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Nation’s First Systemic Bike Transit Network Unveiled in Claremont, Calif.
Located on the same LA Metrolink Line, Bikestation Claremont Joins with
Bikestation Covina to Create a Systemic Bike Transit Network
Long Beach/Claremont, Calif., February 8, 2010 — Mobis Transportation has announced the development of Bikestation Claremont, located at the Metrolink station in the historic Claremont Depotin downtown Claremont. Since Bikestation Claremont is on the same transit line and shares the same access technology as Bikestation Covina, it creates the nation’s first bike transit system. This bicycle network enables greater use of alternative transportation methods like bicycles and it increases the practicality of public transit for many people. Bikestation Claremont provides a complete bicycle transit center with a variety of services and amenities that make bicycling more secure and convenient, including secure bike parking, restrooms, retail accessory sales, and bike repair and rental services.
Bikestation Claremont will enable more people to use bicycles for transit by addressing the most common concerns – preventing bike theft with secure parking; improving convenience through a range of services; and addressing the critical issue of the “first and last mile.” The first and last mile is the typical distance commuters need to move from the transit station to a destination and it frequently represents an obstacle to broader usage of public transit. Bicycle transit is a solution to the first and last mile challenge, and by locating Bikestation bike transit centers on multiple points on the same transit line, it shows a growing demand for alternative transit options and enables more people to bike and use public transit more often, improving the efficiency of the mass transit system.
Bikestation Claremont will be 600 square feet and offer a range of bicycle transit services and amenities, including electronically secured indoor bike parking, a repair stand and tools, retail accessory sales, a restroom and a changing room, and repair services and bike rentals across the street at Jax Bicycle Center. Secure bike parking will be accessible 24/7 to members. Designed to fit aesthetically within historic downtown Claremont, the location provides convenient access to the Metrolink station, other public transit options, businesses and communities, and the campuses of the Claremont Colleges.
“By providing convenient and economical bike-transit services at major transit lines and within close proximity to urban destinations, Bikestation can play a primary role in educating the public about the benefits and the ease of using public transportation and other alternative modes,” said Andrea White-Kjoss, president and CEO of Mobis Transportation/Bikestation.
“We’re very pleased to include Bikestation Claremont as a key element of the city’s overall bicycling program. Our goal is to fulfill sustainable principles by providing alternative modes of transportation to reach local and regional destinations, and encourage walking and bicycling in our communities for recreation, local shopping and multimodal transportation,” said Brian Desatnik, Housing and Redevelopment Manager, City of Claremont. “Toward that end, Bikestation Claremont is located in what we’ve designated as our Bike Priority Zone – a two-square mile area encompassing the Village, the Claremont Colleges, residential neighborhoods, mixed-use areas and transit centers where we’ve provided safe bicycle routes, pedestrian walkways, and are in the process of adding additional bike parking. By creating this infrastructure, we’re providing a livable, walkable and bikeable community.”
Bikestation Claremont will be open for operation on February 24, 2010. Membership includes 24/7 electronic access to Bikestation Claremont and any of the other Bikestation locations throughout Southern California and across the country, such as those in Covina, Long Beach, Palo Alto, Washington, D.C., and Santa Barbara. Memberships are available at an annual rate of $96 per year, a monthly rate of $12 per month, or a daily rate of $1 per day sold in packs of 10, plus a $20 annual administrative fee.
Learn more about Bikestation Claremont at www.bikestation.com/claremontca/location.asp .
2/8/2010
Will Developers Have Last Word on Visalia’s Smart Growth Plan?
Drafted since Visalia’s building surge in 2005, its Southeast Area Specific Plan was to ensure smart growth for some 850 rural acres at the city edge. Now the high urban design standards may be diluted as too costly and seemingly unwarranted by the local demand.
With a prospective $900,000 tag price for the whole development, reports Visalia Times-Delta, the draft plan envisions a mix of varied-income single-family homes, small-lot row houses, and multi-family dwellings, along with shops, offices and schools in well-defined, walkable neighborhoods, featuring curved streets, alleys, biking trails and open spaces. Visalia Principal Planner Paul Scheibel described the sometimes delayed planning process as ''the most complex'' in a long time. Still, while some developers see the virtue of the inclusion of affordable housing, green space and other ''quality-of-life amenities'' in the plan, most would like to shelve it and start over or pursue their individual projects.
But the absence of overall planning philosophy would lead to design and style mishmash, exactly what the city wanted to avoid, said Assistant City Manager Mike Olmos, hoping that a series of just-launched meetings with area landowners and prospective developers to discuss the draft plan before its release for public input in the summer will result in ''tweaks'' only. Others expect a total overhaul, with Councilman Mike Lane saying, ''We need major modification to the plan.''
Early in the planning process, city consultants thought the proposed standards would likely increase developer and ultimately buyer costs by at least 20 percent, but now developer consultant Darlene Mata argues that as recession-squeezed builders reduced home sizes, project amenities and buyer prices in standard developments, the price difference could reach 40 percent. Developer Bob Ausherman, who complained that delays of his 60-acre mixed-use project within the plan area have cost him and partner Kevin Fistolera some $30,000 a month, doubted the ambitious smart-growth plan could work in Visalia.
Former Councilman Greg Collins, an urban planner, said the plan, even if costly, ''would have made for great neighborhoods,'' cautioning against its rejection simply because of the depressed market or a perception of homebuyers' preferences. ''I think,'' he commented on the debate's real issue, ''developers are more interested in doing their traditional cookie-cutter neighborhoods with a convenience store in the corner.'' Nevertheless, the assistant city manager counts on a compromise, which would make ''economic efficiency'' a higher plan priority. ''That's the message we're getting from the development community,'' he said. ''In the end, they're the ones that are going to deliver (this plan). They're the ones that are going to come in and build it.'' 2/4/2010
Resource(s): www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
State Lawmakers Move to Free the Public from Costs of “Free” Parking
Long felt a natural American right, free street and other public or private sector parking is being increasingly recognized as a subsidized market commodity that encourages driving instead of using transit or biking and walking. California legislators may abate this problem by limiting the commodity supply.
''Free parking has significant social economic and environmental cost. It increases congestion and greenhouse gas emissions,'' said Democratic Senator Alan Lowenthal, whose bill would make it worthwhile for municipalities to reduce free parking, also by setting its lower minima for businesses. Though their parking may seem free for customers, observed Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) analyst Justin Horner, the businesses charge them with the lots' maintenance, insurance and lighting through higher goods or service prices, just like street parking is paid for by the entire community through higher taxes.
Opposed by Republicans, but backed by the NRDC and the Sierra Club, reports Los Angeles Times writer Patrick McGreevy, the bill offers these municipalities more state funds for parking garages and transit programs, along with bonus points in competition for state grants. ''The problem with free parking,'' commented Senator Lowenthal, ''is it’s not free.'' 1/29/2010
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Long Beach Proactive in Becoming Bicycle Friendly
The City of Long Beach in southern California has become a leader in the region for creating a more bicycle friendly community. City Manager Pat West, a longtime cyclist, presided over a ceremony dedicating a bike sculpture in the city with the proclamation: ''Long Beach, the most bicycle friendly city in America.'' ''We may not be there yet… but we're striving for that,'' West said in this article in the Los Angeles Times.
Long Beach has collected over $17 million in state and federal grants the last couple years to improve its bike system through traffic improvements, education and a bike sharing program. Improvements include creating traffic circles on less-traveled streets and designating bike boulevards for preferred cyclist routes. In addition, the city is considering dedicating entire lanes of road to bicycles and replacing prime parallel parking spots with bike parking corals. Charles Gandy, the city's bike mobility coordinator notes that ''We can fit 15 customers where we used to fit one… This is about differentiating Long Beach from L.A. and Orange County.''
One of the more controversial projects the city implemented was creating a ''sharrow'' by painting an entire automobile lane green to remind drivers that bicyclist have the same right of way and that the road must be shared between the two modes of transportation. Although the sharrow was met with confusion at first, drivers have become more careful about the rights of bicyclists while bicyclists have become more consistent about where they ride. Gandy notes: ''We haven't given cyclists any more privileges than before the green stripe; we've just made it more obvious.'' 1/26/2010
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
DOE Announces $20.5 Million for Community Renewable Energy Projects
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu has announced the selection of five projects to receive more than $20.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support deployment of community-based renewable energy projects, such as biomass, wind, and solar installations. These projects will promote investment in clean energy infrastructure that will create jobs, help communities provide long-term renewable energy and save consumers money. They will also serve as models for other local governments, campuses, or small utilities to replicate, allowing other communities to design projects that fit their individual size and energy demands.
''Smaller, more localized renewable energy systems need to play a role in our comprehensive energy portfolio,'' said Secretary Chu. ''These projects will help create jobs, expand our clean energy economy, and help us cut carbon pollution at the local level.''
The selected projects will be leveraged with approximately $167 million in local government and private industry funding. DOE estimates that these projects will provide enough clean, renewable energy to displace the emissions of approximately 10,700 homes.
Projects selected for awards include:
City of Montpelier (Montpelier, Vermont)
This project will further Montpelier's energy goals by supporting installation of a 41 MMBtu combined heat and power (CHP) district energy system fueled with locally-sourced renewable and sustainably-harvested wood chips. The CHP system will be sized to provide heating to the Vermont Capitol Complex, city owned schools, the City Hall Complex, and up to 156 buildings in the community's designated downtown district for a total of 176 buildings and 1.8 million square feet served. By providing 1.8 million KWh of power to the grid, the system will maximize its operating efficiency and reduce thermal costs for users in the community. Montpelier will conduct outreach to encourage replication regionally and nationally through its project partners, the Biomass Energy Resource Center, the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation, and Veolia Energy North America. DOE share: $8,000,000.
Forest County Potawatomi Tribe (Forest County, Wisconsin)
The Forest County Potawatomi Tribe proposes to implement an integrated renewable energy deployment plan that will provide heating, cooling, and electricity for the Tribe's governmental buildings, displacing natural gas and propane. The renewable energy installations will include: a 1.25 MW biomass combined heat and power facility that will provide heating, cooling, and electricity; a biogas digester and 150 kW generation facility; three 100 kW wind turbines (788,400 kWh/year); and three dual-axis 2.88 kW solar PV panels (14,000 kWh/yr) located at the Tribe's Governmental Center. DOE share: $2,500,000.
Phillips County (Holyoke, Colorado)
This project proposes a community-owned 30 MW wind energy project with an ultimate goal to build a 650MW wind farm within Sedgwick, Phillips, and Logan counties in Northeastern Colorado. This project will impact the local economy by sharing the project's revenues with local landowners and other project participants, by generating local jobs, substantial property taxes, and providing clean renewable energy for the area's primary communities. Plans for sharing this ownership model are part of the business plan and will be coordinated with DOE to increase national delivery of the message. DOE share: $2,500,000.
Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) (Sacramento, California)
SMUD will install the state's first-ever ''Solar Highway,'' which will feature three PV system installations on 2 miles of highway right-of-ways (300kW of concentrating PV, and 400 and 800 kW of flat plate PV distributed at 2 sites), with total capacity of 1.5 MW. SMUD will also install a full scale co-digestion process of fats, oil, and grease (FOG) and liquid food processing waste with sewage to produce biogas with estimated power recovery of 1-3 MW, and install two low-NOx anaerobic digesters fed by two dairy facilities that will produce 500 kW of combined heat and power and generate 600 kW of electricity through a molten carbonate fuel cell. The projects will demonstrate that solar PV and anaerobic digesters can be readily implemented through collaborative partnerships, and avoid siting issues and transmission constraints that pose barriers to renewable energy capacity additions. SMUD will partner with the State of California (CEC, CalTrans, and CARB) and DOE to promote replication of their approaches, technologies, and implementation strategies statewide and nationally. DOE share: $5,000,000.
University of California at Davis (Davis, California)
UC Davis' proposed Waste-to-Renewable Energy (WTRE) system is one component of a campus oriented mixed housing and commercial development venture. The system would generate power from a renewable biogas fed fuel cell. The organic waste will enter a receiving station in which it can be collected and prepared for digestion. Once the appropriate mix has been created in buffer tanks, the waste will flow to the reactor where methanogenic bacteria will generate methane and carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, etc. These gases will flow to the Bio-methane Upgrade System for hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide removal, so that cleanup is to a level appropriate for use in a fuel cell system, and the cleaned gas is stored. Housed alongside the WTRE system within the Community Energy Park will be an advanced storage battery and a 300kW fuel cell that will be fueled by the on-site biogas and provides electric power to West Village end-users. DOE share: $2,500,000. 1/21/2010
Resource(s): http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/news/progress_alerts.cfm/pa_id=290
Six New Fitness Zones Placed In South Los Angeles Parks
Kaiser Permanente, The Trust for Public Land, and the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles are helping people be more active, thanks to several outdoor, all-weather equipped Fitness Zones popping up at public parks. Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry, District 9, dedicated the first of six Fitness Zones in the South Los Angeles area on January 14.
''According to the LA County Department of Public Health, 37.8 percent of adults are obese in the community surrounding South Park,'' said Perry. ''This Fitness Zone, made possible by Kaiser Permanente and CRA/LA, will provide much-needed free physical activity opportunities for the entire neighborhood.''
''Kaiser Permanente wants to ensure good health extends beyond our doors,'' said Diana Bontá, RN, DrPH, Vice President, Public Affairs, Kaiser Permanente Southern California Region. ''Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles City Councilmember Jan Perry and the Trust for Public Land have come together to provide Fitness Zones in Los Angeles parks because we know that healthy communities and a healthy environment are critical to individual health and wellness.''
''We are proud to partner with Kaiser Permanente and Community Redevelopment Agency to create these fitness zones,'' said Sam Hodder, California Director of The Trust for Public Land. ''We know that exercise is important to good health and giving local residents a nearby place where they can work out provides a vital tool to improving their well-being.''
Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit has provided $900,000 in Healthy Eating, Active Living grants over a 3-year period (2008 - 2010) to the Trust for Public Land to support their ability to expand the zones as part of park development and revitalization, park planning and acquisition, as well as advocate for green space and parks and provide expertise to cities and communities as they plan for more open space.
With the creation of outdoor exercise centers in established community parks, the Trust for Public Land has introduced more people to the benefits of exercise and made 11 Los Angeles-area parks safer, more inviting, and more active.
''The Fitness Zones in South Los Angeles help meet our healthy neighborhoods goals by greening and beautifying our project areas and also by assisting in the personal health and well-being of families who live in the communities we serve,'' said Alejandro Ortiz, CRA/LA Commissioner.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks has been involved every step of the way, from mapping the site to final inspections. The department and will provide continued oversight and maintenance of the Fitness Zones. The all-weather equipment is ideal for any fitness level and for ages 13 and up.
''Studies have shown that providing free and easy to use exercise equipment dramatically increases the opportunity to engage in physical activity,'' said Jon Mukri, General Manager, City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. ''The Fitness Zones have become hubs of community activity by creating a group atmosphere that feels social and helps people be more active.'' 1/14/2010
Resource(s): http://www.tpl.org/tier3_cd.cfm?content_item_id=23290&folder_id=266
Bike Friendly Café Opens in Oakland
A café catering to bicycle riders has opened in Oakland, creating a new neighborhood center in a low-income area of the city. KNTV, a news station based in the Bay Area, did an extensive interview with patrons and the owner of the café in this video. The café Shindig opened on what was a previously vacant site once home to a fishing bait store. Shindig includes mounting racks for riders to store their bikes, a bicycle powered television, and recycled furniture and light fixtures. The café’s owner, Sal Bednarz, hopes that the café will become a local meeting spot where neighbors interested in bicycle culture can meet together and be an example of how businesses can be both sustainable and profitable. 1/12/2010
Resource(s): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9pdoBq0Yyc#watch-main-area
Whittier, California, To Use ''Grass-Roots Pressure'' To Promote Light-Rail Route
The Whittier Daily News reports that Whittier city officials plan to use ''grass-roots pressure,'' not money spent hiring expensive consultants to promote a light-rail line that would run from East Los Angeles to Whittier. Councilman Owen Newcomer noted that an analysis had been done in the past, and that ''what Whittier needs to do is mobilize its residents.'' He described the effort as ''similar to the way the city successfully fought a proposal to build a state prison hospital at the former Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility.''
Meanwhile, other cities ''have formed a coalition and are planning to lobby Metro in favor of the line along the freeway,'' and some critics argue that Whittier should be better the Washington Boulevard line. 1/9/2010
Resource(s): www.whittierdailynews.com/
Los Angeles Considers Replacing Traffic Lanes with Public Park Space
The Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles is proposing that traffic lanes between 9th and Olympic Avenue in downtown be reduced by two lanes and replaced with public green space. +In addition to providing desperately needed open space in dense downtown Los Angeles, the reduction in lanes would also serve the purpose of creating a more pedestrian-oriented environment.
''The bottom line is, we need more park space,'' said Mike Pfeiffer, president of a downtown neighborhood stakeholders group.
''According to this article in the Los Angeles Times, this is the first time the city has considered replacing asphalt with parkland. ''We decided with the city that we could close some of the lanes on the street and create a new street that was smaller and more pedestrian-friendly,” said Lillian Burkenheim, the redevelopment agency's project manager for downtown. As the article notes, the concept of street narrowing has become increasing popular in planning and engineering circles—as streets become narrower, drivers become more cautious, making the street more appealing for pedestrians and other modes of transportation.
The idea of turning asphalt to parkland has become so popular that a similar idea is being proposed a few blocks away at Hill and 9th streets. New residents to downtown want to convert an underused parking lot into a residential park. 1/6/2010
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Photoshop Helps Narrow Streets in Los Angeles
Narrow Streets: Los Angeles is re-imagining some of Los Angeles’s best known streets by using Photoshop to narrow them. The idea is called design by proximity, where the viewer assigns more meaning as two objects come closer together. This blog hopes to show how better street design can help create more walkable streets even in a city known for its dependence on automobiles. Over 18 intersections have been altered, presenting streets that help create a more urban and pedestrian setting. Each street is accompanied by a short blurb explaining its significance in Los Angeles and how a street diet would help change the landscape. Narrow Streets: Los Angeles shows what might be possible in street design. 12/28/2009
Resource(s): narrowstreetsla.blogspot.com/2009/12/sunset-boulevard-echo-park-avenue-echo.html
Population Growth Without Infrastructure Investment Could Spark ''Smart Growth Wars''
Driven mostly by births instead of immigration – a ''historic shift'' since 2003 – San Diego County’s population increased from roughly 2.8 to 3.2 million this decade and may reach 4 million by 2020, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. Experts believe the county has managed growth effectively so far, but protracted recession, reduced tax revenue, and chronic state budget shortages could spell havoc and even ''smart-growth wars'' in the decade ahead, perhaps triggered by insufficient infrastructure investments.
''From an environmental perspective, I think we’ve absorbed it (growth) pretty darn well. Maybe it’s because babies have lower impact and they’re not out there driving,'' said former San Diego City Planning Commissioner Carolyn Chase. ''When you get up to 3 to 4 million (residents) and you don’t have a great transit system that’s planned and funded, the quality of life will go down.''
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Urban Studies Program Director Political Science Professor Steven P. Erie voiced similar concerns about the future of smart growth. Cities, he said, will fight for paltry sales taxes from ever fewer auto dealerships, and neighborhoods will battle against infill, made increasingly necessary by the lack of land for development in rural areas. ''It will be NIMBYism (''Not-In-My-Back-Yard''ism) on steroids,'' Professor Erie cautioned. ''It’s going to be a different set of growth wars than we’ve had in the past.'' 12/18/2009
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Ruling Affects Affordable Housing Laws in Los Angeles
In a largely overlooked but precedential pronouncement last month, inauspicious for inclusionary zoning laws and workforce housing, the California Supreme Court let stand a Court of Appeals decision that barred Los Angeles from enforcement of its mandatory affordable-housing ordinance at the Palmer/Sixth Street Properties mixed-use project on a 2.8-acre parking lot downtown, because in this case, wrote Martindale Legal Library reviewer James E. Pugh online, “the ordinance conflicts with, and is preempted by, the rent control provisions of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (“Costa-Hawkins”), which allows residential landlords to set the initial rent levels at the commencement of a tenancy.”
The ruling, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Robert Selna, may complicate affordable housing efforts in some 170 jurisdictions statewide that adopted inclusionary zoning to make a percentage of new units accessible to those who earn less than the local median income, though it doesn’t affect projects receiving government funds and leaves a condo issue unclear. In San Francisco, with an annual median income of $77,750 for a family of three, developers must sell or rent 15 to 20 percent of new units to below-median-income earners or pay fees into an affordable housing fund.
Commenting on the California Supreme Court’s refusal to review the appellate ruling, San Francisco Deputy City Attorney Kate Stacy said the office is examining the case and working with city department to evaluate its effect on the city’s inclusionary housing program. Developers, who have long complained about the program’s financial burden, remain cautious. “This is a big deal. It appears that as far as rental projects go, it is illegal for the city to require affordable housing,” observed developer Oz Erickson. “In the short term, there is nothing under construction, so it won’t have an immediate impact, but in a normal market, it will be interesting to see if someone challenges the rules.” 11/27/2009
Resource(s): http://www.sfgate.com/
Planning for Transbay Terminal in San Francisco Underway
The Planning Department in San Francisco has released a set of proposals to turn the area around a potentially rebuilt Transbay Terminal into a pedestrian-oriented commercial and transportation hub. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the plan includes increasing sidewalks and narrowing streets around the project while allowing some of the tallest buildings in San Francisco. In addition, Bay Bridge traffic would be re-routed around the site in order to maintain a pedestrian centric district. The project is being planned in anticipation for the California High-speed Rail project that would site a station in the Transbay Terminal.
City planners hope that the redevelopment of the area will create a crown in the skyline, creating “an elegant skyline… with its apex at the Transit Center.” A new skyscraper would be allowed to rise over 1,000 feet, far exceeding the 550-foot height limit currently in place throughout San Francisco. In addition, the new proposed zoning in the area allows for an additional six other skyscrapers exceeding the height limit. Planners believe the taller buildings will allow a greater amount of office and residential spaces to be built near transit and produce 62 percent less carbon dioxide than a typical suburban development of the same magnitude.
Some other important goals of the plan are to give landmark status to four historic buildings located within the planning area; built a public plaza; invest in a new system to generate power and recycle water for the entire district; and tie public improvement costs with higher development impact fees.
Additional information about the Transbay Terminal plan can be found at transitcenter.sfplanning.org. 11/20/2009
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Californians Could Save $31 Billion by Living in Smart Growth Communities
While some people are questioning whether California can overcome its dominant car culture in order to meet ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, a new study from TransForm shows that doing so is both the most cost-effective and environmentally sound option.
The study, Windfall For All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate And Safeguard California's Economy, finds that residents of the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego who have access to the best public transportation options are not only emitting far fewer greenhouse gas emissions on average, they are also spending billions less on transportation than residents who live in communities where public transportation is scarce. In fact, if all of the residents in the four regions studied lived in transportation-friendly communities, Californians would save $31 billion per year on transportation costs and emit an average of 34 percent less greenhouse gases.
''This report provides hard evidence that SB375, California's groundbreaking law to promote more convenient walkable neighborhoods with more transportation choices has the power to act as an economic driver,'' said Stuart Cohen, Executive Director of TransForm, a coalition of unions and nonprofits. ''By reducing public and private transportation costs and increasing revenues to local governments, SB375 can help put dollars back in the pockets of consumers and local governments.''
Overall, the findings indicate that of the four regions studied, the Bay Area is saving the most on transportation costs due to its smart growth communities, with Los Angeles coming in a close second.
TransForm's report also includes case studies of diverse communities including those in San Jose, Windsor, and Marin County that are putting smart growth policies into practice, with notable results. 11/19/2009
Resource(s): finance.yahoo.com/
New Report Highlights Importance of Location Efficiency
San Francisco Bay Area households spend an average of more than $28,000 a year on housing and nearly $13,400 on transportation, a total of $41,420 or 59 percent of their median income, which leaves many of them with insufficient income “to comfortably meet their basic needs,”cautions the Bay Area Burden: Examining the Costs and Impacts of Housing and Transportation on Bay Area Residents, Their Neighborhoods and the Environment study. The study was released at the start of the 2009 Urban Land Institute (ULI) Fall Meeting & Urban Land Expo in San Francisco, highlighting the importance of location efficiency—the proximity of housing to transportation hubs, employment, and retail centers “as a driver of both affordability and environmental sustainability.”
Conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing and the National Housing Conference (NHC) Center for Housing Policy (CHP), with research data from the Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), the study offers “copious statistics – by subregion, county and city–showing the precise impacts” of car-related or transit-use expenses on family wallets, reports San Francisco Chronicle urban design writer John King, citing examples. A San Francisco household with the median city income of $66,523 spends about $792 a month for transportation, an amount similar to those in the nearby cities of Berkeley and Sausalito, with $858 and $885, respectively. In contrast, families in outer, automobile-reliant suburbs or with poor transit connections spend much more—$1,311 in Antioch; $1,281 in Livermore; and $1,246 in Pacifica.
The study makes the case for denser, mixed-use, transit-oriented development, with the writer also citing one of its key sustainability findings, namely that “multifamily units in an urban setting are often smaller and more thermally efficient than homes at the urban edge, reducing energy consumption associated with heating and cooling by up to 50 percent on a per-household basis.” 11/4/2009
Resource(s): http://www.sfgate/
L.A. Mayor Unveils Plan for Rail Transit
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced a plan to embark on a commuter rail building boom in traditionally car-centric Los Angeles County. Villaraigosa's plan fast-tracks several high-profile rail projects to be completed within the next decade, and makes building more rail a top priority of his administration.
“The fact is that this is the most important thing that we can do to alleviate congestion and gridlock, to improve the quality of our air and to really vindicate the people’s will for the need to address transportation,” he said.
The mayor’s office estimates that the revenue from Measure R, a sales tax measure to help fund mass transit projects, and other available funds would provide only an estimated $5.2 billion if they were to expedite the projects. The rest would have to come from private sector partners, the federal government or other public funding. The mayor’s office says the county needs at least $10 billion in additional funds to complete the projects in 10 years.
“The projects are going to happen, there’s no question about that, and I’m going to be very aggressive at getting federal funds....My goal is to make it happen sooner rather than later,” Villaraigosa said. “I recognize that it’s a daunting task, but I love the challenge and I’m up for it.” 10/29/2009
Resource(s): http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/
Oakland's Fox Theater Honored with Preservation Award
The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently presented an award to the Fox Theater in Oakland, a 1928-era movie palace, recognizing its incredible restoration. The Fox Theater was one of a dozen or so projects from around the country to be recognized. ''We were honored to receive this award and think it is great for the city of Oakland to be seen on a national stage in such a positive light,'' a representative from Friends of the Oakland Fox group said.
National Trust President Richard Moe, commenting on the Fox restoration project said, ''It is textbook on how to bring a building — and a neighborhood — back to life.'' Prior to its renovation, the facility had stood dark for 35 years with preservationists worried that it was at risk of being vandalized to be point that it could not be saved.
The Trust conference was held October 13-17. All the National Trust winners with information on each are now posted on the Web site at www.preservationnation.org. 10/25/2009
Resource(s): http://www.mercurynews.com/
California Rail Yard Project Developer Abandons Plans for Smart Growth
His 2004 smart-growth design for a 72-acre village on abandoned rail yards amid mature neighborhoods, bracketed by two light-rail stations near Sacramento City College, brought him $9 million in state transit-oriented development bond money and recognition from both the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). But when developer Paul Petrovich found the site’s toxic saturation and cleanup cost much higher than expected, he thought the only way for the project to “pencil out” in this recession and tight credit market is to forsake smart growth principles and fall back to the suburban scheme—a prospect neighbors abhor.
“This is a development from the past, this is not a forward-looking project,” Sierra Curtis Neighborhood Association (SCNA) member Rosanna Herber told Sacramento News & Review writer Cosmo Garvin, with member Kathleen Ave stressing, “You’ve got two light-rail stations here. The idea that you fill in that space with pavement and parking spaces is just unbelievable.”
In contrast to his 2004 plan, the writer reports, the developer wants to increase the project’s retail space from 150,000 to 250,000 square feet, surround it with an almost 1,000-car parking lot, and skip a direct connection to the college and its light-rail station because of scarce funds. He plans to build a number of housing units similar to what he planned before—178 single-family homes and more than 200 condos—while scaling down “vertical, mixed-use” buildings, with stores and offices on the ground floor and residences above.
Under pressure from city planners and neighbors, he also promises to include 80 affordable senior units as well as some denser housing such as duplexes and four-plexes near one of the light-rail stations. And facing 250,000 instead of just 80,000 cubic yards of toxic soil at the site, he seeks to reduce his costs by burying much of it under an impermeable plastic cap topped by a prospective community park.
As to substantial changes in line with his original smart-growth approach, he is dismissive. “This is suburbia, like it or not. This is an automobile society. You can’t leap to a downtown Portland design in this project,” he told some 100 residents at a meeting in their southwest Sacramento neighborhood, agreeing that the project isn’t perfect, but noting that it can be built and that a time comes when he has to decide whether he can move forward with it at all. “We have a chance for a mixed-use development that could set standard for the country” he argued. “But if I get tripped up, this all goes industrial and it gets paved over.”
Not necessarily so, hope SCNA members and their architect Michael Corbett, who is outlining an alternative plan, which includes the vertical mixed-use concept, more open space, and parking behind some stores, while limiting the commercial component to 170,000 square feet. “It’s beautiful. It puts the mixed-use back in the development, and it makes it not so focused on automobiles and much more focused on humans,” said SCNA member Herber, hoping city officials will realize its potential, instead of going for a flawed project in fear of extra delay. 10/15/2009
Resource(s): http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1300211
Santa Monica May Enact Market-Based Parking Prices in Congested Areas
Advised by Walker Parking Consultants—the nation’s largest parking consulting, design and restoration firm—against addition or replacement of 1,000 Santa Monica downtown business district parking spaces at some $57,000 per space as wasteful and counterproductive, the city may soon enact market-based parking prices on and around the congested Third Street Promenade to discourage the typical cruising in search of the best two-hour-free spot and to accommodate instead short-time parking customers.
The proposed increases are moderate, including $1 for the now free second hour, from $1 to $1.50 per hour at street meters, and from $7 to $9 for full-day parking, reports Los Angeles Times writer Martha Groves, but they may prod some drivers to walk, take a bus or park several blocks away. And that would smooth downtown traffic flow, reduce tailpipe emissions, and give the city a higher return on land used for parking. “We don’t really need more parking downtown. It’s the way the parking is being used that’s a problem,” stressed Mayor Ken Genser, with Councilman Bobby Shriver adding, “What we’re saying is: ‘Parking is not free in Santa Monica anymore.’ The city policy in its public structures can’t be that everybody who works on the promenade gets a free space.”
The consultant study revealed that the promenade’s and other local firms’ employees are re-parking their vehicles in two nearby municipal garages every two hours, taking advantage of the free parking time, but denying it to their customers and practically turning the garages into their own city-subsidized facilities. Critics of the proposed rate increases think they may turn some downtown customers away and hurt city sales tax revenue; supporters respond that easily available parking slots would bring in time-constrained customers, who also may be willing to spend more in stores or leave larger tips in restaurants.
Economist and University of California-Los Angeles Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup, author of the seminal bookThe High Cost of Free Parkingteaches that optimal parking occupancy is 85 percent at all times – lower or higher occupancy means rates are too high or too low, respectively. “We grow up thinking that somebody else should pay for parking,” he said about the public construction cost of $15,000-$30,000 per space in elevated garages and of $25,000-$70,000 per space underground. “The cost doesn’t go away just because the driver doesn’t pay for it.”
Ventura City Manager Rick Cole, a 1990s Pasadena mayor who helped win Old Pasadena retailers to paid parking by dedicating street meter revenue to local amenities, which popularized the area and made it “a municipal cash cow,” told the writer that parking has “unbelievable power” to enhance or distort cities. “We devote a huge amount of extraordinarily valuable real estate to asphalt and concrete and then we give it away,” he said about free public parking, noting that Ventura leaders committed themselves to market-based pricing there years ago, but the first street meters will finally go up in January, since “You have to break the initial (public perception) barrier of charging for parking.”
See Walker Parking Consultants mission and projects at www.walkerparking.com. 10/14/2009
Resource(s): http://www.latimes.com/
Bay Area Delegates Going to D.C. to Help Craft Urban Smart Growth Agenda
As the San Francisco-based, business-sponsored Bay Area Council continues its advisory involvement in key state and federal policy matters, it is sending a 22-member delegation of developers, land use experts and architects to Washington, D.C. for talks with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, lawmakers and others to help ''craft an effective, visionary, sustainable, green and enlightened Urban Agenda for America,'' reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Andrew S. Ross, quoting council consultant George Broder and delegation leader TMG Partners CEO Michael Covarrubias.
''We're going to be offering ideas on how to structure and implement federal policies for smart growth development,'' said the former, while the latter stressed, ''We feel the timing is the most opportune, from a political standpoint, in terms of capital availability, and the awareness of the need for these changes to occur.''
With the council's combined clout of more than 275 of the largest Bay Area employers, the delegation has based many of its recommendations for federal measures on the state's landmark Senate Bill 375, spearheaded by Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg, signed into law by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in October 2008, and aimed at greenhouse gas emissions reduction through curbing sprawl, integrating land-use and transportation planning, and making people less dependent on cars.
The delegation, the writer notes, also wants to persuade Fannie Mae officials to relax lending restriction for multifamily housing, both rental units and condominiums.
While the delegation pursues these goals in the national capitol, he adds, the California High Speed Rail Authority is launching open houses to gather public input on the San Francisco-San Jose segment of the its high-speed network, planned for 2020.
The first open house is scheduled for September 30 in San Carlos, the next two for Sunnyvale on October 9 and San Francisco on October 13.
Other details and background at www.bayareacouncil.org, www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov, and http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/fact-sheet/10707. -- San Francisco Chronicle 9/28/2009
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Berkeley's Downtown Plan Sparks Controversy
A polemic is heating up in Berkeley over its Downtown Area Plan (DAP), which would sometimes permit developers to raise building heights without the reciprocal community benefits required by the public Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC), a loophole its critics want to challenge in a referendum called for in their petition signed by some 9,200 residents, about 3,700 more than needed to put it on the ballot, with Councilmember Jesse Arreguin rejoicing, ''This is a great day for democracy,'' but Councilmember Susan Wengraf remarking, ''Sometimes democracy can go too far.''
Formed two years ago to outline downtown development criteria, the 21-member advisory committee became polarized on the subject early, reports Berkeley Daily Planet writer Richard Brenneman, with both factions led by mayoral appointees.
Its chairman, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) Executive Director Will Travis, proceeded as ''a developer-friendly bureaucrat.''
Environmentalist Juliet Lamont and her majority stood for community benefits to offset higher downtown density.
Still, the chairman's view prevailed on the Berkeley Planning Commission during its own rewrite, and then ''the City Council used a Chinese restaurant menu approach, picking items from both columns while effectively giving developers an out from DAPAC's community-benefit requirements.''
When setting provisions ''for new fees and financing,'' the council's version tells city staff, ''consider how all fees and exactions may discourage development.'' Opposed by some members, the council's plan ignited the referendum petition drive, one participant in which, DAPAC member and planning commissioner Patti Dacey, said it involved at least a hundred volunteers, some working in pairs because of harassment.
''We're just a whole bunch of citizens who were outraged and decided to do something about it,'' she told the writer, who notes that not all heated words came from drive opponents.
Mayor Tom Bates expects the council to discuss its next move at a meeting September 22, seeing three alternatives.
''There were defects in the wording of the petitions themselves, and the council could choose to challenge their validity in court,'' he observed. ''We could attempt to pass a compromise plan with modifications to satisfy (the petitioners), or we could send the original plan to the ballot for voters to decide.''
No matter what the council decides, longtime local smart growth advocate Charles Siegel thinks the damage is done.
''The downtown plan could have moved Berkeley toward a more cooperative approach to planning,'' he wrote in a Berkeley Daily Planet reader commentary. ''Instead, it has stirred up antagonisms that will poison the debate about smart growth for many years to come.'' -- Berkeley Daily Planet 8/27/2009
Resource(s): www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/
Mariposa County Launches Smart Growth Web Site to Attract Businesses
The home of the central Yosemite National Park, which attracts nearly 4 million visitors a year, a growing number of whom have been considering a move or actually moving to the area ''to enjoy the natural beauty and rural charm year-round,'' Mariposa County has taken a vital proactive step to promote smart growth through a new Web site, jointly created by the county's Business Development Department and the private nonprofit Economic Development Corporation (EDC), its President Carol Johnson also a previous vacationer for almost two decades.
The site's goal, reports The Merced Sun-Star, is to attract businesses the county's Economic Vitality Strategy identifies as ''ideally suited'' for the local character and quality of life.
Its three target industries are the arts, clean ''green'' technology, and small service businesses.
''For those who want to start or relocate a business, Maricopa County welcomes you with very lenient Home Enterprise and Rural Home Industry zoning laws,'' the EDC site says. ''In fact, Mariposa County is so friendly to small and home-based businesses that there is not even a requirement for a business license.''
See details at www.mariposaedc.com. -- The Merced Sun-Star 8/26/2009
Resource(s): www.mercedsunstar.com/
Developer Wants to Maximize Density at San Jose TOD Project
''We're going to maximize density at every chance,'' said Green Republic San Jose LLLP spokesman Michael Van Every about its planned Ohlone mixed-use and transit-oriented development (TOD) on 8 acres of a former Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus parking and construction staging lot, stressing, ''We've made mistakes downtown, and now we have four-story buildings where there should have been 20-story buildings . . . and that's not just me saying that, that's the (San Jose) director of planning saying it.''
Selected by the VTA as the site's developer in August 2006, Green Republic initially proposed up to 12-story buildings, setting the maximum height at nine stories last year because of neighborhood concerns, and recently raising it to 14 stories, writes local resident and writer Stephen Baxter in a San Jose Mercury News report, with the company specifying that its three 14-story buildings will offer up to 800 residential units and up to 30,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.
Located along a bus rapid transit route and within 1,600 feet (over a quarter-mile) of a VTA light-rail station, with another station long planned just across the 8-acre site, the project will decrease ''reliance on personal vehicles, which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and traffic,'' says the company online, also promising to exceed the city's recently adopted ''Build it Green'' standards, to ensure energy efficiency and resource conservation, and to set aside land for a park, public plaza, and access to transit and the nearby Los Gatos Creek Trail.
Nevertheless, the writer observes, some think that future prospective residents may hesitate to walk a quarter-mile to the light-rail station along several industrial sites, with only partial sidewalks and spotty street lighting at dark, and that the VTA may still lack money to build a station across the project even if Green Republic is ready for a $1 million contribution.
Last year, the writer adds, San Jose Councilman Pierluigi Oliveiro said he wanted to see the station built before the project opens.
Green Republic spokesman Van Every hopes construction may start late next year, but cautions that the city's ''car-centric'' nature won't change overnight.
''It's going to take a number of generations to change that mind frame, and that's what we're trying to do,'' he said. ''We're also doing everything we can to encourage economic growth, and people should be happy we're making a $300 million investment.''
More about the company and the projects at www.greenrepublicsj.com.
-- Mercury News
7/23/2009
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
EPA Grants California GHG Waiver
As generally expected, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed its 2007 denial of a waiver for enforcement of higher than national fuel-efficiency standards set in 2002 in California -- the only state entitled to separate anti-pollution rules under the federal Clean Air Act, but only if EPA agrees each time -- with environmentalists and some auto industry officials seeing the reversal as a crucial precedent for giving California ''the power to drive national fuel efficiency standards in the future,'' since other states can and do copy its measures.
The 2002 California law, reports Sacramento Bee writer Jim Downing, requires a vehicle fuel efficiency boost from about 25 mph to an average of more than 35 mph by 2016, a requirement automakers challenged in court and the previous U.S. administration deemed unnecessary while Congress worked on similar though weaker national fuel efficiency and tailpipe emission standards.
President Obama directed EPA to check the propriety of the waiver denial, his administration brokered a May settlement under which California dropped a suit against EPA, automakers did the same with their suits against California, the federal government promised to enact California-type rules by next March, and the state agreed to follow them if as stringent as its own.
The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) doesn't like the EPA waiver for California, with NADA Chairman John McEleney claiming in a statement that the ''Obama administration has effectively ceded the long-term setting of national fuel economy standards to unelected California regulators.''
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in her statement ''this decision puts the law and science first.''
This waiver, she stressed, ''is consistent with the Clean Air Act as it's been used for the last 40 years and supports the prerogatives of the 13 states and the District of Columbia who have opted to follow California lead.''
More importantly, she added, ''this decision reinforces the historic agreement on nationwide emissions standards developed by a broad coalition of industry, government and environmental stakeholders earlier this year.''
Click here for the EPA's press release. -- Sacramento Bee 7/1/2009
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
''Stars Aligning for Smart Growth,'' Says Greenbelt Alliance Chief
''I see the stars aligning for smart growth. At the federal, state and local levels, we are increasingly seeing a willingness to use legislation to encourage smart growth,'' said San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Jeremy Madsen, telling some 220 sustainability advocates and a panel of experts at a downtown forum that the nine-county Bay Area ''could create a model metropolis'' as it grows from 7 to 9 million, adds 1.7 million jobs and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 -- its way to the long-term economic, social and environmental success set forth in the alliance's new report, ''Grow Smart Bay Area.''
The report shows, notes San Francisco Chronicle writer Robert Selna, that the area can prevent sprawl and accommodate most growth on some 40,000 vacant or underutilized lots -- including 100 ''priority'' sites -- usually along key transit corridors and near services.
''We should focus on development where jobs, amenities and transportation already exist,'' stressed Director Madsen, pointing that even municipalities already on a smart-growth path can step up their efforts.
He called on local leaders to increase development density, make streets easy for cyclists and pedestrians, reduce parking, involve residents in the planning process, create urban growth boundaries and other safeguards against sprawl, and invest in municipal infrastructure, including transit and parks.
''There is no way to reverse climate change without going after how we get around,'' commented Greenbelt Alliance Field Representative (Marin and Sonoma counties) Whitney Merchant. ''The most effective way to do that is to let people who live in Marin work in Marin. That means more workforce housing in the county.''
Details at www.greenbelt.org and www.growsmartbayarea.org. -- San Francisco Chronicle, Contra Costa Times 6/11/2009
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/ ; www.contracostatimes.com/
Developer Outlines Plan for 1,400-Acre Project on Redwood City Bayfront
Unfazed by inevitable environmental counteractions at municipal, judicial or even electoral levels, Scottsdale, Arizona-based DMP Associates joined Cargill Salt in the Redwood City Industrial Saltworks LLC partnership to develop roughly half of Cargill's 1,433-acre salt evaporation site along the San Francisco Bay as a seven-neighborhood mini-city, with 8,000 to 12,000 townhouses, condos and apartments -- 15 percent priced below the market -- a million square feet of offices and stores, at least five schools, and a trolley link to downtown Redwood City and its Caltrain station less than a mile away.
For the site's other half, report San Jose Mercury News writer Paul Rogers and Daily News staff writer Shaun Bishop, the partnership plans a 50-acre sports field complex and 200 acres of public parks and open space, with some 440 acres converted back to tidal wetlands.
''We don't view this as the typical developer-versus-environmentalist debate,'' said partnership vice president and general manager John Bruno. ''This is smart growth versus no growth.''
Should the project fail, Cargill would keep the site and could opt to continue making salt, he noted, optimistic the economy will rebound, the demand for housing near Peninsula jobs will prevail, and the planned 25-year construction will start in 2013.
''These housing units are going to need to be built,'' he asserted. ''If they are not built here, they will be built in the Central Valley or Livermore.''
Oakland-based Save the Bay Executive Director David Lewis agreed Silicon Valley cities need more housing, but pointed out that it should be built in or near downtown areas, not on the Bay's former marshes and sloughs that should all be turned back into wetlands and wildlife habitat.
''I think (DMB is) in denial about a lot of facts, about what is legally possible on the site and what is smart. They're proposing a project that would destroy Bay shoreline and open space that should be restored,'' he stressed. ''This argument that building in salt ponds is better than building in Tracy is a ridiculous false choice. It implies those are the only options.''
Redwood City Mayor Rosanne Foust reserved her judgment until more facts and implications are known, expecting residents to do likewise.
''I don't see what digging my heels in on either side is going to do for anybody,'' she said. ''I'd like the community to keep an open mind.''
With project approval dependent on permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Protection Agency, the state Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and other entities, BCDC Executive Director Will Travis offered this comment.
''The issue is: Is this project smart growth or is it smart growth in a dumb location?'' he observed. ''The devil is in the details.'' -- Mercury News, Santa Cruz Sentinel 5/13/2009
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/; www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Columnist: Time to Get Serious About Debates Over Growth
Smart growth, increasingly vocal around the state, means ''fighting sprawl through infill,'' reducing auto use through services in people's easy reach and enabling them to live near work, and as such enters Santa Cruz public debates over the city's land use, where it faces the classic ''not in my backyard'' (NIMBY) argument, writes Santa Cruz Good Time weekly magazine columnist Tom Honig, telling readers it's high time for the debate to get better.
Land use decisions are complex, with development rarely bringing in ''the jobs or the revenue promised by hopeful project managers,'' he writes, and with the ''miscellaneous collection of arguments under the heading 'Santa Cruz Values''' too often reflecting inconvenience felt by nearby residents.
''To be fair, concerns surrounding land use and growth in Santa Cruz are serious business. Let's face it: trying to balance environmental concerns and jobs and affordable housing is tough work,'' the columnist points out. ''But the Not in My Backyard argument should not define the debate. Nor should promises of huge economic gain by private developers, especially when they're proposing a new business or new industry from out of the area.''
Instead, officials and residents should focus on growing companies ''starting out right here in Santa Cruz'' and providing local jobs, he stresses, glad that the City Council has recently approved a hotel and a 20-acre live-work project.
''There will always be the NIMBYs,'' he writes. ''But moving forward, just maybe they won't define the debate. And for those who want to grow a strong economy, it's best to look right under our nose for new opportunity.'' -- Good Time 5/4/2009
Resource(s): www.gtweekly.com/
Petaluma Scraps ''Pioneering'' Planning Agency
A growth-control leader since its 1971 plan set an annual cap of 500 building permits for five years and the industry lost in courts, Petaluma also became the first Sonoma County city to enact an urban growth boundary (UGB) in 1998, but the 2008 economic and construction slump hurt its overall budget and the Community Development Department (CDD) revenue so much that the City Council cut CDD staff in half last August and now voted 4-2 to scrap the highly effective planning agency, by laying off another four of the last 11 employees this month, eliminating the director post by June 30, and putting the rest of building, code enforcement and affordable housing officials into other departments.
City Manager John Brown, who proposed the move, reports Petaluma Press Democrat writer Paul Payne, promised he would try to keep at least one CDD part-time worker and perhaps reinstitute the department in about a year if the economy rebounds.
Otherwise, the city will turn to a private firm or another public agency for its planning needs on a case-by-case basis, or hire former employees as freelancers.
A week before the council's vote, CDD Director Mike Moore revealed that the department would need about $70,000 a month in fees through the end of the fiscal year in June to meet its reduced payroll of $800,000 a year, but was $280,000 short last month.
The city has no money to help it along, added Manager Brown, since it faces a mid-year deficit of $1 million, and of $3 million for the next fiscal year.
Smart-growth advocates, builders and many residents, the writer notes, criticized his proposal as like to undercut sound planning, industry recovery and even permitting for repair or small property improvements.
''Petaluma has pioneered any number of things in the area of planning,'' observed environmentalist and former Sonoma County Supervisor Bill Kortum, cautioning its officials that pioneering the CDD breakup would be ''terrible.''
Sonoma County Transportation and Land Use Coalition member Steve Birdlebough thought CDD should have had permanent funding instead of operating in a ''pay-as-you-go'' mode.
''It's a great idea when lots of people are knocking on your door wanting to put in subdivisions,'' he pointed out. ''When they all go away, you're stuck.''
And Petaluma-based North Bay Construction President Steve Geney commented on the economy and Petaluma officials, ''Everybody's had cutbacks but I haven't heard of anybody yet completely eliminating a department. I don't know what their game is.''
