that they're going to put in infrastructure. In Baja California, this process exists, but it's much more
uneven."
Baja California's regional plan for the coastline, revised in 2001, speaks of the "anarchic and unregulated growth" along the coastal corridor. The
plan, known as the Cocotren, defines urban and suburban regions, agricultural zones, areas of tourism and low-density tourism development, and areas
set aside for conservation.
Environmentalists and local residents unsuccessfully invoked the Cocotren as they battled Sempra Energy's $800 million liquefied natural gas
regasification plant now under construction on 400 acres of coastal land north of Ensenada.
Nora Bringas, a geographer at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte outside Tijuana who helped write the plan, says it remains relevant, even if developers
and government officials have been calling it obsolete. Those who ignore the plan "are just looking in terms of economic benefits, but they're not
looking at social costs, and the environmental costs, and the cultural costs," she said.
Bringas warns that the developments are leading to social segregation, as most Mexicans cannot afford waterfront property and are being increasingly
barred from access to the ocean by the gated communities populated by U.S. citizens.
"What's the implication of all these foreigners on our coastline?" she asked. "Will there be a time when we become a minority?"
Just as U.S. buyers are drawn to the region, U.S. environmental groups have been increasingly active here, in coastal conservation projects up and
down the peninsula. But they and their Mexican counterparts have been largely silent on the issues presented by the boom in residential development
along the Tijuana-Ensenada corridor.
"Every coastal watchdog group is stretched to the limit," said Serge Dedina, director of Wildcoast. "We're so focused on stopping gas plants and
trying to preserve some of the world's most important coastal regions that we don't have time to deal with suburban development on the coast of
northern Baja."
At Calafia, Conrado Acevedo says he is adapting to the changing times and preparing a development plan of his own that will include 15-story
"condo-hotels." Acevedo, for one, said he welcomes the new U.S. investors and hopes that in coming years, they can serve as a bridge between the two
sides of the border: "It's a much higher class of tourists than we have been getting," he said. "Arguably, this may not be the best thing,
urbanistically speaking," said Acevedo of the new development. "But this is a border phenomenon, and we have to accept it as a reality."