A Battle Against Bureaucracy and Blight : * Huntington Harbour Woman Has Led Crusade to Rid PCH of Illegally Parked Vehicles

A determined citizen with the right cause can move a bureaucracy. Nancy Howell of Huntington Harbour is one resident who is not satisfied merely thinking that Pacific Coast Highway should live up to the promise of its enticing name. She has shown how grass-roots efforts can bring results.

Last November, Howell, the owner of a real estate office in Sunset Beach, formed the Save Our Scenic Coastal Highway Committee. She was concerned about area businesses and individuals in the Huntington Harbour and Sunset Beach area that have used the inland side of the highway as a storage facility. She enlisted other residents and took the case to County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder to complain about vehicles parked long term on a 1.3-mile section of highway. Her sightings included unattended motor homes, commercial vehicles, cars for sale, and even a school bus, retrofitted as a van, illegally parked on the highway.

But the group’s efforts bore fruit only through persistence. It was only earlier this month that the California Highway Patrol began stepping up action against violators. The way was paved when state Department of Transportation officials agreed to allow an Orange County parking ordinance to be put in force on a state highway. Better late than never.

Howell, having obtained results, says she still is not entirely pleased with all the results. Among other things, she is pushing for curbs, gutters, a new drainage system and landscaping.

To date though, what began as a one-woman campaign has borne fruit in increased enforcement and a commitment from the CHP also to crack down on speeders in the neighborhood.

PCH runs through some of the most attractive parts of Orange County. The determination of ordinary citizens to keep it from becoming a mere parking lot has at least got the attention of the state and county.