More about Petaluma planning and CDD work at www.petalumabuilditgreen.org and http://cityofpetaluma.net/cdd/index.html. -- Press Democrat 4/14/2009
Resource(s): www.pressdemocrat.com/
SANDAG Postpones Decision on TransNet Funding Formula Change
Though the two primary train and bus operators in the San Diego region, North County Transit District and Metropolitan Transit System, had to raise fares and slash services after the losing millions in aid from the severely strained state budget, reports North County Times writer Dave Downey, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Board voted to wait for an April 24 staff report on other remedies rather than immediately commit itself to or against an increase of the transit share in the TransNet money allocation formula from 34 to 44 percent, with more than 30 speakers at its April 10 public meeting split on the change proposal advanced by Save Our Forest and Ranchland Chairman Duncan McFetridge.
''What did the voters vote for? Well, there it is, right there in the ballot language -- to relieve traffic congestion and improve safety,'' he pointed to the 2004-ballot film slide, stressing that's what trains and buses do.
Approved initially in 1988 for 20 years and extended by two-thirds of San Diego County voters in November 2004 till 2048, the writer notes, the half-cent TransNet sales tax is expected to raise $14 billion before it expires: 28 percent earmarked for local street and roads; 27 percent for highway construction; 34 percent for transit -- 24 percent for operations and 10 percent for construction; 6 percent for road-related environmental projects, 2 percent for bicycle lanes, 2 percent for ''smart growth'' projects, and the rest for administrative costs.
''We are only a year into a 40-year sales tax program, and we're already talking about changing the voter-approved distribution formula,'' wondered County Supervisor Dianne Jacobs, elected in unincorporated areas, arguing that transit ''already gets way more than its fair share of this pie'' since just 3.3 percent of county residents take trains or buses.
But her motion to reject any formula change lost to one offered by Solana Beach Councilwoman Lesa Heebner, who suggested the two-week postponement, stating, ''It deserves more than slamming one door quickly.''
Nevertheless, Board Member Mary Sessom thought it unlikely a formula change would get the necessary super-majority votes -- by 13 of the 19 agencies represented on the board and two-thirds of its weighted vote, based on the population of the member cities.
''It means San Diego officials, who have expressed support for shifting money away from highways,'' the writer observes, ''could not force a change by merely persuading a few cities to join them and build on their 40 percent weighted vote.'' -- North County Times 4/10/2009
Resource(s): www.northcountytimes.com/
SANDAG Will Be First MPO to Update Regional Plans Under Historic Anti-Sprawl Bill
Its 2030 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) due for a new long-range population growth forecast (RGF) next year and an update as the 2050 RTP in July 2011, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) will be the first of the state's 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to complete this task under California's historic anti-sprawl bill (SB 375) enacted last September, integrating transportation, housing and land use, and devising a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), based on the current Smart Growth Concept Map, to cut vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks.
In a nutshell, the agency needs to step up efforts to make people less dependent on cars and expand its ''experiment with 'smart growth' in selected communities'' into the dominant development pattern across San Diego County, reports North County Times writer Dave Downey, quoting County Supervisor Ron Roberts.
''We can put (energy efficient) light bulbs in our houses all we want, but that isn't going to be significant compared to all that is going to have to be done,'' he pointed out at a SANDAG Transportation Committee meeting, after Principal Regional Planner Coleen Clementson's briefing on SB 375 requirements. ''The essential ingredient, bar none, is public transit.''
The planner stressed that the new law significantly changes how the agency and the county will work on the next RTP and the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), both setting the stage for a future update of the Regional Comprehensive Plan (RCP), adopted in July 2004.
Specifically, the Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) must show how the region will meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets through development patterns, infrastructure investments, and transportation measures and policies, while ensuring sufficient housing and natural habitat protection.
The agency, the planner said, will hold informational meetings in September to involve the public, present a 2050 population forecast to the state Air Resources Board (ARB) by February 2010 to get an ARB-set greenhouse gas emissions target in July, and adopt the updated plan in July 2011.
As the first to include the SB 375 requirements in its RTP update, said SANDAG Executive Director Garry Gallegos, the region can expect scrutiny from the other 17 regions, eager to study its moves and learn.
See meeting minutes at www.sandag.org/uploads/meetingid/meetingid_2235_9405.pdf. -- North County Times 4/3/2009
Resource(s): www.northcountytimes.com/
Sacramento Transit, Land-Use Plans Could Become National Model
As communities everywhere look toward transit-oriented development, they can best learn from the comprehensive approach of the California capital region, the work started by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments' 2002-05 long-term transportation and land-use Blueprint Project, bolstered last year by the same linkage in the Senate Bill 375 to cut state emissions, and honed in the Sacramento Regional Transit Master Plan and Transit-Oriented Guidelines expected in May, wrote Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow Christopher B. Leinberger in a Sacramento Bee special column, confident of a wide conceptual and practical impact of those efforts.
Taken together, he noted, they can ''inspire sweeping national transportation, energy and climate change legislation and future infrastructure investment and real estate development'' and ''give the market what it wants: the choice of the well-known drivable suburban or walkable urban development, the basis of the next American Dream.''
For the past half-century, ''American households demanded and got only one way of living and working, the suburban way that meant driving,'' he wrote, ''the songs of the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean'' still echoing in his mind and reminding him of life and development ''that was seductive at the time,'' but had little-known consequences.
He cited land consumption eight to 12 times faster than population growth; dramatic increases in vehicle miles driven (VMT) and use of foreign oil; the link between car-dependency and the onset of the obesity, diabetes and asthma epidemics, especially among children bused or chauffeured to schools; diversion of at least 25 percent of household incomes to depreciating cars; and the decline in local quality of life due to a nearby strip mall or other unwanted development.
In addition, a forthcoming Brookings Institution study finds that ''car-dependent households emit three times the climate change gases,'' including carbon dioxide, as those in walkable neighborhoods.
Although widely deplored, all these consequences ''do not tend to motivate behavioral change'' until consumers begin to vote ''with their pocketbooks,'' which ''they have done,'' the Brookings fellow observed, pointing to ''pent-up demand for walkable urban development,'' evidenced in consumer-preference and market research ''showing that walkable urban housing has held its value during this recession while the bulk of price declines occurred in fringe suburban housing.''
Concerned about zoning laws that often prohibit ''higher-density, walkable urban development,'' because of not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) opposition or the general lack of diversified infrastructure, including transit, walking and biking options, the writer once again holds out the California capital as a model for both regional and legislative actions.
Nevertheless, all its planned pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented places need ''a conscious affordable housing strategy,'' with Sacramento's current one still rooted in the obviously bankrupt ''drive until you qualify'' norm, the expert wrote, stressing the crucial importance of a better and deliberate strategy ''since it is going to take a generation to catch up with the pent-up demand for walkable urban housing and commercial development.''
According to Brookings research, he added, the region should increase its number of significant, walkable, transit-oriented urban places from just three -- downtown, midtown and Old Sacramento -- to between 8 and 12, with denser development in those three and construction of new ones representing ''billions of dollars'' and ''a more sustainable way of living.''
Details of cited planning and legislation at www.sacog.org/communications/more_honors.cfm, www.sacregionblueprint.org/sacregionblueprint/the_project/discussion_draft_preferred_scenario.cfm and http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?fact-sheet/10707. -- Sacramento Bee 3/18/2009
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
San Diego's Smart Growth Fund Dissolved
First of this kind and scale at its launch in May 2005, the $90-million public-private San Diego Smart Growth Fund was to leverage further investment of more than $500 million in community revitalization, urban infill and middle-income workforce housing, reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer Lori Weisberg, but the initial $30 million spent on five residential and office projects in the mid-city College Area, Chula Vista, Carlsbad and El Cajon suddenly run into the market crisis, two of the projects stalled, other opportunities vanished, and officials found no other option than to dissolve the fund and its nonprofit San Diego Capital Cooperative (SDCC) sponsor.
''The reality is, over the last 18 months, the economy has fallen over the cliff, and there is no new development occurring,'' said SDCC CEO Barry Schultz. ''Until we are able to stabilize the housing market by reducing the inventory of foreclosures, we're not going to be able to create and incentive for new development.'' -- San Diego Union-Tribune 3/9/2009
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Credit Crunch Stalls BART TOD Project
Under construction at a cost of $80 million in public and private money, Bay Area Rapid Transit's (BART's) combined West Dublin/Pleasanton commuter train station was to be flanked by adjacent transit-oriented development when it opens late this year -- 210 apartments, office space and a hotel on the Dublin side, and 350 apartments atop ground-floor retail and a grocery store on the Pleasanton side -- but the developer couldn't start the already approved projects because of the credit crunch.
''We're on hold right now until the capital markets loosen up and we're able to secure some adequate construction financing,'' said La Jolla-based Windstar Communities Vice President Eric Heffner, also expecting to eliminate the hotel from his plans.
''There's no marketplace to build a hotel now that they're in a slump industry-wide,'' he told Pleasanton Weekly writer Janet Pelletier. ''Until the economy picks up, there is little demand for a hotel site.''
The 350 apartments on the Pleasanton side, mostly one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, the writer reports, were to include 70 affordable for low-to-very-low-income residents, with rents starting at $861 a month.
Tenants would have a short distance to the BART station, located in the I-580 median, through pedestrian bridges. -- Pleasanton Weekly 2/5/2009
Resource(s): www.pleasantonweekly.com/
Gov. Schwarzenegger Energized by President Obama's Decision on Tougher Emissions Standards
Just days after he asked President Obama to make the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) move promptly and grant California a Clean Air Act waiver for its tougher tailpipe emissions standards as necessary in the fight against global warming, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the presidential directive for its responsiveness not only to California and 13 other like-minded states, but also for its wider political benefits.
''With this announcement from President Obama less than a week into his administration, it is clear that California and the environment now have a strong ally in the White House,'' Governor Schwarzenegger said in a statement. ''Allowing California and other states to aggressively reduce their own harmful vehicle tailpipe emissions would be a historic win for clean air and for millions of Americans who want more fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly cars. My administration has been fighting for this waiver since 2005 and we will not give up until it is granted because we owe it to our children and to our grandchildren to do more than just protect our natural resources, we must also improve them so that we leave behind an environment for future generations that is better than it is today.'' -- California Office of the Governor 1/26/2009
Resource(s): http://gov.ca.gov/index.php
CARB Moves to Implement CO2 Emission Cuts; Profs Critical of Economic Analysis
Uninhibited by the economic crisis and the projected $41.8 billion state budget gap through mid-2010, reports Associated Press writer Samantha Young, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) moved to implement the state's landmark 2006 law (AB 32), which requires greenhouse gas emission cuts to 1990 levels by 2020, unanimously passing the nation's most ambitious climate-change counter plan -- to institute a carbon cap-and-trade program for power plants and other big polluters, improve vehicle-fuel and home-energy efficiency, invest in dense mixed-used development near transit, and generally promote green technologies.
''When you look at today's depressed economy, green tech is one of the few bright spots out there, which is yet another reason we should move forward on our environmental goals,'' stressed Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols saying ''California, again and again, has pushed for higher levels of efficiency in our electric sector, our buildings and appliances, and time after time it turns out efficiency measures have not only saved us money but leaped our economy ahead.''
Nevertheless, wrote Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters a day before the CARB vote, the Legislative Analyst's Office and some top independent economists who reviewed the plan cited serious shortcomings.
In a paper for Republican Assemblyman Roger Niello, the office worried that ''the plan's evaluation of the costs and savings of some recommended measures is inconsistent and incomplete.''
UCLA Professor Matthew Kahn and Harvard University Professor Robert Stavins wished their assessments could be more positive.
''While I support the Governor's broad AB 32 goals, I am troubled by the economic modeling analysis that I have been asked to read,'' wrote Professor Kahn. ''AB 32 is presented as a riskless 'free lunch' for Californians. These economic models predict that this regulation will offer us a 'win-win' of much lower greenhouse gas emissions and increased economic growth. I would like to believe this claim but after reading through the economic analysis and the five appendices there are too many uncertainties and open microeconomic questions for me to believe this.''
Professor Stavins was equally disappointed.
''I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the economic analysis is terribly deficient in critical ways and should not be used by the state government or the public for the purpose of assessing the likely costs of CARB's plans. I say this with some sadness, because I was hopeful that CARB would produce sensible policy proposals analyzed with sound scientific and economic analysis.''
In response to the criticism, reports Sacramento Bee writer Jim Downing, the CARB passed a resolution pledging a deeper economic analysis of the plan and work on details over the next two years, with most of its policies and 31 specific rules taking effect in 2012 or later.
Forward-thinking business advocates and conservationists are optimistic.
Environmental Entrepreneurs co-founder Bob Epstein pointed out that new California companies, formed partly in response to the state's sustainability push, have already attracted more than $2.5 billion in private investments this year alone.
And with much of the planned emission cut contingent on an EPA permit for California's new fuel-efficiency standards higher than national, a request denied last year, state Sierra Club Director Bill McGavern predicted a shift once President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated next month.
''Our president-elect has called for stimulating our economy,'' he said. ''I think he and the Congress will be looking to the state of California, and these measures can serve as a model for the rest of the country.'' -- Sacramento Bee 12/11/2008
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Air Pollution, Global Warming Costing California Billions Each Year
Global warming may impose high tolls on the state's $2.5-trillion real estate assets, with extreme weather, sea level rise and frequent wildfires likely to cost it between $300 million and $3.9 billion a year, depending on warming rates and greenhouse gas emission efforts, warns a ''California Climate Risk and Response'' report by University of California, Berkeley researchers Fredrich Kahrl and David Roland-Holst, while ''The Benefits of Meeting Federal Clean Air Standards in the South Coast and San Joaquin Valley Air Basins'' study by a California State University, Fullerton team under Institute for Economics and Environment Studies (IEES) Co-Director Jane V. Hall shows air pollution in those two regions already costs the state about $28 billion each year due mostly to premature deaths.
''Our report makes it clear the most expensive thing we can do about climate change is nothing,'' Berkeley Professor Roland-Holst told Los Angeles Times writer Margot Roosevelt. ''If we make the right investments, we can avert much of the damage in any scenario.''
Fullerton Professor Hall was equally explicit in her interview with Times writer Louis Sahagun.
''We are going to pay for it one way or the other. Either we pay to fix the problem or we pay in loss of life and poor health,'' she pointed out. ''This study adds another piece to the puzzle as the public and policymakers try to understand where do we go from here.''
Released as the California Resources Agency's six task forces -- on biodiversity and habitat; infrastructure; oceans and coastal resources; public health; water; and forestry and agriculture -- complete work on elements of its comprehensive Climate Adaptation Strategy to be published next month, and as the California Air Resources Board gets ready for its December 11 vote on rules that would force filter installation or engine upgrades in more than a million heavy-duty diesel trucks, the Berkeley and Fullerton research documents offer officials quantitative bases for their steps.
The Berkeley climate change report ''assesses the real, comprehensive statewide impacts for the first time,'' said California Resources Agency Deputy Secretary for Climate Change and Energy Anthony Brunello.
The Fullerton findings will ''be useful to all of us,'' said California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols. ''Our board members hear on a regular basis from constituents who are concerned about the costs of regulations, and seldom hear from people concerned about their health because they are collectively and individually not as well organized.''
Coalition for Clean Air community engagement director Nidia Bautista called the Fullerton data ''staggering, and a reminder that health is too often the trade-off when it comes to cleaning the air.''
And East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice spokesman Angelo Logan added, ''At a time when government is handing out economic stimulus packages, we could use an economic relief package to help us deal with environmental impacts on our health, families and pocketbooks.''
Read the Berkeley report here (16 pages/0.7mb) and the Fullerton study here (108 pages/2.6mb). -- Los Angeles Times 11/14/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Newspaper's Smart Growth Scorecard Critical of Efforts in San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley has become one of the state's fastest-rowing regions, but a Modesto Bee comprehensive policy survey of its eight counties and 60 cities found that most could ''do much more to stop auto-reliant sprawl,'' with the daily's smart-growth scorecard ''designed to help people gauge whether their leaders are serious about improving communities and boosting contentment through thoughtful planning or merely paying lip service,'' report Bee writer Garth Stapley and Michael R. Shea, quoting U.S. EPA Development, Community, and Environment Division Director Tim Torma, who said such scorecards provide ''a better understanding of how the rules on the books can deliver'' livability and sustainability.
Conducted from October 2007 through January 2008 by a California State University-Stanislaus public policy class, in cooperation with the Great Valley Center, the survey of 68 top area planners focused on county policies in seven categories and on city policies in nine categories -- four identical, the others differently tailored or separate -- all together showing a regional panorama of public outreach, development, developer fees, economic development, transportation and infrastructure, agriculture and open space, wildlife and natural resources, urban design, amenities and affordability.
The eight counties collectively performed better than their 60 cities, with overall planning implementation scores from 54 to 70 percent vs. 28 to 80 percent -- yet, despite the near-consensus that development should be channeled into cities, six of the counties approved more than 400 homes each for their respective unincorporated areas in 2006.
''If you look at their general plans, they all say the right things -- 'Direct growth away from the best lands and into cities; create mixed-use, walkable cities' -- but none of that is happening,'' commented American Farmland Trust State Director Ed Thompson, with Great Valley Center President Emeritus Carol Whiteside saying about the findings, ''If we don't like what we see, the point is to have a chance to go back and change it.''
As an example, the Bee writers mention Stanislaus County. The county has the region's three highest-scoring cities, Oakdale, Patterson and Turlock, plus Modesto in a seven-spot tie, but secured only the fifth rank.
On the other hand, Tulare County's first rank is largely credited to its ''long tradition of progressive smart growth policies,'' now at risk.
Inside critics fear present county leaders are dismantling some of the key smart-growth rules, making it much easier to build in incorporated rural areas.
County Supervisor Allen Ishida is open about the stance.
''It's not the intention of the board to direct growth anywhere. The market will do that,'' he declared. ''But we need to give the opportunity to grow. Zoning creates economic opportunity.''
Still, smart-growth advocates are hopeful that the county's Stamp Out Sprawl initiative (Measure E) approved by voters last February will help direct development into its cities.
Unless such efforts are stepped up throughout the region, sprawl and road traffic will exert increasingly heavier environmental, social and health tolls.
''As air quality gets worse, the climate heats up and people becoming increasingly obese because they're spending more time in the car,'' pointed out the Sacramento-based Local Government Commission's founder Judy Corbett. ''That leads to asthma, diabetes, and heart disease. Socially, we're becoming isolated from one another, spending so much time in the car rather than out in the community.'' -- Modesto Bee 10/25/2008
Resource(s): www.modbee.com/
Transit Systems Feeling Pressure of Increased Ridership, Shrinking Funds
''Who says Americans won't ride mass transit?'' asks Salon.com writer Katharine Mieszkowski in the headline of her article on this ''car-crazy'' nation's new, at-the-pump-found love for buses and trains, noting that like other transit agencies across the country, the San Francisco Bay Area Transit System (BART) has already reached record ridership this year and that some trains badly need repair or leave desperate commuters at the stations, while in a ''grim'' story like others nationwide, and despite his administration's ambitious goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has recently signed a state budget that ''raids $1.7 billion from transit funding.''
Officials and experts are taken aback.
''There's been a big shift to transit as people are trying to avoid high gas prices,'' pointed out a BART director, Livable City advocacy group executive director Tom Radulovich. ''But we're taking billions of dollars away from transit, and investing billions in highways.''
A BART consultant, Nelson Nygaard transportation planner Jeffrey Tumlin, considers ''the skewed funding priorities,'' the writer observes, part of a deep-seated policy bias against transit.
''If your road or highway is experiencing bad levels of service, it is assumed that you need to get money to expand capacity,'' he said. ''When you're allocating money for transit, nobody ever asks how crowded buses are.''
Indeed, the writer observes, the recent ''mini-exodus from driving has exposed significant cracks in the country's mass transits systems'' as they struggle to accommodate new riders.
''All across the country, public transportation systems are experiencing capacity problems,'' said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) spokeswoman Virginia Miller, calling the lack of system expansion funds a the time of record ridership ''ironic.''
Oakland-based Transportation and Land Use Coalition Executive Director Stuart Cohen fears the lack of capacity and higher fares could send the new transit riders back to their cars.
''This is going to mean more people out there on the road, driving, creating more congestion for everybody and keeping transportation as our No. 1 source of global warming pollution,'' he cautioned.
Nevertheless, planning consultant Tumlin links his hopes for transit improvements with the ongoing revitalization of many downtowns, saying ''there is a rapidly growing sector of the market -- younger people and aging baby boomers with kids,'' disappointed by suburban uniformity and pulled by city lifestyles.
Noting that since the early 1980s, 15 major cities have built light-rail systems from the scratch, and dozens consider or work on such lines now, the Salon writer wonders what's next.
''Whether funding can keep up with the new demand for mass transit remains a big question. As does whether gas prices will remain high enough to make riding train or bus an attractive alternative -- one worth fighting for at the ballot box,'' she writes. ''With the price of oil down 50 percent since July, and gas prices hovering around $3 a gallon, will the return to transit keep on trucking? Or with memories of crowded buses and trains fresh on their minds, will all those new riders get back behind the wheel of their cars?'' -- Salon.com 10/23/2008
Resource(s): www.salon.com/
Caltrans Announces $4 Million in SRTS Grants on International Walk to School Day
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) marked the October 8 International Walk to School Day with $4 million in Federal Safe Routes to School (SRTS) grants to cities and counties for 121 projects to construct or improve sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, pedestrian trails and curb ramps, create or expand walking, bicycling and ''Street Smarts'' programs and related educational and outreach efforts, and launch walkability studies, traffic counts, personnel recruitment and other measures ''to give students in grades K-8 easier and healthier way to safely travel to and from schools.''
Since 2000, when California became the first state ''to legislate a state Safe Routes to School program,'' says a Caltrans press release, Caltrans has awarded a total of $196 million for 709 projects, including $91 million under the federal SRTS program instituted in 2005.
''To ensure a fair and competitive project selection,'' the release notes, ''Caltrans works closely with a diverse group of state, local and regional stakeholders with background in transportation, health, education, law enforcement, and bicycle/pedestrian advocacy.''
The Boulder, Colorado-based Safe Routes to School National Partnership -- which last month released two reports on the SRTS program role in improving public health and on ways state networks can induce policy changes to make student biking and walking safer -- included California in its State Network Project.
Also involving Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia, the project aims to leverage additional SRTS resources, remove walking and biking barriers, and spur the necessary policy changes.
Although Congress provided $612 million for SRTS in the 2005 federal transportation bill, ''(t)he demand for the program far outreaches the funding available,'' said SRTS National Partnership Director Deb Hubsmith in a news release on the 2008 International Walk to School Day, looking forward ''to working with Congress to expand Safe Routes to School funding in the next transportation bill, as the program has traffic, health and air quality benefits.'' -- California Department of Transportation, Safe Routes to School National Partnership 10/9/2008
Resource(s): www.dot.ca.gov/ ; www.saferoutespartnership.org/home
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Landmark Planning Legislation
''When it comes to reducing greenhouse gases, California is first in tackling car emissions, first to tackle low-carbon fuels, and now with this landmark legislation, we are the first in the nation to tackle land-use planning,'' said Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a climactic statement on Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg's broad-based Senate Bill 375, which he has thoroughly reviewed and eventually signed only hours before the deadline. ''What this will mean is more environmentally friendly communities, more sustainable developments, less time people spend in their cars, more alternative transportation options and neighborhoods we can safely and proudly pass on to future generations.''
A follow-up to the 2006 Assembly Bill 32, which requires the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and based on a ''smart growth'' blueprint adopted by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), reports Sacramento Bee writer Kevin Yamamura, the bill authorizes the California Air Resources Board to set regional tailpipe emission caps by September 2010, offers the 17 regions priority in the annual distribution of $5 billion in transportation funds as an incentive to set necessary land-use strategies and spur compact residential development, and relaxes California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reviews for housing projects that meet local emission reduction targets, mostly through high densities near transit.
''This fundamentally changes the way we think about growth,'' said Senator Steinberg. ''It does not reduce growth. But it will allow California to grow in ways that are sustainable for our environment.''
In response to concerns about projects already in the pipeline and about unchanged CEQA reviews for commercial development, the senator promised legislation to clarify that the new bill exempts projects funded under the 2006 voter-approved transportation bonds and envisioned ''good-faith'' discussions on the commercial project issue.
Smart-growth advocates, conservationists and many business leaders applaud the enactment of the bill.
''Californians will see more infill,'' predicted SACOG Director Mike McKeever. ''They'll see higher-density housing, particularly in transit corridors. The new areas will look more like existing neighborhoods with a mix of uses between schools, stores and housing.''
Natural Resources Defense Council spokesman Craig Noble said, ''Actual land-use decisions are local decisions, so the state can't say, 'You must do this.' What the state can do is make it very desirable for communities to plan more compact, livable development by giving them incentives.''
And Bay Area Council President and CEO Jim Wunderman thanked Senator Steinberg and Governor Schwarzenegger for their environmental commitment, stressing his business-based advocacy group's longstanding support for shifting the region's growth ''from suburban sprawl to a more compact, urban model.''
His statement on behalf of more than 275 of the area's largest employers reads: ''SB-375 is the very tool we need to change our region's growth model, and it comes not a moment too soon. SB-375 operates at the nexus of transportation, housing and the environment and finally binds the three together. While this connection is intuitive to Bay Area and California residents, our government structures do not support it. SB-375 is the path to that governmental harmony.'' -- Sacramento Bee, California Office of the Governor, Bay Area Council 9/30/2008
Resource(s): www.bayareacouncil.org/ ; http://gov.ca.gov/index.php
Smart Growth Bill Needs Gov. Schwarzenegger's Signature by September 30
Four days before the September 30 deadline for a gubernatorial signature on Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg's historic bill (SB 275) to cut California greenhouse gas emissions by fostering urban density, transit use and smart growth, its fate was ''up in the air,'' reported Sacramento Bee writer Tony Bizjak, with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger saying he loves ''that idea'' in principle, but must look at the bill ''very carefully'' to be sure ''it is written the right way.''
State Republican Senator Tom McClintock showed no scruple in attributing the bill to ''authoritarians on the left'' who tell Californians where and how to live, even though its negotiators and supporters include builders, city leaders, and affordable housing advocates, along with planners and conservationists.
Proponents, the writer noted, call the bill ''far-reaching,'' opponents argue it ''overreaches,'' and administration officials ''reportedly fear the bill could thwart billions of dollars of already planned major road projects,'' including freeway carpool lanes.
The bill directs the state Air Resources Board (ARB) to set greenhouse gas reduction targets for all 17 state regions, depending on their integrated housing and transportation plans, and offers those that reduce emissions priority consideration for state and federal transportation funds.
But it neither tells counties and municipalities ''which direction to grow,'' nor requires regions ''to meet ARB greenhouse gas emission targets,'' the writer stressed, quoting Senator Steinberg.
''This is not going to eliminate backyards,'' the senator said, restating his promise of supplemental legislation to allay any residual concerns. ''It's more about ensuring that people don't' have to spend more time in their cars.''
The California Building Industry Association's Sacramento area chapter head Mike Winn stands behind the bill.
''We're in a new realm,'' he told the writer. ''The (building) model that worked in the past is broken. Even new suburban areas around fringes are going to have to be served by alternative transportation.'' -- Sacramento Bee 9/28/2008
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Bay Area Mayors Pledge Support for Green Economic and Development Plans
In the fight to cut greenhouse gas emissions ''(t)ime is not on our side,'' warned Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums during the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's ''Clean and Green'' conference at Santa Clara University, joining San Francisco and San Jose Mayors Gavin Newsom and Chuck Reed in a pledge, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Christopher Heredia, to push for local laws that would reduce car dependency by spurring mixed-use development near rail lines and transit hubs, and by expanding employment in renewable energy and green technology.
''Either we do it or we do not survive,'' Mayor Dellums said about the joint agenda, seeing its biggest obstacle in convincing residents that ''there are no options'' and that reduction of their carbon footprint is in everyone's interest now and for generations ahead.
Having recently visited Congress, where California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer and Democratic Representative Barbara Lee will work on legislation to expand the concept of the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a pilot project undertaken with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights to train 40 low-income earners for green economy jobs, Mayor Dellums stressed, ''We can fight pollution and poverty.''
With the conference's parallel focus on the need for state and local green construction standards, energy efficiency and alternative fuels, the writer notes, Mayor Newsom said San Francisco is establishing green building rules and switching its municipal fleet to biodiesel and electric vehicles.
He also proposed to build neighborhood wind farms and harness ocean wave energy off the San Francisco shoreline as alternatives to carbon-type fuels.
''There are economic opportunities of enormous proportions here,'' he observed, with Mayor Reed emphasizing, ''It's not about spending money. It's about innovation.''
An industry panelist, Redwood City-based SpikeSource software company CEO Kim Polese echoed their statements.
''We have an opportunity to create a whole new economy,'' she said, mentioning the influx of $1.8 billion in venture capital last year for efforts to turn algae into jet fuel, make carbon-negative cement and pursue similar eco-friendly solutions, confident that government greenhouse-gas reduction mandates will ''open the floodgates to investment.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 9/11/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Editorial: California Needs to Support Transit for Smart Growth Plans to Work
Joining The San Francisco Chronicle and other mainstream newspapers in giving state Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg due credit for his Senate Bill 375 as ''a big step towards ending California's obsession with sprawl'' and advancing smart growth, the city's alternative Beyond Chron online-daily writer Casey Mills regrets that the extensive media coverage of the related legislative process and budget debate in the past few weeks largely skipped over ''the proposal to slash public transit funding in 2008-09,'' just after Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut it by $1.25 billion last year.
''As a bipartisan consensus begins to gel around addressing climate change through land use decisions, it seems remarkable that perhaps the most essential component of making smart growth work -- dependable, affordable and convenient public transit -- is getting short shrift,'' he observes, concerned that without adequate funding, SB 375 ''could end up being known for creating a series of plans that work great in theory -- but have little real impact.''
Under his updated budgetary proposal, the governor would redirect $250 million of gas tax revenue away from transit and eliminate $317 million recently restored to transit by the Budget Conference Committee, the writer reports, dismayed that both the governor and the legislature ''appear willing to accept significant transit cuts as part of the solution to the current impasse.''
At the same time, developers make no effort to prove their often declared commitment to ideas of smart growth and sustainability, aside from their more ''obvious'' motive.
''The densification smart growth requires often means massive upzones in desirable areas, opening up an opportunity for these developers to earn some serious profit,'' the writer points out. ''Once housing gets built in these dense areas, however, the development community often gets curiously silent when it comes to paying for the transit improvements that should come along with the density.''
Urging progressives to continue the fight for new revenue to fund transit adequately ''this year and each year,'' the writer concludes: ''Not to take away a single thing from Steinberg and the passage of SB 375, which should be celebrated by anyone who cares about climate change and livable communities -- but the struggle to create a truly sustainable California has just begun.'' -- Beyond Chron 9/4/2008
Resource(s): www.beyondchron.org/news/
Smart Growth Principles Central to California's Groundbreaking Growth Bill
Rewritten by state Democratic Senator Darrel Steinberg five times since 2006, to make it right for environmentalists, builders, municipal leaders and affordable-housing activists, his ''complex'' and now passed Senate Bill 375 offers the state's 17 metropolitan planning agencies some $12 billion a year in transportation funds to advance smart growth, which means denser housing close to urban centers and transit, ''so people don't have to commute as far,'' says a Los Angeles Times editorial, advising Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill and pointing to two basic aspects usually missed or misrepresented by critics.
First, the bill ''wouldn't eliminate suburbs or do away with single-family homes with big backyards, but it would provide more choices for people who are forced to live far from their workplaces because they can't afford a home in the city.''
Second, local governments ''could still approve any new development they wanted, but those meeting the regional group's smart-growth seal of approval would be first in line for state transportation funds and be exempted from a lot of regulatory red tape.''
Under the measure, reports it up San Diego Union-Tribune writer Michael Gardner, the state Air Resources Board (ARB) would set greenhouse gas emission targets for each of the 17 metropolitan agencies, such as the San Diego Area Association of Governments (SANDAG); the agencies would promote compact development and easy public access to transit, jobs, and shops, helping counties and municipalities implement such plans and policies; and builders would benefit from density bonuses, relief from lengthy and costly environmental review, and stronger safeguards against litigation by project opponents.
''The bill will change the way California grows,'' said Senator Steinberg. ''It will be a national model. This is the biggest bill in the country to combat sprawl.''
With the state's Chamber of Commerce nervous that the bill may impede the ''necessary growth of commerce, industry and housing,'' and with other stakeholders, including business owners, some transportation agencies and less-populated regions, worried about their particular conditions or potential conflicts, Senator Steinberg promised to work out supplemental legislation next year.
But the general view is that his bill accomplishes what just weeks earlier seemed impossible.
''This is a missing piece in California's historic effort to reduce global warming pollution,'' commented Natural Resources Defense Council representative Ann Notthoff.
Building Industry Association of San Diego President Sherman Hammer noted ''a huge new emphasis on reconnecting jobs and rooftops'' as gas prices go up, growth presses and climate changes, while Brookfield San Diego Builders President added, ''It's a complete turnabout in how business is done.''
California League of Conservation Voters Board President Tom Adams told Wall Street Journal writer Ana Campoy, ''California made sprawl famous. The bill will turn the corner away from sprawl.''
And Smart Growth America Communication Director David Goldberg said in a Public Radio Marketplace broadcast: ''It's a way to ensure that future economic growth can actually happen because the existing model, the car-dependent model, is starting to unravel.''
Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington and some other states, he noted, are considering similar anti-sprawl policies. -- Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Marketplace 9/2/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/ ; www.signonsandiego.com/
Transit Hub or Traffic Magnet? Congestion Concerns at Proposed Universal City Project Trouble Neighbors, Some L.A. Officials
Characterized by Thomas Properties senior vice president Ayahlushim Hammond as ''smart growth, green growth and transit-oriented development at its height,'' a proposed $800-million, 1.5-million-square-foot complex of offices, stores, housing units and NBC studios near a Metro station in Universal City, two miles north of Hollywood, troubles neighborhood activists and some Los Angeles officials for its traffic impact, with the city's newly released environmental study projecting at least 14,000 additional car trips throughout the already clogged area.
In the first construction phase, which would last till late 2011, reports Los Angeles Daily News writer Connie Llanos, the company would complete a 24-story office tower, a five-story NBC production building, and 1,900 parking spaces, including 800 for the station.
In the second phase, by 2015, it would add either a 24-story office tower or a 34-story hotel, with 300 rooms and 400 residential units, up to 11,000 square feet of retail, and almost 1,800 parking spaces.
Ready to spend $30 million for traffic flow improvements, the company vice president promised to promote transit use by future employees, while other options would include flex cars and guaranteed ride homes.
''This encourages people to live the way we need to in the future,'' he observed, with NBC Universal spokeswoman Cindy Gardner emphasizing economic benefit of the project, expected to bring $3 billion in area construction within 25 years.
''NBC Universal's West Coast News Center represents a significant investment in the future Los Angeles,'' she said, ''creating an entertainment and transit hub and a new center for production jobs and employment growth.''
Nevertheless, with the city study estimating that transit ridership would reduce additional car trips by only about 2,000 a day, NBC/Universal Community Working Group chairman Richard Bogy said, ''What they are proposing is a 1970s project, not a 21st-century project.''
City Councilman Tom LaBonge and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky echoed his concerns.
''What has been proposed is too intense,'' said the former. ''This is not a New York City block. This is an odd-shaped parcel in the San Fernando Valley. It's a dream to think you can fit so much onto one little banana-sized lot.''
The latter agreed.
''You can't compare this project to other transit-oriented developments,'' he pointed out, calling the area much more auto dependent, expressing willingness to work with the developer to downsize the plans, and adding, ''I am not opposed to a responsible development on either the MTA or the studio lot, but this is not responsible.''
Valley Industry and Commerce Association (VICA) President Brendan Huffman said his group supports the development concept and sees its benefits, including ''jobs and tax revenue for the city and strengthening the Valley's base for the entertainment industry,'' but because of potential traffic, it must evaluate all pros and cons to take a formal stance.
Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Bud Ovrum, the writer reports, reiterated Mayor Antonio Villaraigossa's support for the project as alleviating more concerns than it raises.
''The truth is we are in an almost life-and-death struggle to preserve and grow our entertainment jobs in Los Angeles and particularly in the Valley,'' he stressed. ''We can always have less traffic -- we just won't have any jobs.'' -- Daily News 8/26/2008
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/
Builders, Environmentalists, and Local Leaders Back California Anti-Sprawl Bill
In a political feat long thought impossible, state Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg, the incoming Senate president pro tem, reports Sacramento Bee writer Aurelio Rojas, persuaded builders, environmentalists and local leaders to agree on his anti-sprawl bill (SB 375) -- modeled on the six-county Sacramento Area Council of Governments' 2004 smart-growth blueprint -- as necessary to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions to the 1990 level by 2020, a goal mandated by the landmark California climate-change legislation (AB 32) Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two year ago.
Having passed the Senate and the Assembly Appropriations Committee, Senator Steinberg's bill requires metropolitan regions to adopt a ''sustainable community strategy'' for compact development, transit improvements and less costly housing.
In return, complying local governments will get money from the state's $5 billion annual transportation fund and qualifying developers will benefit from a streamlined permitting process, with some relief from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) reviews.
''Because cars and light trucks emit about 30 percent of greenhouse gases in California, reducing the time that commuters spend in their cars through smart, coordinated transportation and housing planning is essential to meeting the requirements of AB 32,'' Senator Steinberg commented. ''It is also the first time in the country that the issues of land use, transportation, housing and climate change have been brought together in a comprehensive piece of legislation.''
California Building Industry Association Chairman Ray Becker said he has fought ''regional planning and regional government'' for three decades, but ''we cannot continue to do business as usual.'' Thus, ''this historic agreement.''
California League of Conservation Voters President Tom Adams used a race-winning-combination term, calling the bill ''a trifecta.''
Senator Steinberg, he stated, ''has managed to pull together a bill that brings some of the most important and most difficult statutes into alignment.''
And League of California Cities Vice President and Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo noted that the league board endorsed the bill unanimously and that local decision-making power remains intact.
''There are incentives in place that will reward those cities that chose to do smart growth,'' she stressed. ''If you still want to do it dumb, you can, but you don't get the incentives.'' -- Sacramento Bee 8/11/2008
Resource(s): http://climateintel.com/ ; www.sacbee.com/
Editorial Calls California's SB 375 a ''Breakthrough'' on Regional Planning
For decades, California has in vain ''struggled with how to marry its environmental values with its transportation needs while honoring the traditions of local control and building adequate housing,'' with builders finding sprawl easier and cheaper, commuters jamming the roads, the state trying to ease traffic and air pollution, and some local residents using the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to block infill or affordable housing in their neighborhoods, says a Sacramento Bee editorial in support of state Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg's bill (SB 375) ''that tackles these multiple dysfunctions.''
A result of two years of work, the editorial observes, the bill is seen by some as the most significant land-use measure since the 1976 passage of the California Coastal Act, with California League of Conservation Voters President Tom Adams, a force in drafting the bill, crediting the senator with a ''trifecta of the impossible'' in handling challenges of transportation, housing and climate change.
Builders ''have long opposed regional planning,'' but they are now ''looking at a future of $5 gasoline'' and backing the bill ''because it limits their risk of litigation,'' the editorial notes, quoting California Building Industry Association Chairman Ray Becker, who said, ''We get more certainty in the process.''
As in Sacramento's blueprint, the editorial continues, every required metropolitan ''sustainable community strategy,'' a product of numerous local meetings, would shape regional transportation plans, with the state's Air Resources Board setting regional emission-reduction targets and overseeing regional progress.
Although regions ''wouldn't be required by law to meet these targets,'' the editorial considers the $5 billion in transportation funds the state distributes each year a sufficiently strong incentive to comply with the bill.
With the Senate passing the bill and Assembly members expected to examine the ''finer details,'' the editorial says, ''Barring any surprises, they should send it to the Senate for concurrence, and then on to the governor's desk.'' -- Sacramento Bee 8/7/2008
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Hercules City Council Action Will Help Waterfront Smart Growth Project
Frustrated by inaction on a 2000 community vision of turning the stagnant San Pablo Bay waterfront into ''a walkable, bicycle-friendly and transit-oriented'' neighborhood with upscale shops and restaurants, reports Contra Costa Times writer Tom Lochner, Hercules Bayfront LLC and city residents launched the Waterfront Now Initiative, with their petition signed by about 25 percent of registered city voters in just three weeks and the City Council unanimously passing a ''New Urbanist, Smart Growth'' development ordinance, which eliminates the need to put the issue on the November ballot.
''It has long been clear to us that the Hercules community has reached near-consensus on the proposed development,'' wrote residents Susan Fuerstenberg, Jeff Boore and Bill Prather to the council about the petition drive, with Councilwoman Chaleen Raines calling the ordinance ''a no-brainer'' in the absence of any real opposition.
The conceptual development plan for 53 acres of the waterfront features 1,224 housing units, 42,000 square feet of retail, 81,000 square feet of offices, 134,000 square feet of adaptable ''flex space,'' and an intermodal transit center, including an Amtrak Capitol Corridor station and a San Francisco ferry terminal.
Hercules Bayfront LLC spokesman Ethan Sischo thinks the site's commercial showcase could be under development next year, but most of the residential component won't be built before 2011, and then only if warranted by market conditions and allowed by timely federal, state and city permits. -- Contra Costa Times 7/23/2008
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
Developer's Blogs Promote Benefits of Mixed-Use, Mixed-Income Neighborhoods
At hard public-relations work for its proposed mostly residential Ponte Vista community of 1,950 town houses and senior condos on a long-vacant 61-acre Navy site in San Pedro -- a project criticized by many neighbors as much too dense -- Bisno Development Company LLC launched not only a blog about the complex, but also five other blogs on its overall achievement efforts and support for smart growth, livability, transit and workforce housing.
''Ironically, some environmental and slow-growth advocates still oppose these projects because they see any density as bad,'' said its Chairman and CEO Bob Bisno. ''We hope these blogs explain why mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhoods, with appealing streetscapes, friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists, require density to be successful.''
In a press release about its new blogs, the company cites the 2003 ''Creating Great Neighborhoods: Density in Your Community'' guide from the Local Government Commission and the U.S. EPA.
''People are beginning to realize that nodes of more intense development can help achieve local economic development goals, provide housing options, create walkable neighborhoods, and protect their air, water and open space,'' it quotes. ''This balance helps create a sense of place -- a place to walk, a place to talk to neighbors, a place to know the children are safe to walk to school.''
See the blogs at www.bisnobuildingforpeople.com, www.bisnofortherecord.com, www.bisnolivablecities.com, www.bisnotransitdestinations.com, www.bisnoworkforcehousing.com and www.bisno.yourpontevista.com. -- BusinessWire, Daily Breeze 7/14/2008
Resource(s): www.bnet.com/ ; www.dailybreeze.com/
Editorial Urges L.A. Drivers to Share the Road With Cyclists
''Stop harassing cyclists'' and ''learn to share the road,'' appeals The Los Angeles Times to drivers, pointing out that bikers ''perform a public service by reducing traffic and emissions,'' and that high gas prices have clearly multiplied ''the number of people who bike to work or across town on errands.''
At the same time, cyclists tell ''horror stories about drivers who cut them off, yell at them, throw things and otherwise endanger their lives,'' the daily reports, citing an almost fatal result from July 4th.
A driver, ''allegedly enraged because two bikers speeding downhill on Mandeville Canyon Road were blocking his progress, swerved in front of them and slammed on the brakes,'' the daily says, noting that the bikers ''were seriously hurt and the driver faces charges of assault with a deadly weapon.''
With more and more bikers expected on city streets, officials ''are trying to adapt.'' Los Angeles, which already requires commercial projects over 10,000 square feet to include bike parking and showers for biking employees, is updating its bicycle master plan. West Hollywood may finally end its ban on sidewalk biking. And the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has equipped buses with bike racks and expanded bike parking areas at train stations.
''Obviously, a lot more is needed: more bike paths and lanes, more 'smart growth' policies that incorporate bike-friendliness and more incentive programs to encourage workers to cycle to the office,'' the daily opines. ''Bikers are boosting their health, their pocketbooks, and the city's environment. If it's a battle for moral authority between drivers and bikers, the bikers have already won. Give them a break.'' -- The Los Angeles Times 7/12/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
California's Climate Solution Act Will Set New Development Standard, Says Ventura City Manager
Confident that California's lead in cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as required by its landmark Climate Solution Act (AB 32), will speed up changes in American development patterns and lifestyles necessary to achieve sustainability, Ventura City Manager Rick Cole told the Los Angeles-based Planning Report that even when the global economy slows down and gas prices decline somewhat, ''we can't put long-term policies at the mercy of immediate crises,'' stressing, ''It's not today's gas prices that will force adoption of a smart growth model -- suburban sprawl is doomed by the triple witching hour of heating up the planet, running up unsustainable debt, and running out of cheap energy.''
He cautioned, however, against expectations of instant results.
''We've been building both our landscape and our economy around the car for more than 60 years,'' he pointed out. ''Even if we adopted a universal program of smart growth across America tomorrow, it would be decades before we had repaired and reshaped our landscape and economy to a more sustainable model. In the meantime, there will be tremendous pressure to exploit existing and new energy resources to maintain the suburban model we live in.''
Asked by the Planning Report interviewer why AB 32 will be such ''a dynamic driver of change for smart growth,'' Rick Cole responded: ''Because we can't possibly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 without reducing vehicle miles traveled.''
Continuance of sprawl and delay in ''rewriting every zoning code in the state'' will only increase what the public will pay in the long run, and the price is already staggering.
''I haven't seen figures for California, but The Economist says that this year alone, the oil-importing nations will transfer 2 trillion dollars to the oil exporting nations,'' he said. ''That's money that won't go to improve our infrastructure, won't go to protect our environment, and won't go to educating our youth. It goes out our tailpipes.''
Although he considers the political situation ''volatile'' -- because despite the home-price plunge in outer areas and the increase in ''smart growth, form-based coding, mixed use, and transit-oriented development'' projects throughout the state, ''we haven't quite reached the tipping point yet'' -- Rick Cole sees reasons for optimism.
One reason is the ''incredible backbone'' shown by presumed Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama in calling a gas tax holiday -- still pushed by his Republican counterpart, Senator John McCain, and for a time pursued by Senator Hillary Clinton -- ''what it was: 'A phony scheme that's typical of how Washington works.'''
Another reason is ''incredible resilience'' shown by California over the past 150 years.
''Our growing population and changing demographics will open a huge market for reinvesting in our older communities, in and around the core of our key regions,'' he predicted. ''Now is the time to prepare for that opportunity.''
Had Republican Governor Pete Wilson (1991-99) not ignored the best strategies from other states and his own growth-management opportunity during a similar ''deep real estate downturn,'' Rick Cole concluded, ''we'd be finishing the Subway to the Sea, the Gold Line extension to Ontario Airport, and we'd have regular commuter rail between Ventura and Santa Barbara -- and $5 gas would be a little less painful.'' -- Planning Report 7/1/2008
Resource(s): www.planningreport.com/tpr/
California Emissions Control Plan Would Link Land-Use With Transportation Planning
''We built the Bay Area in a car-oriented, suburban pattern so that almost everyone is forced to drive. Now we have to go back and retrofit it,'' commented San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf on a comprehensive climate-change-battle draft plan, just released by the California Air Resources Board, which wants localities to cut their tailpipe emissions through interlinked land-use and transportation planning that would curb sprawl, spur urban development near transit, and discourage car travel.
With the state committed to a 30 percent cut of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, Urban Land Institute (ULI) San Francisco Office Executive Director Kate White told San Francisco Chronicle writer James Temple that land use change is critical for emission cuts, because without it other reduction efforts would be undermined.
''There's a direct correlation,'' she pointed out, ''between how close you live to transportation, how compact your neighborhood is, and how much you drive.''
Should the sprawl patterns continue, the writer reports, a 48 percent driving increase projected by the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration for the 2005-2030 period would more than offset the 23 percent emission cuts envisioned in the federal 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, which requires better vehicle fuel efficiency and wider use of low-carbon fuels like biodiesel.
To facilitate the shift toward denser, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented development, the state would offer counties, municipalities and developers various incentives, including direct payments, easier environmental approval, and help to secure project funding.
Developers and conservationists reacted cautiously, but for different reasons.
California Building Industry Association spokesman John Frith promised lobbying efforts to ensure that the plan's final version balances environmental and affordable-housing goals.
''You can't meet the state's housing needs, 230,000 odd units a year to keep up with population growth, strictly with urban infill,'' he argued. ''You have to have a mix.''
Oakland-based Transportation and Land Use Coalition Executive Director Stuart Cohen said the California Air Resources Board should push harder for climate-friendly development, disputing its estimate that such projects could increase the state-mandated 30 percent emission cuts by just 2 to 4 percent.
''We think this number got way too low,'' he stressed. ''It's going to let everyone off the hook.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 6/27/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Transportation Bill Would Move California Closer to Smart Growth
''Our bond money should go to smarter growth that reduces car trips,'' said a Los Angeles Times editorial as the Senate Housing and Transportation Committee took up a bill (AB 842) to move California farther toward sustainability through distribution of $850 million of the $2.85 billion Proposition 1C fund -- part of the $37 billion Rebuild California Plan passed by voters in November 2006 -- mainly among cities and counties ready to locate development near transit stops and otherwise reduce local vehicle miles traveled (VMT) by at least 10 percent.
Such reduction would mean lower tailpipe emissions and less traffic congestion and sprawl, the editorial observed, confident that the bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Dave Jones, would especially help northern Los Angeles County deserts, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley, ''where cars now idle in rush-hour traffic and sprawl is continuing.''
The bill would also provide grants to cities and counties for water, sewer and other infrastructure improvements to support infill housing, the editorial noted, telling those who think the bill may shortchange older urban areas such as Los Angeles, where VMT reduction would be more difficult, that their fears are unwarranted.
''Urban areas must continue their investment in transit-oriented development; it can only help to create more incentive for such investment,'' the editorial stressed. ''AB 842 would work for Los Angeles twice: by encouraging continued transit planning and by stemming the growth of automobile traffic into and out of the region from adjacent counties.'' -- Los Angeles Times 6/17/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
More L.A. Homebuyers Looking for Public Transportation Amenities
As gas prices soar, Angelenos buy less, drive less and take public transportation, with some home buyers increasingly choosing locations near major transit lines, ''a perk smart-growth developers are capitalizing on'' and a trend that could eventually ''reshape the region into more community-friendly neighborhoods,'' reports Long Beach Press-Telegram writer Sue Doyle, citing data and experts.
With all 67 condos at the Mission Meridian Village sold last year despite the market slowdown, broker Dominic DeFazio thought good South Pasadena schools were the main draw, but a survey revealed that 55 percent of the buyers wanted to live near the Metro rail station on the Gold Line linking Pasadena and downtown L.A.
''It was the proximity to the Gold Line,'' he said, ''and that they could leave their cars at home and buzz almost anywhere because of the station.''
Indeed, the writer finds, Gold Line ridership has increased since last year by 3,500 passengers a workday, while the Red, Blue and Green lines have recorded at least 1,000 more riders each.
At average statewide gas prices of $4.16 a gallon by the end of May -- up 22 percent from 2007, driving has already dropped by 1.5 percent this year, which means 1 billion fewer vehicle miles traveled (VMT).
''If we got to $10 for a gallon of gas and that becomes normal, what we're going to see is an alteration in our car culture,'' said California State University-Northridge Sociology Professor James David Ballard, with Communication Professor Paul Mason Fotsch cautioning that although people want solutions right now to ''the contradictions and problems that designing cities around the automobile has created,'' it will ''take a long time before U.S. cities can rebuild themselves to make it comfortable to take public transit and walk.''
While high oil prices may hurt far-flung residential markets distant from jobs and companies distant from housing, with residents and workers alike moving to shorten their commutes, observed Inland Empire economist John Husing, they may help regional air quality and national security.
''As we start to wean ourselves off petroleum, it makes us less dependent on Iraq, Iran and Venezuela,'' he pointed out. ''In the long run, the short-term pain has some national consequences that are positive.''
Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky noted that $4-a-gallon gas is already unclogging roads.
''We have congestion pricing right now,'' he said. ''It's called OPEC.'' -- Press-Telegram 6/1/2008
Resource(s): www.presstelegram.com/
Neighbors of San Jose Mid-Rise Project Want Assurance Transit Will Accompany Development
A developers' proposal for some 700 housing units in seven mid-rise buildings on eight acres of a former Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) bus yard southwest of downtown San Jose has energized adjacent neighborhoods, whose leaders in the Advocates for Smart Growth group moved to ensure true mixed-use, transit-oriented development, but also less dense, writes Rose Garden resident Stephen Baxter in The Mercury News, quoting former City Councilwoman Nancy Ianni, a group member, who asked, ''If there's no transit, who will want to live in those buildings?''
With the VTA having recently agreed to sell roughly five acres of the yard to Barry Swenson Builder, Green Valley Corp. and Republic Urban Properties for $18 million, to undertake a $1.8 million cleanup, and to leave the developers a purchase option for the other 3.1 acres, the local smart-growth advocates worry that a new light-rail station envisioned in the city's 1992 Midtown Specific Plan is not marked on a map updated last year.
Though the developers promised to spend $1 million for transit improvement near the site, the station cost is unknown, the writer adds, quoting the smart-growth group's leader Richard Nielset, who expects the VTA and the City Council to observe ''their own guidelines'' from the 1992 plan, under which station area development would include 100,000 square feet of commercial space and 370 housing units.
When the VTA approved the initial part of the deal, City Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio told its officials, ''Make sure the station is there the first day a resident moves in.'' -- The Mercury News 5/23/2008
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
Napa County Ballot Initiative Could Sink Plans to Convert Brownfield into Mixed-Income, Mixed-Use Project
They won two American Institute of Architects awards and Congress for the New Urbanism recognition for redevelopment of an RV park about 5 miles west of the city of Napa as the upscale Carneros Inn resort, with ''a compact mosaic of small courtyards, prefabricated cottages and a wood-clad 'town square','' but now the team of Rogal + Walsh + Mol, Olin Partnership and William Rawn Associates may be forced to abandon plans to turn the defunct 152-acre Napa Pipe Factory site along the Napa River into ''a self-contained, mixed-income district with 3,200 housing units,'' writes San Francisco Chronicle architecture critic John King, distressed by a countermeasure on the Napa County ballot next month.
Last August, he reports, the county Board of Supervisors voted ''simply to study the proposal'' and subsequently opponents crafted ballot Proposition N, seeking to put a one-percent annual cap on new housing units in unincorporated areas unless voters permit an exception.
Proposition N spokesman, Napa Valley lawyer Jim Marshall calls the housing need ''bogus,'' considers the site best for ''green industry,'' and complains about a traffic ''nightmare,'' dismissing the point that the Napa Pipe units could attract some of the young who work at the 25,000 jobs within the site's 3-mile radius.
The Napa Pipe team would the keep the factory's 115-foot crane and a stretch of steel-column-mounted rails for a rolling crane -- tools for assembling salvage ships during World War II -- as ''remarkable sculptural artifacts'' that evoke the past and make places more interesting, said Olin Partnership planner Dennis McGlade, while the four dry docks would be incorporated in a riverfront plaza, framed by three-story townhouses, some with restaurants or small shops.
Two dry docks, the writer observes, would be used for boat launches, a third for a swimming pool, and a fourth for public events such as outdoor movies, with housing branching out along a grid of streets, 20 percent of units reserved for low-income residents, and many of the rest priced moderately by Bay Area norms.
Rogal + Walsh + Mol principal Keith Rogal is frustrated.
''There hasn't even been the beginning of a formal review,'' he stressed, ''and opponents want to strangle our project in the cradle.''
Noting that many Napa County residents ''like to think they've bought into a timeless rural world,'' the writer offers them timely advice.
''As our region grows more complex and interconnected, we need to rethink how we grow,'' he writes. ''And when inventive designers are put to work on something that could be enduringly distinct -- for all classes of society, not just for the upper crust -- it's foolish to try to chase them away.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 5/13/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Tejon Ranch Co., Environment Groups Reach Deal on Tehachapi Mountains Development
Reached after two years of tough negotiations, a deal between Lebec-based Tejon Ranch Co. and five environmental groups -- the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Audubon California, the Planning and Conservation League, and the Endangered Habitat League -- ensures preservation of 240,000 acres of the 270,000-acre farm in the Tehachapi Mountains and allows concentrated smart-growth development on 30,000 acres at the farm's western edge along I-5, some 60 miles north of Los Angeles, with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledging state help in implementation of ''this far-sighted'' plan.
''The success of environmental organizations and Tejon Ranch Co. in reaching this historic agreement to protect a California treasure,'' he said, ''illustrates something that I have stressed since taking office -- we can protect California's environment at the same time we pump up our economy.''
Specifically, report national media, the deal establishes an independent nonprofit Tejon Ranch Conservancy to control permanent easements for about 178,000 acres, restore and enhance the land, manage public access, create a 49,000-acre park, oversee 10,000 acres set aside for relocation of a 37-mile segment of the Pacific Coast Trail from the Antelope Valley through the ranch, and buy another 62,000 acres in the next three years, likely with the aid of state-sponsored bonds.
The company will fund the conservancy with $800,000 a year for the first seven years and for another seven if the 62,000-acre purchase is completed, continuing the funding with at least $8 million in transfer fees from its sale of residential properties in the developed sections of the 165-year-old ranch.
In return, the environmental groups promised to abstain from legal challenges against the company's development projects.
They include a mixed-use Centennial development in northern Los Angeles County, with 23,000 single-family homes, townhouses, condos and apartments, and 15 million square feet of retail, office and business space; an upscale resort-type Tejon Mountain Village in southern Kern County, featuring 3,450 estate homes, condos, and hotel rooms, plus spas, golf courses, and commercial space on 5,000 acres, with 23,000 acres of open space; and the nearby Tejon Industrial Complex, already partly built.
The deal was finalized after the company agreed to withdraw from four of five north-facing ridgelines, including one over scenic Bear Trap Canyon essential for the federally protected California condor.
''This was an extremely complicated deal, but also a once-in-a-lifetime conservation opportunity,'' observed NRDC's Southern California Program Director Joel Reynolds, with Center for Biological Diversity spokeswoman Ilene Anderson still expressing concern over the region's 38 California condors, but backing it as ''precedent-setting that critical habitat for a species just brought back from the brink of extinction would be written off for development.''
Audubon California Conservation Director Graham Chisholm, the prospective chairman of the Tejon Ranch Conservancy, expected at least 50 years of litigation over the ranch's development, saying, ''This could have been the fight of a lifetime.''
And Sierra Club regional representative Bill Corcoran called the importance of Tejon Ranch preservation ''the equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase,'' stressing, ''It is the only place in the region where within a few minutes a visitor can ascend from Joshua tree woodlands to oak-filled canyons on up to vast plains with views across the coastal range.'' -- Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, State of California 5/8/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/ ; www.dailynews.com/
Conference Examines How Rising Sea Levels Could Alter Bay Area Development Patterns
No longer a distant calamity but an emergent multipronged threat likely to make San Francisco Bay waters go up about a meter (3.28 feet) by 2100, climate change may necessitate abandonment of certain coastal areas and targeted construction in others as buffers for nearby communities, reports San Francisco Chronicle urban design writer John King from the region's ''Preparing for Rising Sea Levels in the Bay Area'' conference in Oakland, quoting Bay Conservation and Development (BCDC) Commission Executive Director Will Travis.
''Global warming isn't just a problem for penguins in Antarctica and polar bears in Alaska,'' he said. ''We need to take a hard look at how our region is growing.'' Pointing out that there are ''places where it may be better to remove developments and restore wetlands'' as best for flood control,'' he called for ''a more nuanced approach,'' because there is ''a lot of low-lying development we need to protect'' with ''a new type of more resilient development.''
According to a 1990 study by the Pacific Institute, the writer observes, construction of new seawalls, levees and higher-elevation roads and rail tracks to prepare for a meter higher sea level would cost the Bay Area $940 million plus $100 million in annual maintenance.
Now the costs would be much higher and the study is being updated, noted Institute President Peter Gleick, saying, ''We're in trouble before we get to a meter.''
Although it highlighted low coastal areas as the first to face climate change risks, the conference once again emphasized the urgent need for overall land use changes to spur compact mixed-use development, rein in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and thus cut tailpipe emissions that contribute to global warming.
Cities near the bay have usually barred higher densities with their growth limits, making much of the development go inland, where higher per capita energy consumption during hot summers requires more from power plants and also heightens greenhouse gas emissions, the writer reports, but recently these older communities have become more receptive to infill.
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) official Ken Kirkey told the conferees that 50 jurisdictions seeking grants for planning higher-density development near bus and rail lines have space for 395,000 housing units -- half of what the region needs by 2035.
''This is a region that thinks of itself as a leader,'' he said. ''If we want to be a leader in responding to climate change, we can't just buy Priuses. We need to talk about where and how we live.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 4/18/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
S.F. Bay-Area Carbon Dioxide Emissions Program Could Be in Place This Summer
Loath to stand idle until Congress and the state Legislature finally end their internal debates over regulatory and practical aspects of greenhouse gas emission control, the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District will likely adopt a 4.4-cent fee per ton of carbon dioxide next month for its 850 businesses, with 90 percent of the expected $1.1 million annually to be paid by refineries, power plants and cement factories and the rest from numerous smaller emitters, beginning July 1.
For example, reports New York Times San Francisco contributor Felicity Barringer, the Shell oil refinery in Martinez would be charged $195,355 if it spewed 4.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide as it did in 2005, while the industrial Safeway bakery that supplies Bay Area stores would pay $85 and the largest gas stations just $1 a year.
Western States Petroleum Association spokesman Dennis Bolt thought the Air Quality Management District would overstep its authority and called the fee idea ''not productive'' in the context of the California Air Resources Board's work on its own suite of emission cutting measures, saying, ''This just raises more uncertainty at a time of increasing uncertainties.''
District Chairman Jerry Hill, who intends to go ahead with the fee, pointed out that if the state air board includes overlapping fees in its regulatory package, ''we will integrate ours with theirs.''
Supporting the proposed regional fee, Bay Area Clean Air Task Force representative Linda Weiner said, ''We believe it sets a precedent as the first time that businesses and government agencies would face financial consequences for contributing to global warming.'' -- New York Times 4/17/2008
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Officials Want Gold Line Extension in L.A.'s Long-Range Transportation Plans
Having solid prospects for more than $2 billion in transit-oriented development (TOD) around 11 light-rail stations along the proposed $1.4 billion extension of Los Angeles' Gold Line from Pasadena another 24 miles east to Montclair, several area mayors joined a group of state lawmakers and federal officials on an unprecedented bipartisan tour of the projected TOD sites, urging the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board to include the extension in its long-range plan's primary goals, a commitment necessary to secure federal transit money for the badly-needed project.
''I ask the MTA: please don't leave us standing at the station,'' appealed Azusa Mayor Joe Rocha, stressing that the envisioned TODs are contingent on the Gold Line extension.
''All we are asking is for a half-percent of MTA's total capital budget and inclusion in the long-range plan to allow us to leverage as much as $320 million in federal funds,'' said state Democratic Representative Hilda Solis. ''This project has all its environmental approvals and is ready to go.''
The extension, she pointed out, would create $6 in jobs for each $1 spent, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 120 tons a year, and yield $43 billion in economic benefits over the next 30 years.
Many area officials, reports Pasadena Star-News writer Fred Ortega, believe Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could ensure an MTA majority for the project with his own vote and the votes of his three nominees on the 13-member Metro Board.
''If he brings his votes, we are there,'' said a board member, Duarte Councilman John Fasana.
According to state Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, Mayor Villaraigosa is counting on extension of the Gold Line a few miles further southeast to Ontario International Airport -- a possibility being examined in a current $500,000 study -- which would also directly benefit his own constituents.
With the deadline for the final Metro Board capital plan in June, Representative Schiff believes the mayor didn't try to press for inclusion of the project in the January draft because he was still short one vote.
''I think the mayor wants to make this happen and he needs to make sure he has all the votes he needs,'' the representative observed. ''Making sure the line gets out to Ontario is crucial for that to happen.'' -- Pasadena Star-News 3/28/2008
Resource(s): www.pasadenastarnews.com/ ; www.metrogoldline.org
SACOG Passes Transit Plan, But Conservationists Critical of Connection to Land-Use Policies
After two years of debate, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) board unanimously passed a Metropolitan Transportation Plan for its six counties and 22 municipalities, budgeting $42 million until 2035 to improve regional mobility and ensure a better balance between the needs for more roads and for more transit and pedestrian-friendly development, reports Sacrament Bee writer Tony Bizjak, with SACOG officials happy to reach consensus on the shift away from building mostly roads, but with conservationists still concerned about the plan's weak connection to local land-use policies.
The plan ''just hasn't gone far enough,'' said Environmental Council of Sacramento At-Large Director Alex Kelter, convinced that jurisdictions that approve sprawl-type development shouldn't receive SACOG money to meet related transportation needs.
''We're turning the nose of the ship,'' commented SACOG Executive Director Mike McKeever, acknowledging environmentalists' concerns. ''We're not all the way where we need to be, but we've significantly raised the bar.''
He also pointed out that when the plan is revised and updated in four years, some projects on the funding list may be replaced by others.
Currently, the writer notes, the plan includes a number of major road projects, but it also promises funds for light rail to Sacramento International Airport, expansion of regional bus service, reintroduction of downtown streetcars, more bike lanes and pedestrian areas on new streets, ride sharing and other clean air programs, and projects to reduce sprawl.
See the plan at www.sacog.org/mtp. -- Sacrament Bee 3/21/2008
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
San Francisco Poised to Adopt Greenest Construction Codes in Nation
Always ahead in a search for multilevel sustainability, San Francisco may soon adopt the strictest ''green'' construction codes in the nation, with the Board of Supervisors considering a landmark ordinance that could let the city cut carbon dioxide emissions by 60,000 tons, conserve 220,000 megawatt-hours of electricity, and save 100 million gallons of drinking water by 2012, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Cecilia M. Vega, quoting Mayor Gavin Newsom's spokesman Nathan Ballard, who said, ''Many people don't realize that buildings have a big carbon footprint, ant this will help reduce the size of that footprint.''
Designed for gradual implementation within five years, the writer notes, the ordinance would demand compliance with the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards -- silver, gold or platinum -- in construction of residential high-rises over 75 feet tall and commercial buildings over 5,000 square feet, and in renovation of all buildings larger than 25,000 square feet.
In addition, all residential construction would incorporate eco-friendly materials and features required under the national GreenPoint Rated evaluation program.
Although construction costs would go up by some 5 percent, builders applauded the green codes.
''One of the best things about it is the fact that it's a gradual ordinance,'' said San Francisco Building Owners and Managers Association director of governmental and public affairs Ken Cleaveland. ''When you set a goal and give the industry time to meet that goal, you have a far better chance of succeeding.''
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, whose similar green measure proposed last year was incorporated in the mayor's proposal, called the reduction of the carbon footprint of new development ''a societal imperative,'' while stressing his commitment to protection of old structures, especially historic ones.
''The greenest building that exists today is one that is already built,'' he said. ''I want to make sure this (ordinance) does not become a license to demolish existing buildings.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 3/20/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
L.A. City Council Rejects 555-Acre Hillside Mixed-Use Project
First proposed almost a decade ago, reviewed for smart-growth essentials in 2005, and pushed along by Las Lomas Land Co. with a $20 million investment so far, its mixed-use 5,553-home project for 555 acres on a chaparral-rich hillside near Santa Clarita, 25 miles northwest of central Los Angeles, may never get built, with the Los Angeles City Council voting 10-5 to stop processing the company's annexation and other applications as ultimately unlikely to succeed because of the area's gridlock and environmental vulnerability.
Company principal Dan S. Palmer Jr, reports Los Angeles Daily News writer Kerry Cavanaugh, wouldn't reveal his intentions, restating instead his belief in the project.
''It's environmentally responsible,'' he declared. ''It works to employ the very policies that the city of Los Angeles has adopted for sustainability, for transit-oriented development, for work-force housing and for all these reasons we remain very firmly committed to the project.''
On the other hand, the council's majority didn't want to waste time on talks about expanding city limits into the northern hillsides.
''This was critically important at this moment in time in the city of L.A. that we just say no,'' said Councilman Greg Smith, instrumental in securing the vote. ''This project would have put 15,000 cars per day in an already impacted area. We're tired of it. We don't have to say yes to make a developer rich.''
Even the five councilmen voting to keep the option open did so not because they liked the project, but because they felt the developer might go to court, reports Los Angeles Times writer David Zahniser, quoting Councilman Richard Alarcon.
''Our city attorney has said,'' he pointed out, ''that if we fail to move forward, he believes we are in great jeopardy of being sued.''
The majority thought the public arguments against the project were solid.
Councilman Dennis Zine, who had earlier led a successful fight to halt the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development in Ventura County, called the stopped Las Lomas project ''urban sprawl at its finest,'' a view shared by Sierra Club spokeswoman Sandra Cattell, Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Diane Trautman and many others.
''A proposal to build a mini-city on the side of a mountain in the middle of a wildlife corridor,'' stressed Councilwoman Trautman, ''doesn't begin to meet the definition of smart growth.'' -- Daily News, Los Angeles Times 3/20/2008
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/ ; www.latimes.com/
L.A. Planning Commission President Criticizes New Residential Bonus Ordinance
In an odd internal split on Los Angeles development priorities, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's handpicked Planning Commission President Jane Ellison Usher criticized the newly signed residential bonus ordinance, which lets developers increase project densities up to 35 percent and reduce open and parking space if they provide required shares of affordable units, describing its provisions in an e-mail to neighborhood associations as ''ripe for immediate litigation'' for contravening state environmental law and benefiting mostly developers, a notion the ordinance backers refute.
Planning Director Gail Goldberg said her department worked closely with the City Attorney staff to observe state law and Councilwoman Jan Perry pointed out that recipients of the e-mail, signed ''President, Los Angeles City Planning Commission,'' could feel it was sent at the mayor's behest.
City Council President Eric Garcetti's spokeswoman Julie Wong and mayoral spokeswoman Janelle Erickson reiterated that the ordinance will help expand affordable housing, the latter adding, ''With nine people sitting on the planning commission, you're bound to get a variety of viewpoints.''
A day later, report Los Angeles Times writer David Zahniser and Daily News writer Kerry Cavanaugh, the Planning Commission president explained that she meant the e-mail as merely private, but she repeated her objections to the ordinance, also questioning the lack of transparency in its preparatory phase and its adopted procedure, under which projects with density bonuses and fewer parking spaces will receive over-the-counter permits.
''There is no public notice. There is no environmental analysis. There is no right to appeal,'' she observed. ''At the end of the day, the loser is the neighborhood and the winner is the developer -- and the affordable housing that the community receives is peanuts. If there are members of the community who would like to litigate these actions, there are statutes of limitations that are short.''
Several community activists commended her for the advice, some ready to consult lawyers.
''It takes a woman of great courage to do this. This is not the politically correct thing to do, under the circumstances,'' stressed Valley Glen Neighborhood Council President Judy Price, while Westwood South of Santa Monica Boulevard Homeowners Association President Barbara Broide dismissed arguments for density as necessary to spur transit use, saying, ''We don't have the Expo Line yet. And we may get the Subway to the Sea, but it won't be in my lifetime.'' -- Daily News, Los Angeles Times 3/11/2008
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/ ; www.latimes.com/
Newspaper Applauds L.A. Planning Commission President for Acting in Public Interest
Upset by a ''density bonus'' provision in the city's new ordinance to encourage affordable housing, a Los Angeles Daily News editorial applauds Planning Commission President Jane Ellison Usher for clearly suggesting in an e-mail to neighborhood associations that they should sue City Hall ''if they want to get their leaders' attention,'' and for pointing out that the provision ''blatantly contradicts Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's publicly professed commitment to 'smart growth,' as it allows for behemoth residential development nowhere near transit or job sites.''
Letting developers cram more people in tight spaces and build high structures dwarfing nearby homes is ''a crummy deal,'' the editorial says, believing that ''almost all in the political class are behind it because that's where their campaign money comes from, as does their officeholder-account money.''
Impressed by the Planning Commission president's stance as not only ''courageous,'' but also ''unprecedented,'' the editorial calls her ''the rare public servant who understands that her job is, in fact, to serve the public -- not the politicians.''
If local residents ''want to protect their communities,'' the editorial concludes, they should follow her advice and sue City Hall. -- Daily News 3/11/2008
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/
L.A. Officials Want Expanded Road Capacity to Ease Westside Traffic
Having banked on cross-city freeways in the 1950s as the most effective to relieve ''the awful'' street traffic, reports Los Angeles Times writer Steve Hymon, Los Angeles officials now see no other option for easing chronic congestion on the Santa Monica Freeway and most streets between the central city and Pacific, some 14 miles west, than to accommodate more cars and speed them up along parallel Pico and Olympic boulevards slightly to the north, with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ordering implementation of the plan March 8, local residents and business owners fearing its impact on area livability and commerce, and experts saying it defies the ''complete streets'' planning concept.
The mayor feels he must act now before the Westside gridlock worsens, the writer observes, quoting KFWB traffic reporter Jeff Baugh, who recently described the view from his helicopter in these words, ''If you don't have religion in your life yet, you will by the end of that drive. It's just jammed on every surface street. There's no way out.''
Under the Pico-Olympic plan, the city wants to time traffic lights on the eastbound lanes of Pico and the westbound lanes of Olympic for faster flow, and to eliminate curb parking along most of both boulevards during rush hour for greater capacity.
South Robertson Neighborhoods President Victoria Karan likes it ''when strong leaders do what's right and implement solutions,'' but in this case she calls it ''an initiative for people who have to travel through our neighborhood and not live here.''
With advocates of complete streets urging officials everywhere to reduce car use, provide transit access, include bike lanes, and make sidewalks safer and more enjoyable, Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District analyst Chris Morfas stresses, ''If you design streets for traffic, you'll get lots of traffic. If you design street for people, you'll get people.''
And Westside resident and transportation planner Ryan Snyder says this about the prospective Pico and Olympic boulevard changes, ''Plans like this just take us down the same old path, where we're trying to make more space to move more cars at the expense of every other community objective.'' -- Los Angeles Times 2/25/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
San Diego Considers Land Bank for Purchase and Resale of Foreclosed Homes
To make the best of the current mortgage default and foreclosure crisis, the San Diego City-County Reinvestment Task Force will study the possibility of a land bank to acquire foreclosed homes and condos priced under $400,000 for resale as affordable housing, reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer Emmet Price, with task force member Robert Adelizzi hoping to model such a bank on his nonprofit San Diego Capital Collaborative, which has raised about $90 million in equity capital in the past three years to help small builders pursue infill housing and other smart-growth projects.
As bad as they are, the county's foreclosures -- up 353 percent over 2006 to 7,349 last year, with another 1,305 in January -- also make it possible to ''get people into housing even as others are being displaced,'' he noted, confident that in some cases the bank could buy threatened homes ahead of foreclosure and work with owners afterward.
Task force co-chairman, City Councilman Tony Young promised thorough evaluation of the bank concept to find ''if it makes sense for the city and the county,'' but agreed that foreclosed homes ''are dirt cheap right now,'' adding, ''You will probably never see another opportunity to buy properties at this level.''
The task force, the writer reports, also agreed to seek a $1 million grant for the prospective land bank from the New York-based Living Cities nonprofit, committed to fight urban decline and revitalize depressed neighborhoods. -- San Diego Union-Tribune 2/22/2008
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Experts Say Better School Siting Needed to Meet Environmental, Educational Goals
Better school siting -- without minimum-acreage requirements, but with wider planning cooperation between school districts and local governments and a focus on joint facility use, student walking, public service proximity, and other efficiency elements listed on the federally-funded National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities web site -- is crucial to increase academic performance, equity and educational experiences, save money, improve student health and safety, and help meet California environmental goals, wrote the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) California State Network's Ad-Hoc Coalition for Healthy School Siting in a policy memo to California Department of Education (CDE) Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
Endorsed by the coalition's 41 institutional members and by former state Public Health Officer, now University of California-Berkeley Adjunct Professor Richard J. Jackson, the memo recommendations are based on national research.
''The location of a school has tremendous impact on students, teachers, families, neighborhoods, and the learning environment, yet new schools are often sited where they do not fully support healthy children and communities,'' with the increased distances between homes and schools contributing to ''the drastic decline'' in numbers of students walking or biking to school, the coalition pointed out, ready to help the CDE School Facility Planning Division (SFPD) in its just-launched regulation review process.
Appreciative of SFPD Director Kathleen Moore's ''willingness to re-examine this important issue,'' the coalition promised to contact her directly about its participation in updating policy documents and establishing guidelines for school siting and related public objectives.
The SRTS State Network's members hope not only to affect change in California school siting, but also to see their initiative ''replicated in other states to bring about a change for healthy school siting across the country.'' -- Safe Routes to School National Partnership, 1/31/2008
Resource(s): www.saferoutespartnership.org/
San Diego Board of Supervisors Lowers Traffic Impact Fees
In a departure from a national trend, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to slash its 2005 goal of raising $1.05 billion through traffic impact fees over 30 years by $228 million, which means commercial developers will spend up to 40 percent less for transportation improvements and homebuilders between 28 percent less and 3.5 percent more after April 8, with Chairman Greg Cox and Supervisors Dianne Jacobs and Pam Slater-Price expecting the move to encourage commercial development, and Supervisors Bill Horn and Ron Roberts voting against the cut not because they love the fees, but because the former preferred an even deeper reduction, and the latter wanted to strike them down altogether.
''All we did was stop building,'' said Supervisor Roberts. ''We didn't improve the roads. We didn't reduce vehicle miles traveled. We're not providing services, we're not providing job opportunities. Other than that, we've got a great fee.''
Prior to the vote, reports North County Times writer Gig Conaughton, East County Construction Council official Ron Pennock told the board that faced with an $825,000 fee, developers of a planned Taco Bell restaurant in Lakeside had backed out, saying they ''wouldn't build anywhere in the county.''
Calling the reduced fees still unfair, developer Steve Flynn said his group's prospective 85,000-square-foot shopping complex in Valley Center, like any similar projects that would save residents from trips elsewhere, shouldn't pay traffic impact fees, since ''this is the kind of smart growth that the county would be looking to encourage.''
Another developer complained that the cut won't refund him part of the $800,000 he has already spent on road improvements for his business.
Supervisor Jacob, who made the motion to approve the cuts, the writer adds, told county managers to look for ways to reduce the traffic impact fees further. -- North County Times 1/31/2008
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
Planner Says California Should Consider Land Use Policy Changes to Help Meet Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goals
Aside from suing the U.S. EPA to let California impose tougher-than-national tailpipe emission standards for new vehicles, the state should address climate change ''through land use'' to meet its 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, writes the American Planning Association's (APA) California Chapter Vice President for Administration Hing Wong in The San Francisco Chronicle, stressing that city and county governments can help, because they are ''responsible for creating local community land planning policy.''
A senior regional planner with the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), he points out that many Northern California cities and counties ''have already done so with impressive results, and even more are following their lead.''
He cites examples.
Marin County's Sustainability Program reduced greenhouse gas emissions from public buildings by 100 tons within five years, saved almost 2 million kilowatt hours of energy between 2006 and 2007, and precluded production of 1,000 ton of carbon dioxide, winning APA's 2008 National Planning Excellence Award for Implementation.
San Francisco's compact and pedestrian-friendly North Beach neighborhood kept its character and aura thanks to planning and zoning with public involvement, discouraging car use and earning a 10 spots on APA's ''Great Places in America'' list last year.
Oakland's mixed-use Fruitvale Village on former parking lots at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station revitalized the neighborhood and spurred transit ridership, reducing car dependency and greenhouse gas emissions.
Following these examples, several area cities, including San Jose and Richmond, are now revising their general plans, with a sharper focus on ''mixed land uses, infill, higher density and transit-oriented development.''
Confident that ''Northern California just may be the epicenter for innovative land planning policies'' that can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the planner concludes, ''The challenge of climate change is global, but it will require local solutions. Land-use planning efforts can be one more opportunity for Californians to lead the way.'' -- The San Francisco Chronicle 1/29/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Land Purchase in Natomas Basin Would Preserve Open Space, Provide Overflow Land for Sacramento River
In a joint effort to preserve open space and improve flood protection in the Natomas basin, the Sacramento Valley Conservancy and the Yolo Land Trust plan to buy the 2,600-acre Knaggs Ranch on the Yolo County side of the Sacramento River for $14.6 million, with the Yolo County Board of Supervisors supporting the purchase and the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) willing to spend $3 million for agricultural conservation easements to 1,771 acres of the ranch.
The easements would prevent development and allow the land to be flooded whenever necessary, reports Sacramento Bee writer Hudson Sangree, quoting SAFCA board member and Sacramento County Supervisor Roger Dickinson.
''If worst came to worst,'' he said, ''it would be available for overflow.''
Under a bill sponsored by state Democratic Assemblyman Dave Jones of Sacramento (AB 930), and signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last year, the writer notes, SAFCA gained the power to reach beyond its boundaries, which enables it to acquire conservation easements on the Knaggs Ranch. -- Sacramento Bee 1/25/2008
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
FEMA Set to Designate Portions of Sacramento, American Rivers as Special Flood Hazards
Stung by public outrage and congressional investigations after New Orleans levees failed when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) plans to designate Sacramento's fast-growing Natomas sector, north of the Sacramento and American rivers, as a Special Flood Hazard Area AE Zone in December, which means that all projects lacking permits by that date would have to be raised 20 feet and that all area residents owning federally backed mortgages would have to buy flood insurance, with the annual cost for $250,000 of coverage up from $769 now to $1,390 next year.
The announcement, reports Sacramento Bee writer Mary Lynne Vellinga, shocked the city.
''I am very frustrated and angry with the Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA because Sacramento has really become the poster child of what to do right in flood protection,'' stressed Mayor Heather Fargo at a news conference, willing to seek congressional intervention. ''The one solution left that I'm aware of is an act of Congress.''
With Natomas development crucial for the city economy in a time of budget shortages, and the proposed tough flood designation equal in practice to a building moratorium, City Manager Ray Kerridge said he doesn't know ''how the federal government can do this to this city,'' and Development Director William Thomas noted that it could halt construction of 8,200 housing units, and affect commercial projects valued at a half-billion dollars and a planned $1.3 billion international airport expansion. Notwithstanding the FEMA announcement, the writer reports, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (SAFCA) intends to implement its $400 million Natomas levee upgrade plans, still needing state and federal approval and facing a lawsuit.
SAFCA Executive Director Stein Buer hopes to launch the first-phase repair this summer, and restore the area's 100-year protection by 2010, and 200-year protection by 2012. -- Sacramento Bee 1/16/2008
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Enthusiastic About Plan for ''Subway to the Sea''
''We're going to have to invest in public transportation. We're going to have to invest in smart growth around public transportation. We can't just do one thing,'' said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at a recent day-long meeting of some 300 officials, business leaders, environmentalists, unionists and community activists, brought together by the Los Angeles County Transportation Funding Collaborative (LACTFC) to discuss ways of securing about $60 billion for Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) road and transit projects through 2030, with an immediate focus on putting a half-cent sales tax increase on the November ballot, to launch construction of a long-sought, $5 billion to $7 billion ''subway to the sea'' -- from downtown Los Angeles, under the dense job-and-activity Wilshire Boulevard corridor, to Pacific beaches.
Mayor Villaraigosa, reports Los Angeles Times writer Steve Hymon, spoke passionately about the proposed subway as certain to have one of the highest ridership numbers in the country, with MTA Board Chair Pam O'Connor, a Santa Monica councilwoman, optimistic about chances of a possible tax hike ballot.
Its passage, report Los Angeles Daily Breeze Sue Doyle and Rick Orlov, would raise the county sales tax to 8.75 percent over the allowed six-and-half-year maximum term and procure $4.5 billion for MTA projects.
Under current law, such ballots require a three-quarter voter supermajority to pass, but city Assemblyman Mike Feuer said he is working on bills that could lower the threshold and direct a portion of property taxes from some Wilshire Boulevard parcels toward subway construction.
Still, Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin and Associates principal John Fairbank told the audience that his firm's November poll of 1,200 county voters found about 60 percent already in favor of the sales tax hike, with most agreeing it would help reduce traffic congestion and commute times.
''We're even getting Republicans to support this,'' he observed. ''Traffic is at such a frustrating level.''
LACTFC Executive Director Denny Zane, a former Santa Monica mayor and founder of the Subway to the Sea Coalition, said the meeting should show area politicians that a campaign for transit funding can count on support from a range of interests.
He also promised similar discussions with small groups across the area to gauge local constituents' attitudes.
Several investment entities are watching the debate closely, ready to contribute transit money as members of a potential public-private partnership, adds the Los Angeles Times writer, quoting J.P. Morgan infrastructure advisory group head Paul Ryan.
''If you delay a project right now for five to seven years,'' he pointed out, ''construction cost increases means that delivering the same project to customers is going to cost you one-and-a-half to twice as much.'' -- Los Angeles Times, Daily News 1/11/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/ ; www.dailybreeze.com/
Simi Valley Smart Growth Project Faces Dual Task of Creating Affordable Housing and Quality Jobs
Vacant since the 1994 earthquake, a 6.1-acre Simi Valley site is now being developed by Colton Lee Communities as a walkable, mixed-use Marketplace complex, including 72 townhouses and a three-story senior apartment building with 27 affordable and 9 market-rate units, the city's first smart-growth ''village-style'' project, reports Ventura County Star writer Anna Bakalis, a model city leaders will promote to meet their double challenge -- build housing the workforce can afford and create quality jobs residents now perform elsewhere.
''There are too many residents commuting out of town to work,'' pointed out Simi Valley Economic Development Director Brian Gabler. ''Ideally, everyone who lives here would work here, too.''
The average resident commute is 30 minutes, while most local workers live outside because of high city housing prices, the writer notes, quoting Mayor Paul Miller, who said, ''It's always a challenge for any city to get the right balance.''
Although the average salary in the city's education and health services rose from $33,700 in 1999 to $43,450 in 2006, its median home price that year was $583,580.
That means, the writer observes, that such a home, with a 20 percent down payment and a 30-year loan at a fixed 6.07 percent interest rate would require a $2,820 monthly mortgage payment, which would take 78 percent of a school or health worker's salary.
Area Housing Authority Executive Director Doug Tapking, who has long advocated more workforce housing, sees a silver lining in the current housing market slump.
Expecting prices to drop, he is convinced that workers, ''once they are qualified for loans, will have a much better chance to get into homes.'' -- Ventura County Star 1/6/2008
Resource(s): www.venturacountystar.com/
California Files Lawsuit Over Right to Set Tailpipe Emissions Standards
Denied any federal waiver for its own tougher-than-national anti-pollution standards for the first time in the Clean Air Act's 40-year history just two weeks ago, California sued the U.S. EPA in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, asserting its right to cut tailpipe emissions from new cars, trucks and SUVs by one-third by 2016, which would effectively increase their fuel efficiency to an average of 36.8 mpg, with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger saying since the agency's officials ''are ignoring the will of millions of people who want their government to take action in the fight against global warming . . . we're suing to reverse the U.S. EPA's wrong decision.''
Under the new federal energy bill, signed by President Bush and cited by EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson as ending the need for separate California emission standards, the nation's new-car fuel efficiency is expected to reach an average of 35 mpg by 2020.
With California's new standards still higher, Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown and California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols are confident of the state's position.
''There's absolutely no justification for the administration's action,'' the Attorney General told an Associated Press interviewer. ''It's illegal. It's unconscionable and a gross dereliction of duty.''
The state, said Chairwoman Nichols, expects the court to rule against EPA and doesn't intend to change its greenhouse gas emission goals.
California, the Associated Press notes, wants to cut its greenhouse gases by 25 percent -- to 1990 levels -- by 2020, with tailpipe emissions accounting for 17 percent of those cuts.
Several states intend to join the California lawsuit, the Associated Press reports, noting that 12 -- Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington -- have adopted California's emission standards, with Arizona, Colorado and Utah planning to do so, and Iowa considering the possibility. -- Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee 1/3/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/ ; www.sacbee.com/
How Will Communities Fare If Big Box Stores Stumble?
After the housing bubble, the next to burst is a predominantly-chain-store retail bubble, writes American Independent Business Alliance (amiba.net) co-founder Jeff Milchen in a San Francisco Chronicle Insight column, relatively confident that diverse local economies nationwide can absorb the loss of some their small stores despite declines in jobs and revenue, but really worried about communities too dependent on big-box sales taxes, many of them in California.
''It's too late for this bubble to deflate without damage, but states and communities should act promptly to reverse some of the conditions that encouraged the bubble and to build a more sustainable economy,'' he writes, citing key background data from a Stacy Mitchell book ''Big Box Swindle,'' along with numbers from the International Council of Shopping Centers, San Francisco-based Civic Economics and other sources.
Between 1990 and 2005, retail capacity -- driven mostly by chain store proliferation -- more than doubled, with square footage increasing three times faster than the combined population growth and consumer-spending rate.
With another 140 million square feet of retail space to be completed in 2009, its total per capita will nearly double that of any other big country and exceed by almost 10 times those of many European countries.
Given the sore economy and tight credit -- and absent ''an unprecedented economic turnaround'' -- the wave of business closures will only increase after the holiday season.
The chains closed more stores by the end of the third quarter of 2008 than they did throughout 2007 -- including ''seemingly solid'' Gap, Circuit City, Foot Locker, Starbucks, Blockbuster and Bennigan's.
Now, nearly 150,000 others, mainly smaller independent establishments, are expected to close this year.
''Economic misconceptions, as well as speculation, played a huge role in creating our retail bubble,'' Jeff Milchen points out, calling big-box campaign promises to bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in sales taxes ''grossly misleading'' for at least two reasons.
First, the promised jobs and proceeds ''simply displace jobs and revenue at existing area businesses;'' second, once additional ''public costs for traffic signals, sewer, water, and fire protection are calculated, cities often experience a net loss'' and usually must increase taxes.
''A new chain store typically is a clone of many other units, eliminating the need for local planning, and using a minimum of local goods and services. Profit is exported to corporate headquarters and almost all local jobs are low-skill positions,'' he continues. ''In contrast, independent business owners typically spend much of their profit locally, give back more to the community, and create jobs for local accountants, Webmasters, ad agencies and many other higher-skilled people.''
These jobs offer ''greater career potential'' and train ''future generations of entrepreneurs,'' with comparative research showing that dollars spent at independent businesses yielded nearly three times more economic benefits and created about 80 percent more local jobs.
The recession increased awareness of the hazards of ''dependence on giant corporations'' and spurred ''interest in 'Buy Local' campaigns, green business programs and other strategies to build wealth from within,'' Jeff Milchen concludes, urging elected officials to heed the growing economic sophistication of their constituents, direct growth accordingly, and protect community character.
His list of links to California groups in support of local business includes sfloma.org, Calhen.org, nciba.com, livingeconomies.org, ibuypetaluma.org, hometownpeninsula.org, sustainablenovato.org, and shopoakland.com. -- San Francisco Chronicle 1/3/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Los Angeles County's ''Green'' Building Ordinance Would Focus on Energy, Water Conservation
''Green is definitely the wave of the future,'' said the Building Industry Association's Los Angeles and Ventura chapter vice president Terra Donlon, commenting on a proposed Los Angeles County 'green' building ordinance for unincorporated areas, slated for a public hearing January 23 and expected to take effect in 2010. ''That's what we're going to be building and that's what people are going to start demanding.''
Although green construction will cost more until the technology and methods become the mainstream, she is sure it will expand in the region regardless of the county's decision, because of pressures ''from a state or national level.''
With the state already implementing green standards, they may be stricter and thus supersede what the county plans, she observed, adding, ''This is the way the world is thinking at this point. This is the prevailing understanding.''
The Los Angeles County ordinance will combine requirements for energy efficiency, low-impact design, and drought-tolerant landscaping in new development projects, reports Ontario Daily Bulletin writer Bethania Palma, quoting county planning deputy head Paul Novak.
''It's primarily oriented toward energy and water conservation,'' he specified, ''which will have a ripple effect of improving our air quality and natural environment for future generations.''
The U.S. Green Building Council's Los Angeles chapter executive director Lance Williams commends the county for ''a step in right direction.''
Calling buildings ''energy hogs'' and pointing to the projected residential growth, he stressed, ''We have to work very hard to get something done now, or it will be to late.'' -- Daily Bulletin 12/25/2007
Resource(s): www.dailybulletin.com/
Gov. Schwarzenegger Pledges to Fight for Higher Fuel Economies, Despite Federal Rejection of State Plan
The only state entitled by Congress to create tougher-than-national air quality standards, on which others can model their own laws, California is indignant at EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson's denial of a waiver for implementation of its landmark 2002 law (AB 1493, or ''the Pavley bill'') that seeks 30 percent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 2016, mainly through a planned fuel economy increase from 27.5 to between 34 and 36 mpg, with the administrator explaining that the new federal energy bill just signed by President Bush raises the requirement to 35 mpg by 2020 nationwide and makes separate California rules pointless, but Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledging to fight in court.
''California sued (in 2005) to compel the agency to act on our waiver,'' he said, ''and now we will sue to overturn today's decision and allow Californians to protect our environment.''
At his year-end news conference a day later, President Bush restated the administrator's objection to ''a confusing patchwork of state rules'' in similar words.
''The question is how to have an effective strategy. Is it more effective to let each state make a decision as to how to proceed in curbing greenhouse gases, or is it more effective to have a national strategy?'' the president asked. ''We now have a national plan. It's one of the benefits of Congress passing this piece of legislation.''
The EPA waiver refusal gratified the auto industry, report Los Angeles Times writers Richard Simon and Janet Wilson, quoting Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers President and CEO David McCurdy, who said a ''patchwork quilt of inconsistent and competing fuel economy programs at the state level would only have created confusion, inefficiency and uncertainty for automakers and consumers.''
On the other side, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein called the decision ''disgraceful,'' and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Democratic Chairman Henry Waxman told EPA to keep and submit all related documents by the next month. ''Your decision appears to have ignored the evidence before the agency and the requirements of the Clean Air Act,'' he wrote in a letter, with his committee ready to investigate whether the administrator ''overruled the unanimous recommendation of EPA's legal and technical staff in rejecting California's petition.''
Noting that an EPA waiver would enable California and likeminded states to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2010, California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols stressed, ''Ours is a more comprehensive program which extends into the future. We get there faster, with a more flexible program.''
The writers note that even a former EPA administrator in the first Bush administration, William K. Reilly, criticized the waiver denial.
Although much in the national energy bill ''is commendable,'' he observed, ''the nation does not yet have the national comprehensive climate protection policy that would render state initiatives unnecessary.''
With some 17 states following or about to follow California's lead, report Sacramento Bee writers Dale Kasler and Jim Downing, environmentalists promised legal action against EPA's decision.
Natural Resources Defense Council lawyer David Doniger, who helped the state repel automakers' challenge to the Pavley law in two federal court cases, said of federal officials, ''They're sticking their thumb in the eye of 18 governors from red and blue states.'' -- Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee 12/21/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/ ; www.sacbee.com/
Critics Say Smart Growth Funds Stretched Too Thinly in SANDAG's Regional Transportation Plan
Passed by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) Board of Directors in a 16-2 vote, the $57 billion 2030 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) promises to widen highways, add car-pool and toll lanes, and create a fast bus system, but the two dissenting board members said it emphasizes car use over transit, while a letter from the office of California Attorney General Jerry Brown stressed that its $280 million to promote smart growth in 193 designated areas will be stretched too thin, and that this won't help cut greenhouse gas emissions enough -- a warning that makes some SANDAG officials willing to revise the smart growth strategy.
The designated smart growth areas ''are too widely dispersed,'' commented Deputy Attorney General Sandra Goldberg, the letter's author, during a call from North County Times writer Dave Downey. ''Many of them are located far from areas where there are jobs, and far from areas where it would be efficient to provide public transit.''
The attorney general, she added, would like to see the money invested in fewer areas, with a focus on development along commuter rail or fast bus lines.
SANDAG board members Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner and La Mesa Mayor Art Madrid consider changes possible.
''I found the attorney general's comments to be on point in many ways. This warrants another look and a review of the whole thing,'' said the former.
''They've given us a heads up,'' agreed the latter. ''Let's check it out before they take us to court.''
According to SANDAG planner Rob Rundle, thanks to the plan's combination of roads and bus lines, the region's greenhouse gas emissions will increase by just one-third between now and 2030 -- less then a transit-dominated strategy would promise.
He acknowledged it ''seems counter-intuitive,'' but observed that with three-quarters of the developed area and population expected by 2030 already present, a significant shift of money from (road) improvements to transit wouldn't change much, because ''(y)ou can't provide transit to a lot of these areas; it's just not cost-effective.''
He also explained that SANDAG would spend the $280 million in smart growth money selectively among the 193 eligible areas, on a competitive basis rather than by funding them all.
SANDAG 1st Vice Chair, Escondido Mayor Lori Pfeiler, confirmed the intent. ''The bottom line is, the money is not going to be evenly spread,'' she said, noting the need to promote compact development not only in urban areas, but also in outlying areas.
''There is also a reality that says there are communities like Ramona and Spring Valley that have significant populations,'' she pointed out. ''You can't just write off those areas. And you can get them to grow smarter.''
See the ''land use and regional growth'' program details at www.sandag.org. -- North County Times 12/4/2007
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/ ; www.nctimes.com/
Tahoe Moving Towards Smart Growth in New Regional Plan
Formed by natural forces, the Lake Tahoe basin's ''forested peaks and deep cobalt blue waters'' make it a scenic wonder, but ''the building craze of the 1950s and 1960s'' has harmed lake clarity and left ugly buildings amid magnificent settings and parking lots atop marshes and meadows, writes Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Executive Director John Singlaub in the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, expecting the agency's Community Enhancement Program (CEP), launched last summer, to infuse Tahoe's new regional plan with smart growth principles for long-term sustainability.
Although ''the whole idea of developing compact, walkable town centers with community gathering places and easy access to public transportation originated in more densely populated urban areas,'' it can be tailored and adapted to the unique Lake Tahoe mountain environment, he notes, stressing, ''That is what we are testing and what we hope to accomplish both with the CEP and the new regional plan,'' scheduled for adoption next October.
Part of the Pathway place-based planning process, involving hundreds of residents, property owners and real estate professionals, he writes, the CEP offers environmentally conscious developers commercial floor and both residential unit and tourist room bonuses,'' along with ''possible flexibility on height restrictions, density standards and parking requirements.''
So far, nine ''project pre-applicants'' participated in community workshops, receiving extensive feedback on their concept designs, including affordable housing in Kings Beach, and redevelopment in the Kings Beach, Homewood and Crystal Bay areas.
Listing what's ''not good'' for Tahoe, the TRPA director mentions ''(b)ox-shaped buildings with expansive parking lots and no best management practices, stagnant communities, traffic congestion and unhealthy forests,'' all reasons for the public to demand the ''extraordinary'' envisioned in the CEP and aimed for in the upcoming regional plan.
For details, he refers readers to www.trpa.org/ or www.pathway2007.org/. -- North Lake Tahoe Bonanza 11/23/2007
Resource(s): www.tahoebonanza.com/
Dublin City Council Urged to Place 6-Story Cap on Proposed Mixed-Use Towers
The Contra Costa Times applauds the mix of residential units, office space, live-work quarters, a hotel and a sports club proposed for 12 acres at Dublin's eastern edge as ''high-density 'smart growth' that will help reduce our future dependence on automobiles,'' but it urges its City Council to keep cutting the height of the prospective Grafton Plaza buildings, because they would ''dwarf'' all other structures in the valley.
With the developers hoping to build four 16-story to 21-story residential towers and the council recently announcing it would consider only 10-story heights, the daily's editorial suggests a six-story limit as much more reasonable.
Noting that the project will be more successful if it keeps its proportion of ''job-producing office space'' and provides sufficient shuttle service to the BART station about two miles away, the editorial doesn't want the towers to ''loom'' over everything around.
''The character of the valley and its view,'' it stresses, ''should be respected.'' -- Contra Costa Times 11/13/2007
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
Work Transportation and Home Location: How Affordable Housing Becomes an Environmental Issue
California leads the national drive against climate change, and the San Francisco Bay Area leads California, but ''why are we building like it's 1957, and the best thing we can think of is driving on the freeway,'' ask former Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Tom Steinbach and Interim Director Mike Howe in a San Francisco Chronicle column, pointing out that hybrid-car and low-carbon fuel technology must be augmented by cuts in miles drivers travel to make the state reach its 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act goal of reducing the total greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
To help readers appreciate not only the need for both technology and life-style changes to minimize tailpipe emissions, but also the related pocketbook and personal-time gains, the writers invoke an example of someone who drives a big SUV in a three-hour round-trip to work at the cost of at least $60 a week.
That person's first option is to buy a more fuel-efficient hybrid car. By buying a more fuel-efficient hybrid car, that someone could lower the work-trip's tailpipe emissions by two-thirds and save about $45 on gas.
But by moving within perhaps three miles to the job, the person could cut the trip's emissions by almost 90 percent, spend just $3 weekly on gas, and gain at least 10 hours a week to be with family, pursue sports or run errands now delayed till weekends.
And if really ambitious, that person could even bike a few miles to work, which would still save time and be a lot healthier.
Unfortunately, they write, housing near work has become too costly for too many, which ''illustrates why affordable housing is truly an environmental issue; when people can't afford to live close their jobs, they end up driving long distances and pumping more carbon into the air.''
Nevertheless, the best for all determined to reduce their impact on climate, they continue, is to ''do both: get a hybrid and move closer to work'' if the housing prices aren't out of their reach.
''We need to build more homes near jobs, and make sure people can afford those homes,'' the writers stress. ''We need to build neighborhoods with shops, services, good public transit, and parks -- all within easy walking distance of homes.''
With half of all development envisioned by 2030 not built yet, there's still time, they write, noting that technological innovations ''are at the heart of the Bay Area's culture and economy'' and urging application of local talent to ''the question of how to use our land well.''
Stopping ''the climate juggernaut'' requires ''everything we know will work now,'' they conclude. ''We know it'll work to drive less. Let's build our cities to make it possible.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 10/21/2007
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
San Francisco to Test Demand-Based Parking Meter Program
Following the February 2007 introduction of demand-based meter prices on downtown parking by Redwood City, 26 miles south, San Francisco officials plan to launch a similar high-tech pilot program in several neighborhoods early next year, hoping eventually to increase the city's parking meter revenue from about $30 million to perhaps $150 million a year while making drivers cruise less in search for vacant spaces and thus reducing traffic and air pollution.
''We're looking at actually pricing a parking space like housing,'' said San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Chief Financial Officer Sonali Bose, ''let the market dictate the price.''
Under the program the MTA board will discuss in greater detail next month, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Rachel Gordon, the city may expand meter hours in high-demand areas but lift user time limits, bring meter rates closer to charges on nearby parking lots, and set progressive prices of perhaps $2 for the first hour, with each additional hour costing a dollar more than the previous one.
Officials aim for an 85 percent meter occupancy rate to ensure turnover, the writer notes, and they also want to make payments convenient, believing people will readily use a credit or debit card, a cell phone or other electronic gadget even if there's a surcharge.
In Redwood City, redevelopment manager Susan Moeller is pleased with the 85 percent meter occupancy and the electronic meter payment results, telling the writer that initial technological glitches were worked out and that officials promised downtown merchants to spend the extra revenue on district street and sidewalk enhancements.
''The program hasn't been without its challenges,'' she observed, ''but we've gotten to the point where we are managing our parking much better so there is less congestion and there are always spaces available.''
A ''parking management guru,'' University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup expects more municipalities to embrace free-market parking rates.
''I think new technology makes it much easier to try pricing variation and the world is changing,'' he stressed. ''There's a much better understanding about energy dependency and global warming, and people are becoming more willing to do what they can about congestion.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 10/12/2007
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
More Than 60,000 Los Angeles Students at Risk from Tailpipe Emissions
Los Angeles Still Placing Schools Near High-Traffic Roads
Though a 2003 state law prohibits siting new schools within 500 feet of highways and numerous studies document the impact of constant tailpipe emissions on children's lungs, reports Los Angeles Times writer Evelyn Larrubia, more than 60,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students breathed such extra-polluted air around some 70 of its schools last year, while the district was building another five and planned two more in similar proximity to high-traffic roads, including one just 90 feet away.
Nearby market and restaurant owner Carlos Estrada is indignant.
''I don't want to be one of those people who went ahead and sold the property because they want money,'' he said. ''I personally don't want a school that's going to harm the health of the children.''
A neighbor of another recently remodeled school along a highway, state vocational rehabilitation counselor Marsha Rose, cautioned officials during a 2004 public meeting against exposing children to concentrated air pollutants, but they responded that under the law they can build within 500 feet of highway if they have no choice and upgrade the ventilation system, which they did.
But scientists from University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) and University of South California (USC) point out that no air filtering can eliminate the most dangerous ultra-fine particles and that once outside, children absorb the full impact of all pollutants.
''Ultra-fine particle numbers are highest on and around freeways and in experimental studies appear to have much higher levels of the damaging chemicals that are found to have health effects,'' said UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine nanomedicine chief, Southern California Particle Center Co-director Andre Nel.
Thanks to such research, noted the district's Office of Environmental Health and Safety head Angelo Bellomo, he has recently included ultra-fine particles in analyses of sites near highways and instituted a 200-foot minimum buffer between schools and major roads.
For the two planned schools near high-traffic roads, he recommended such a buffer, plus air filtering and reduced outdoor activity on particularly bad air-quality days, admitting that students and staff still face more pollution than they would have elsewhere and looking toward tougher control on emissions as the best solution for everybody in congested corridors.
USC lead researcher Jim Gauderman, who found significant air pollution impact on children within 1,600 feet of a highway -- with higher rates of asthma and lung disfunction -- considers schools near highways a bad idea, and not only because of the limitations of air-filtering systems.
''They're (the filters) not going to work on ultra-fine particles and they're not going to work on gases. They're only going to work when the kid is inside. The minute the kid steps out or starts playing P.E. and breathing heavy, they're not going to be useful,'' he said. ''It just makes sense that if you're going to have children spending a lot of time in a location and you know that location is polluted -- and I don't care if it's air, water or whatever -- that you would try to avoid that situation at any cost. The kids are going to be there [. . .] four, five, seven years. That's a lot of time when you accumulate it.'' -- Los Angeles Times 9/24/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Efficient Land Use Key to Reducing California's Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Since more efficient auto engines and home solar panels help but do not ensure enough cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to overcome their constant increase from ever longer car trips, a good way to chip away at global warming is to live ''closer to work,'' points out Los Angeles Times writer Margot Roosevelt, citing research from Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, a book to be published by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute.
Until recently, she writes, climate policy has mainly focused on ''higher fuel economy for cars and trucks, cleaner fuels, greener building standards, lower power plant emissions, and international treaties,'' while now most experts also stress the importance of ''everyday zoning decisions'' on local and county levels.
''We can no longer afford to ignore land use,'' said one of the book's authors, Center for Clean Air Policy Transportation Program Director Steve Winkelman, calling the land development pattern ''both a key contributor to climate change and an essential factor in combating it.''
Hotly debated in California, whose pioneering 2006 global warming law ''requires emission reductions to 1990 levels by 2020,'' the writer notes, the land use issue made Republicans hold up the budget during the summer ''in an effort to exempt localities from global-warming-related lawsuits'' by state Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Similarly, Democratic Senator Darrell Steinberg's bill that would require regional planners to set greenhouse gas emission targets and could block outlays of millions of taxpayer dollars on roads likely to induce sprawl passed the Senate but was delayed until next year.
California builders, municipal officials and others who ''want the state to stay out of local planning decisions'' oppose the bill despite the fiscal advantages of compact and transit-oriented development.
''Southern California's regional planners,'' commented Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) consultant Amanda Eaken, ''have found that by locating new housing near transit corridors, they can save $48 billion that they would have to spend on new roads.''
With the Growing Cooler authors calling on Congress to encourage and reward compact development in the next $300 billion transportation bill, the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation's litigation director James Burling dismissed the research as ''the latest anti-sprawl crusade based on global warming . . . no different from every other anti-sprawl campaign.''
Book co-author, Smart Growth America Executive Director Don Chen, suggested critics should look at the changed demographics and market demand.
''Baby boomers are trading in their big houses for condos closer to town. These folks are demanding walkable neighborhoods. We need to pressure governments to give them choices,'' he said. ''Funding today is tied to vehicle miles traveled (VMT). So areas are rewarded for driving more.'' -- Los Angeles Times 9/21/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
How Better Planning Can Cut Time Spent on California's Congested Highways
Not surprised that a new Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) study again shows Los Angeles topping the list of the most congested metro areas nationwide -- its drivers having sat an average of 72 hours in stationary traffic in 2005, in contrast to 60 hours wasted by their second-place counterparts in the San Francisco-Oakland, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. regions -- a Los Angeles Times editorial stresses that though future congestion will get worse, it doesn't have to hold drivers on the road correspondingly longer as Portland, Oregon found, thanks to its smart-growth planning and compact development strategy.
According to the TTI study, the editorial notes, Portland has recorded longer rush-hour traffic delays than most other big cities since 1982, yet the average time drivers spent stuck in traffic hasn't increased as much as elsewhere, due to its long-practiced denser and infill development in the urban core.
''The result is that although traffic is worse, people spend less time in it than they would have otherwise because their homes are closer to their workplaces and they don't have to drive as far.''
Calling smart growth and construction of residential towers near transit much ''in vogue'' in Los Angeles, but sometimes criticized for not reliving and perhaps worsening traffic, the editorial calls critics' attention to the Portland Effect.
''If people are driving shorter distances, traffic affects them less,'' the daily points out. ''Think about that the next time you pass one of those 'If you lived here, you'd be home already' signs while you're stuck in bumper-to-bumper hell.'' -- Los Angeles Times 9/20/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Conservationists, Housing Advocates Differ on Development Options for Last Large Marin County Tract
In an acrimonious debate about the future of the 1,230 acres north of San Rafael held by the St. Vincent's School for Boys and the Silveira Ranch, conservationists urged Marin County supervisors to follow Planning Commission recommendations to include this last big developable tract in a proposed ''baylands corridor'' between San Pablo Bay and Highway 101 two miles east and to cap the number of prospective tract homes at 221, while housing advocates, property owners and others demanded more housing for lower-income earners and seniors, the latter demographic group seen as an upcoming ''silver tsunami.''
In the commission-approved county plan update, ''environmental protection overwhelmed social equity and economics,'' said Marin League of Women Voters President Donna Bjorn.
She called extension of the baylands corridor over the St. Vincent's and Silveira lands scientifically unsupported, saying, ''The 221-unit housing limit is so restrictive as to make it next to impossible to provide senior facilities or workforce housing.''
With the St. Vincent's School for Boys hoping to build 642 units -- 132 cottages, 40 assisted living rooms, 360 continued-care apartments, and 110 very-low and low-income apartments, reports Marin Independent Journal writer Rob Rogers, its attorney, former county supervisor Gary Giacomini, had stronger words.
''This is a moral as well as physical crisis,'' he argued. ''We should not treat our seniors like flotsam, sending them off to Contra Costa and Solano counties. It's tragic, absolutely deplorable.''
His arguments resonated with resident Janice Leach, who felt grateful for the environment and open space enriching the county's quality of life, but called it ''meaningless'' to her if she has ''to parcel'' her father away ''because we refuse to allow anyone to build anything.''
Environmentalists consider these charges overstated.
Campaign for Marin spokeswoman Marjorie Macris, who helped create the original county plan, stressed that like its three present corridors -- city-centered, inland rural and coastal recreation -- the baylands corridor would prevent unwanted development.
Sierra Club official Doug Wilson pointed out that even if the county would provide 1,000 or 100,000 homes, many more people would always like to live in it, adding, ''Economics should not drive priorities.''
Although supervisors will continue their hearings on the county plan update, the writer observes, Supervisor Susan Adams has already indicated that she will vote for inclusion of the controversial tract in the baylands corridor and for the tract's 221-residential-unit limit.
''I also support the idea of capping housing sizes throughout the county, and not just in West Marin,'' she announced. ''The phenomenon of 'monster homes' is one reason we're using so much of our resources.''
At the same time, Supervisor Judy Arnold declared herself for a ''balance'' and smart growth, saying, ''I'd like to see equal weight given to the environment, the economy and social equity.'' -- Marin Independent Journal 9/11/2007
Resource(s): www.marinij.com/
San Bernardino County Agrees to Measure Greenhouse Gases, Set Emission Reduction Targets
First of this kind in the nation, California Attorney General Jerry Brown's lawsuit against San Bernardino County for the omission of the sprawl impact on climate change in its new long-range growth plan ended in a settlement, under which the county agreed to measure greenhouse gas emissions from unincorporated areas and set emission reduction targets by early 2010, while the Attorney General pledged to help raise $500,000 in state or federal funds to implement such measures.
''I see a grass-roots movement building to deal with global warming and oil dependency,'' he said, having already sent stern letters to officials in 11 other counties on their duty to cut local emissions. ''I intend to go throughout the state to encourage adoption of similar agreements.''
Known for its sprawling subdivisions and likely to grow by another 500,000 residents within the next 22 years, San Bernardino County needs ''elegant density, with people living closer to where they work,'' he added. ''This could be a very difficult shift.''
County Supervisor Gary Ovitt said the county ''would have done'' what the settlement requires anyway, acknowledging the Attorney General's improvement suggestions for regional transportation centers, energy-efficient building design, landfill methane recovery and wastewater-treatment-plant-generated electricity.
The county, reports Los Angeles Times writer Margot Roosevelt, still faces a similar lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, and the Sierra Club, which want it to ban new homes in wildfire paths and take real steps to curb sprawl and protect wildlife.
Although California counties, the writer notes, increasingly realize that local decisions on land use, road construction and building design can deplete water supplies, increase forest fires, worsen air pollution and affect climate, the state lawsuit against San Bernardino County angered some local officials, builders and industry groups.
During their 52-day blockade of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's $145 billion budget for 2007-08, some Republican senators wanted to bar the use of the state's 1970 Environmental Quality Act (EQA) in efforts to combat global warming, and finally accepted a compromise, under which new rules of mitigation greenhouse gas emissions from EQA-covered projects will be set by 2010. -- Los Angeles Times 8/22/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
San Diego's Mixed-Use Liberty Station Named 2007 Base Redevelopment Community of the Year
Shuttered after the 1993 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) round, the Naval Training Center at Point Loma in San Diego was transformed over the last 10 years into the $850-million, mixed-use Liberty Station complex, created by the local Corky McMillin Cos. primarily with private money and named the 2007 Base Redevelopment Community of the Year by the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Defense Communities (ADC).
Hailed across the nation as a base reuse model for other communities, reports San Diego Business Journal writer Michelle Mowad, the 361-acre Liberty Station includes 125 acres of parks and open space, a 95-acre historic district with 52 renovated structures, a 28-acre arts and culture district, offices, shopping villages, restaurants, three hotels, six schools, a golf course, and 350 homes under construction.
Private investment of more than $130 million in infrastructure improvements ensured new water and sewer lines, stormwater systems, modern gas and electric features, better streets, traffic flow, sidewalks and landscaping. Another $120 million went to renovation for structures still owned by the city.
The city, the writer notes, also counts on 8,000 new jobs, $5.6 million in annual hotel taxes, and millions more in property taxes.
''The redevelopment of the (site) into a vibrant new community and regional cultural and recreation center was a formidable challenge,'' stated San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders. ''This success is largely attributed to our strong partnership with the Navy, our master developer, the thousands of community members who participated in the reuse process and the hard-working dedication of the city's redevelopment staff.''
Corky McMillin's Senior Vice President and Project Manager Kim Elliot said, ''We hope that the example set by Liberty Station, such as the restoration and adaptive reuse of its historic structures and partnering with a master developer committed to implementing the city-approved reuse plan, will benefit future BRAC communities around the country.''
ADC Executive Director Paul Kalomiris is confident others will follow the lead.
''The Liberty Station development is an excellent example of community involvement in the base reuse planning process, as well as an effective partnership between a city agency and a private developer,'' he stressed. ''Defense communities experiencing closure from the 2005 BRAC round can view Liberty Station as a model for their work to turn closing military assets to successful economic drivers.''
Richmond, Virginia-based attorney and base closing consultant Harry H. Kelso agrees, pointing out that base redevelopment may be complex and costly, but offers great economic opportunities and revenue returns.
For evidence and everything else on the five BRAC rounds from 1988 through 2005, the writer direct readers to the expert's Web site at www.baseclosures.com. -- San Diego Business Journal 8/13/2007
Resource(s): www.sdbj.com/default.asp
Pacific Union College Submits Plan for Napa County Eco-Village
Although Pacific Union College (PUC) in Angwin scaled back its eco-village proposal from almost 600 to 391 homes, ready to build 70 in a publicly preferred section and make some available to local employees, reports Napa Valley Register writer David Ryan, the Save Rural Angwin group would prefer no more than 200 homes, still expecting not only too much traffic, but also sales of most workforce units to college staff and faculty rather than Angwin workers, and that, said group member Duane Cronk, would defy ''the contemporary principle of smart growth.''
PUC President Dr. Richard Osborn said the formal submission of the proposal to Napa County officials reflects the college's decision to pursue the eco-village, adding in a statement, ''I'd like to thank our neighbors for providing constructive input during the design review process. That dialogue resulted in a smaller and better project.''
Group member Cronk welcomed another round of project discussions at county Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors hearings later this year, foreseeing most arguments will be over the details.
The eco-village, the writer reports, would incorporate environmentally friendly materials, solar panels, and a modern wastewater processing system.
On sunny days, the village would generate 30 percent more power than it would need, with PUC benefiting from the surplus.
Its recycled wastewater would also reduce drinking water consumption to about half of usual home use, with PUC keeping its groundwater draw at the current level.
As to the workforce housing question, PUC promised to work out specifics in the context of a related county ordinance now under consideration.
For now, the writer adds, its proposal states, ''Incentives may include purchase price discounts for those who work in close proximity to the eco-village, or reduced fees for mandatory participation in local transit and car-share programs, community-supported agriculture, and infrastructure maintenance.'' -- Napa Valley Register 7/23/2007
Resource(s): www.napavalleyregister.com/
L.A. Times Backs New TODs Despite Local Traffic Increase
Though smart growth, or transit-oriented development (TOD), ''hasn't delivered'' yet on its promises to get Angelenos out of their cars, that ''doesn't mean it's a failure,'' says the Los Angeles Times in an editorial follow-up to its recent reports on substantial increases in vehicular traffic near four such projects, where some ''marginal'' gains in transit use were ''swamped by the large numbers of new residents and shoppers attracted by high-density, mixed-use developments.''
Unprepared to renounce its faith in a quoted New Urbanist idea that ''transit, pedestrian and bicycle systems should maximize access and mobility throughout the region while reducing dependence upon the automobile,'' the daily points out that at least the TODs provided the city with much-needed housing.
This alone, it says, ''may be justification for the billions of public and private dollars that are being spent on new multi-unit developments'' which are transforming Hollywood, downtown and other neighborhoods.
If they ''have not compelled people to change their behavior, they do have the potential to attract'' those who wish to walk around where they live.
''Reducing the rate of congestion growth will require a vast array of policy solutions and options for residents, and smart growth may be part of that,'' the daily concludes. ''We still want to believe.'' -- Los Angeles Times 7/11/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
''Complete Streets'' Bill Would Put Focus on Safer Biking and Walking in California Communities
Denouncing multilane high-speed streets and boulevards built only for cars, with no regard for walkers, bikers or bus riders, as ''the blight of suburbia and many city neighborhoods,'' largely responsible for the death of some 700 pedestrians and the injury of 1,400 across the state each year, The Sacramento Bee urges unanimous Senate approval for Democratic Assemblyman Mark Leno's ''complete streets'' bill (AB 1358), which passed the Assembly on a party-line vote against opposition from almost all Republicans.
''Last time we checked, Republicans walked on two legs and occasionally rode bikes,'' the daily says, puzzled by their hostility to the bill, which requires local governments to meet all road user needs in mobility updates to general plans, ensuring streets with sidewalks, bike lanes, transit stops and tree cover.
In the capital region, Sacramento, Davis, Roseville, Folsom and other cities are already creating complete streets, the daily observes, pointing out that the state Office of Planning and Research would spend ''a mere $150,000'' on complete street guidelines, whose implementation would cost local governments a total of $500,000 in some years.
''As California's population gets older,'' the daily says, ''alternatives to the automobile will become even more important.''
Noting that currently about one-fifth of California's elderly don't drive because they don't want to or can't, that the population over 65 will double by 2030, and that AARP's state chapter supports the bill, the daily concludes, ''There's no reason why protecting kids, the elderly and other people afoot should be a partisan issue.'' -- The Sacramento Bee 7/2/2007
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Focus on Transit Route Housing Part of State Aid Package for San Francisco Bay Area
One of the state's most populous and most congested regions, the San Francisco Bay Area is preparing for an influx of $1.3 billion in state money for public transit, including some $419 million through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which will focus on urban core improvements ''to promote 'smart growth' development'' that puts high-density housing along transit to boost its ridership and reduce car trips.
The urban core transit projects, reports ANG Newspapers writer Erik N. Nelson, may receive a total of $209 million from the MTC, while between $134 million and $143 million are likely to go to the ''Lifeline'' program, which offers services for low-income, transit-dependent residents.
The program runs ''reverse-commute'' bus routes from urban neighborhoods to jobs in the suburbs, also providing such residents with access to hospitals, clinics and other vital services.
The rest, almost $80 million, is expected to help the area's smaller transit operators with operating subsidies and capital improvement funds. -- Inside Bay Area 6/27/2007
Resource(s): www.insidebayarea.com/
La Mesa Lands Another Smart Growth Award for Transit Corridor Project
Having won the 2001 Outstanding Planning award from the San Diego section of the American Planning Association (SDAPA) for a feasibility study on the mixed-use Grossmont Trolley Station, Pravada, and Alterra complex along Fletcher Parkway, the city of La Mesa also received a 2006 planning and design award form the Urban Land Institute (ULI) for the project, and now, reports the San Diego Business Journal, it has scored a smart-growth ''hat trick,'' with another SDAPA excellence award for the development.
This time, the SDAPA rewarded the city, the journal says, for ''a visionary approach by combining excellence in urban design with residential development on a major transit corridor.''
The $100 million project will offer 527 rental units -- including 80 of the same quality and characteristics, but affordable for very-low-to-moderate income families -- plus 2,700 square feet of retail space and an upgraded trolley platform. -- San Diego Business Journal 6/18/2007
Resource(s): www.sdbj.com/default.asp
NAHB Sues San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution District Over Indirect Source Rule
With California leading the nation in multi-prong governmental and grassroots efforts to fight climate change threats through smarter land use, higher energy efficiency, and essential tailpipe emission cuts, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) sued the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution District over its Indirect Source Rule (ISR), which requires builders of more than 50 homes on one site to calculate potential particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from construction equipment, ensure their mitigation, and pay a $1,772 fee per home for those that cannot be mitigated.
The mitigation, according to a NAHB press release, could include equipment retrofits, alternative fuel use, and construction of wider sidewalks, all complicated, burdensome and costly.
The NAHB argues in the suit that the federal Clean Air Act allows only states to regulate indirect source emissions, that the district ignored procedures necessary for ISR adoption, and that builders would have to shift rule implementation costs to homebuyers.
''If the expense resulted in cleaner air, it might be worth it,'' said NAHB President Brian Catalde, a Southern California builder. ''But unlike some areas, the San Joaquin Valley has already met its maximum emission targets for particles. And it will certainly be ironic when home buyers are forced to purchase less expensive new homes outside the air district and commute back into the area, bringing even more tailpipe emission with them.''
The ISR, he added, ''is regulation for the sake of regulation, with no demonstrable air quality benefits -- and will make it more expensive to build -- and buy -- homes.'' -- National Association of Home Builders 6/7/2007
Resource(s): www.nahb.org/default.aspx
San Bernardino County Faces State Lawsuit for Ignoring Land Use Impact on Global Warming
Its population of 2 million projected to exceed 2.5 million by 2030, San Bernardino County east of Los Angeles, the biggest in the continental U.S., includes inhabitable deserts and mountains, but also an ever-larger Inland Empire -- ''freeways, fast-growing cities, traffic congestion and seemingly endless sprawl,'' and having failed to deal with sprawl-related greenhouse gases in its new 25-year growth plan is now facing a state lawsuit for ignoring land use impact on global warming.
Sued earlier on similar grounds by the Center for Biological Diversity, now joined in a separate case by the Sierra Club and the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society, reports USA Today writer John Ritter, the county passed its updated growth plan in March, prompting state Attorney General Jerry Brown to file an April suit under the 1970 California Environmental Quality Act, which treats greenhouse gases as any other pollution.
''San Bernardino has never seen a project it didn't like,'' said Center for Biological Diversity senior attorney Brendan Cummings. ''They rubber-stamp development. It's very much a frontier mentality.''
The Attorney General and other plaintiffs, the writer reports, want the county to augment its plan's environmental impact section with provisions for measuring greenhouse gases and reducing their emissions.
''It's ground-breaking,'' commented University of California-Berkeley's Center for Environmental Law and Policy Executive Director Richard Frank. ''California is just leading the way for other states and jurisdictions that will ultimately follow.''
Indeed, states that have also taken aggressive steps against climate change are closely watching the unprecedented lawsuit, the writer observes, mentioning Massachusetts, New York and Washington.
If the suit is successful, he writes, ''California cities and counties could be forced to take steps to limit sprawl, promote compact development, require builders to design energy-efficient houses that offer solar power, and encourage less driving, more mass transit and use of alternative fuels.''
Bernardino County spokesman David Wert expressed disappointment over the state lawsuit, saying the county has no control over 85 percent of its land, which is under municipal, state and federal jurisdiction, and its plan to combat global warming has already been redone.
Still, he promised to make sure that employment and housing centers are near transportation corridors and to step up efforts to promote compact development and mass transit.
San Diego lawyer and planning consultant Cary Lowe calls the climate-change suits against San Bernardino County ''a wake-up call'' for other jurisdictions, saying, ''They know there's a good chance they'll get sued.'' -- USA Today 6/4/2007
Resource(s): www.usatoday.com/
Napa Region Gets Advice on Benefits of Mixed-Use Development from National Center for Smart Growth
Advising the Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency to link transportation and land use in its current plan updates and the city of Napa to stay on course toward higher densities, the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Director Reid Ewing told area officials and residents that with compact mixed-use development they can save on road and infrastructure expansion, walk more rather than always drive, reduce greenhouse gases and other pollution, and lower housing costs.
A contributor to a forthcoming U.S. EPA report on the importance of smart growth for curbing global warming, reports Napa Valley Register writer Kevin Courtney, Professor Ewing pointed out that with a strong anti-sprawl policy, the nation could cut the tailpipe-emission growth rate over the next 50 years in half.
Although many people fear density and making them reconsider will take ''a lot of public education,'' he stressed, the public will increasingly realize the threats of global warming and the politics of growth will change.
''I think,'' he said, ''that the pressure to develop land differently will rise to the point that elected officials will say we have no choice'' and the U.S. will become ''a little more European.'' -- Napa Valley Register 6/1/2007
Resource(s): www.napavalleyregister.com/
Northern San Jose Residents Upset Over City's Failure to Address Traffic, School Issues in Plans for Area's Residential Growth
Revised by the San Jose City Council two years ago to spur mixed-use development in the city's northern industrial zone, its general plan eliminated the local road-capacity barrier, promised about $500 million for traffic flow improvements and envisioned an additional 26.7 million square feet of industrial space and 32,000 high-density condos and apartments, with former area councilman, now Mayor Chuck Reed, considering it the city's ''best example of smart growth,'' but neighbors resenting the first residential proposals as premature given the unresolved road, school and recreation issues.
Many also feel unprepared for the scope of the prospective changes in their area, reports San Jose Mercury News writer Barry Witt, and complain about scant information over the past two years.
''I got a map in the mail,'' recalls River Oaks Village condo owner Robert Vitiello. ''It was just a bunch of black and white lines and points. I had no clue what it meant.''
River Oaks Neighborhood Association leader Mike Bertram says on behalf of his newly formed group, ''Nobody told us, 'we're looking to put 8- or 11-story apartment buildings next to your two-story condos.' But once specific proposals started coming out, that's when we realized we had a problem.''
Expecting new industrial workers to live near their jobs instead of wasting time in traffic jams, the writer observes, city officials sought to ensure a job-housing balance by requiring construction of 7 million square feet of industrial space before building more than 8,000 housing units.
Unfortunately, the demand for industrial space has dropped, with developers seeking permits for only about 1 million square feet, while already proposing almost 8,000 housing units.
The City Council has recently approved a 575-unit complex, with a hearing on a 1,900-unit project scheduled for June 5.
Neighborhood leaders, the writer reports, are most upset about ''the city's failure to plan for schools before approving new housing,'' a criticism officials reject, confident that the high-density projects will bring in mostly young professionals and few families with children.
They have also dismissed earlier warnings by Santa Clara Unified School District administrators that the area may need four new schools.
Nevertheless, the writer adds, Mayor Reed promises a school-funding strategy, saying, ''We're still working on it.'' -- Mercury News 5/29/2007
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
Santa Cruz Resident Addresses NIMBY Concerns in Editorial Praising Smart Growth
'''Smart growth' is the environmental and humanist choice,'' writes Santa Cruz resident Amelia Timbers in a Santa Cruz Sentinel guest opinion, calling high-density mixed-use redevelopment the best option not only for ''preserving the environment and creating enough housing stock to keep prices remotely affordable,'' but also for ''making efficient public transit feasible.''
Unlike suburban sprawl, which ''makes cars indispensable,'' density ''makes cars a liability,'' she observes, refuting claims that change would threaten neighborhoods' integrity or quality of life.
''These things are actually diminished in calculable ways by pollution, traffic, isolation and car dependency, which are the real qualities of suburban life,'' she notes.
''Sometimes, wealthy neighborhoods kill good smart-growth projects in the name of aesthetics or other feelings that mask a range of true motives: fear of change, fear of who might move in next to them, fear of diversity or fear of dissatisfaction with the upgrade,'' she continues. ''We must act despite our fears for what we know is right; that is called courage. Our community is one of courage.''
She is confident that dense mixed-use projects near older homes don't destroy local integrity.
''That is because community integrity is not structural, like a house,'' she writes. ''Community integrity is not concentrated in our things, our walls, our leashes, our fences. Communities have integrity because of the people in them, because of who we are and how we live together. Community integrity resides in us, not around us.'' -- Santa Cruz Sentinel 5/6/2007
Resource(s): www.santacruzsentinel.com/
L.A. Planning Commission Hopes New Principles Will Help Them to ''Do Real Planning''
''Demand a walkable city,'' ''Offer basic design standards,'' and ''Require density around transit,'' exhort the three top principles in the 14-point ''Do Real Planning!'' set just released by the Los Angeles Planning Commission, whose members were told at their 2005 appointment by Mayor Antonio Villraigosa to become the agents of change in land use and development.
Championed by new City Planning Director Gail Goldberg, who has criticized the city's lax community plans and tries to make them tougher, reports Los Angeles Times writer Steve Hymon, many of the principles ''represent bold steps into territory largely untrod by previous planning commissions.''
Among others, the ''(o)ffer basic design standards'' principle reads, ''Our goal should be to eliminate the sea of stucco boxes, blank walls, street-front parking lots and other inhospitable streetscapes.''
The ''(a)dvance homes for every income'' principle points out, ''Every upzoning should carry with it an obligation to provide, preferably through on-site units but at least via monetary contribution, units for the poor and middle class.''
The ''(n)eutralize mansionization'' principle appeals, ''Let's be the champions of a city-wide solution to prevent out-of-scale residences.''
The ''(n)arrow road widenings'' principle cautions against indiscriminately enlarging roads near new projects, explaining, ''This rarely solves, and often invites, more passenger car congestion, and typically undermines our walkability goals.''
Planning commissioners hope the City Council will embrace the principles as it works on new ordinances, the writer reports, noting that the council has usually, but not always, followed the commission's recommendations over the past year.
The other of the commission's newly announced principles say, ''Eliminate department bottlenecks,'' ''Locate jobs near housing,'' ''Produce green buildings,'' ''Landscape in abundance,'' ''Arrest visual blight,'' Nurture planning leadership,'' ''Identify smart parking requirements,'' and ''Give project input early.''
See the set at http://cityplanning.lacity.org/. -- Los Angeles Times 4/24/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Business Neighbors Express Doubts Over San Diego's Palomar Station Infill Project
Described by supporters as smart growth, the proposed 14-acre Palomar Station infill project in San Marcos' industrial zone would put 333 condos, shops, restaurants and offices across from Palomar College and a Sprinter train stop, but some neighbors and business owners fear traffic jams, parking shortages and exposure of future condo residents to train noise and possible industrial contaminants, all considered by planners and consultants easy to abate.
With the Planning Commission likely to vote on Palomar Station next month, reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer Linda Lou, RBF Consulting expert Dawn Wilson thought road improvements would ease traffic, while the 820 parking spaces on the project's site and another 76 on nearby streets should meet the increased need.
The noise impact of about 60 commuter and two or three freight trains each day, noted consultant Hans Giroux, would be at least partly reduced by installation of a low-sound intersection horn, which could help new residents get used to the downside of their housing.
As to the potential health risks created by the area's two largest companies, Excalibur Doors and Signet Armolite, they seem nonexistent.
Excalibur, said Scientific Resources Associated consultant Valorie Thompson, wasn't emitting any solvent vapors during her recent study.
An underground plume of contaminated water from Armolite, said HDR consultant Chuck Cleeves, is moving away from the project site, with Armolite officials ready to retire all their vapor emission permits by the end of the year.
In addition, noted San Marcos Planning Director Jerry Backoff, the proponents of the mixed-use project, San Diego-based 3J Development, will install an onsite basin to catch and filter runoff and they will remove some industrial remnants, including a 55-gallon drum. -- San Diego Union-Tribune 4/18/2007
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Environmental Groups Sue San Bernardino County Over Growth Plan
''In light of global warming, issues such as zoning, housing and transportation pose new problems that require new solutions,'' said San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society President Drew Feldmann as the society, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Sierra Club sued San Bernardino County for ignoring their requests and those of state Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to deal with the greenhouse gas impact on climate change in the county's new 25-year General Plan and for violating the California Environmental Quality Act.
''We're trying to get county leadership to stop thinking in their habitual, fossilized, pro-development manner and to see their role with fresh eyes,'' he noted, while Center for Biological Diversity attorney Jonathan Evans stressed, ''Allowing rampant growth alongside increasing wildfires, increasing drought and limited infrastructure is a disaster waiting to happen.''
At 20,062 square miles, San Bernardino County is the largest in the lower 48 states, with most residents living in its urban corner east of Los Angeles, but with intense population growth reaching distant foothill and mountain communities next to national forests.
The county's population is projected to grow from 1.7 million to 2.6 million by 2030.
With higher temperatures affecting water supplies and already resulting in a yearlong wildfire season throughout Southern California, the plaintiffs point out in their lawsuit, the situation will only worsen and must be planned for in the county's long-term development plan. -- Press-Enterprise, Environmental News Network 4/11/2007
Resource(s): www.pe.com/ ; www.enn.com/
''Granny Units'' Program Helping Santa Cruz Create Much-Needed Housing for Seniors
Thanks to its 2001 Accessory Dwelling Unit Program, honored by the U.S. EPA with the 2004 Smart Growth Award for Policies and Regulations, Santa Cruz overcame frequent resident opposition to new rentals and became a national model for their addition -- the annual number of homeowners seeking ''granny unit'' permits went up from 10 in 2002 to 50 in each of the following years.
''Our program balances the environment and neighborhood concerns,'' stressed Santa Cruz Planning Director Greg Larson, pointing out that since these accessory units rely on existing infrastructure, the city doesn't need to build new roads and sewer lines.
The city also saves money by not having to subsidize rental construction, said Housing Manager Carol Berg, observing that not many rentals were built in the past 20 years, but all had city subsidies.
The Accessory Dwelling Unit Program, reports Santa Cruz Sentinel writer Shanna McCord, made it easier and cheaper for homeowners to build small, usually about 500 square-foot granny units on their single-family lots or to convert two-car garages into apartments.
The city reduced the permit fees from some $25,000 to under $10,000; eliminated public hearings for permit approvals; and lifted the requirements for covered parking, separate water hookups and new fire sprinklers in the existing home.
The Planning Department explained the procedure step-by-step in a $10 manual, with more than 800 copies sold so far, and with more than 80 cities -- from Flagstaff, Arizona to Seattle, Washington -- seeking its advice for their work on similar programs.
Before the city changed its rules, it was almost impossible to build a granny unit ''unless you wanted to spend a small fortune,'' recalls Councilman Ed Porter, instrumental in working out the new program. ''This is one of our smartest ways to develop new housing.'' -- Sentinel 3/22/2007
Resource(s): www.santacruzsentinel.com/ ; www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/index.htm
Citizens Voice Concerns Over 386-Acre Humboldt County Mixed-Use Development Proposal
Feeling left out of Humboldt County's early review and procedural process for the proposed 386-acre mixed-use Ridgewood Village, which could bring 3,600 people to the forested gulch-and-ridge area just south of Cutten, some 160 local residents packed an informal meeting with the Forster-Gill development team, all most concerned about the project's long-term environmental, traffic and fiscal impact.
Forester-Gill, reports Arcata North Coast Journal writer Heidi Walters, proposes up to 1,442 housing units in a $175,000-$500,000 price range -- single-family homes and townhouses, or ''row houses'' -- including 285 on top of shops and 73 reserved for seniors, with 200 acres turned over to the nonprofit Redwood Forest Foundation for preservation.
Still, resident Anna Hetko spoke for many, the writer notes, when she pointed out that the project is one among many the county will be considering for the Cutten area's remaining woodlands.
''All of the forest is basically going,'' she complained, saying after the meeting, ''They want to build a shopping mall in there, where now there’s bear, bobcat, spotted owl, salmon spawning creeks and five osprey nets.''
A local smart-growth advocate, Healthy Humboldt group activist Mark Lovelace, wasn't able to attend the meeting, but had praised the project as a fine example of a high-density, walkable, live-work neighborhood -- with affordable housing, open space and basic amenities -- whose residents won't need to drive often to Eureka, about four miles north.
He told the writer that he understood local concerns about massive growth, but added. ''There's a lot of promise here. This isn't building housing for someone else. Eighty percent of us in Humboldt County need the type of housing that's proposed here. People always assume affordable housing is for the homeless. And so when we talk about affordability in Humboldt County, we always run into the same problems ... including the 'Not in my neighborhood' factor.'' -- North Coast Journal 3/8/2007
Resource(s): www.northcoastjournal.com/Welcome.html
Developers Turning to High-Rise Projects in Ventura County
As its several Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) initiatives since 1995 have set tough growth boundaries around 9 of 10 Ventura County cities and various restrictions inside, while protecting all unincorporated land from sprawl, reports Los Angeles Times writer Gary Polakovic, the county's ''flat and featureless expanse of suburbia and cropland'' -- except for two office towers in Oxnard -- may change ''if developers have their way,'' especially in the Oxnard area.
''High-rise development is the ultimate expression of smart growth, particularly in an environment where people are concerned about preserving hillsides and agricultural resources,'' says developer Harvey Champlin, readying an application for a $300 million, 46-story hotel-condo tower one block from the ocean in Port Hueneme, just south of Oxnard. ''It leads you to the inescapable conclusion that if you can't go out, you've got to go up.''
In Oxnard, where developers are proposing six commercial, mixed-use and residential high-rises, ranging from 14 to 37 stories, Development Services Director Matthew Winegar echoes the argument.
''It's harder and harder to build horizontal because of (local growth control laws) and the cost of land,'' he explains, ''so you can justify high-rise development more and more nowadays.''
Councilman Andres Herrera favors the high-rise proposals as promising more city jobs and revenue. ''The only real opportunity to accommodate population growth is to go upward instead of outwards,'' he says.
On the other hand, Councilman John Zaragosa expresses widespread concerns over road gridlock. ''Years from now, we'll have more high-density buildings,'' he admits. ''But until somebody shows me we can accommodate the traffic, I am skeptical.''
Developers downplay these worries, pointing out that they will seek an Oxnard rail-stop for the high-rises and that other residents, who will work close to jobs, won't drive much.
Still, former city Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum Chairwoman Jean Joneson objects.
''I don't believe we should be like New York, with people living in 30- or 40-story towers,'' she tells the writer. ''We're not prepared for vertical buildings; we're not ready.''
Ventura City Councilman William Fulton, a nationally known land use expert, thinks high-rise developers are coming to Oxnard not because of county SOAR restrictions, but because Oxnard has both plenty of land for development and pro-growth policies.
Noting that a softer real estate market may curtail developer plans, he says in his city officials are debating whether to allow three-story townhouses midtown let alone thinking of high-rises. -- Los Angeles Times 2/23/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
L.A. Supervisors Grant Approval for Transit-Oriented ''Mini-City'' Atop Downtown Bunker Hill
In an ambitious smart-growth move to transform their parking lots and other vacant land atop downtown Bunker Hill into a dense, mixed-use, 24-hour cultural hub, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors granted final approvals to Related Cos. for its $2.05 billion Grand Avenue transit-oriented ''mini-city,'' whose first-phase construction will include 24- and 49-story glass towers -- featuring a five-star hotel and 1,000 units, with 200 for low-income residents -- and a 16-acre public park.
''This is a historic day for Los Angeles,'' said civic activist Eli Broad. ''It changes the entire complexion of the center of our city.''
Generally praised at recent public meetings, report Los Angeles Times writers Cara Mia DiMassa and Jack Leonard, the project troubles some because of city and county breaks for Related Cos.
The joint city-county Grand Avenue Authority will lease the public land to the developer for 99 years, while the city will not only grant the project tax rebates, expected to reach between $40 million and $66 million over 20 years, but also subsidize the affordable units and improve streets.
The City Council approved the deal by 13-0 and the County Board by 4-1, with Supervisor Mike Antonovich casting the sole ''no'' vote.
''The desire for an iconic skyline, that's just for aesthetics,'' he said. ''That should be borne by a developer and not the taxpayers who reside in the entire county.''
According to Related Cos. officials and their investors, their Grand Avenue redevelopment wouldn't be feasible without public subsidies.
In addition to taking most of the financial risk, the writers note, Related Cos. is required to pay the city's ''prevailing'' or ''living'' wage for all construction and permanent jobs in the project, while offering at least 30 percent of these jobs to people living within a five-mile radius.
At the same time, the city and the county will recoup the public investment in the long term through much higher tax revenue than their empty or underused Bunker Hill sites yield now. -- Los Angeles Times 2/14/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Funds -- and Popularity -- Provide Unique Opportunity for Gov. Schwarzenegger to Reshape California Development
With the state gaining some 500,000 residents a year, while ''choking on traditional suburban tract-style growth,'' suffering from affordable housing shortages, and running out of land in coastal metro areas but still squandering inland countryside, writes California Planning & Development Report publisher and academician William Fulton in The Los Angeles Times, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has a unique opportunity both to ensure his goal of a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and to reshape development, through targeted allocations from the $40 billion in bonds passed by voters last year, half of it for transportation.
The governor's climate action team, the writer notes, envisions a total emissions cut of 170 tons a year, including 18 tons less thanks to development changes, with the task of redirecting growth assigned to the secretary of business, transportation and housing, a post recently, and unfortunately, vacated by smart-growth advocate Sunne Wright McPeak.
''To meet his emissions reduction goals, Schwarzenegger will have to use the bond money to stimulate or reinforce certain kinds of growth,'' William Fulton stresses, advising him to promote construction of three-to-four-story buildings -- with housing, shops and offices under the same roof -- in urban areas, as is already happening in Pasadena or Santa Monica, a solution Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa calls ''elegant density.''
The governor should also provide business incentives for ''more jobs in the housing-rich suburbs in the Inland Empire and the central Valley,'' to spare their residents lengthy work commutes to coastal cities.
He should spend the transportation bond money where the growth is most advantageous for easing traffic, cutting greenhouse gas and getting people out of their cars.
He should use funds from different bonds ''in tandem,'' with the housing money subsidizing ''higher-density residential complexes near transit stops'' and the transportation money improving service ''on the adjacent rail and bus lines.''
He should even tap the water/park bond ''to reinforce his vision'' by buying outer land -- for instance, in the western Sierra foothills -- to save it from development for long-distance commuters.
Noting that his building industry supporters ''don't want him to restrict their ability to build where they want,'' while environmentalists worry about excessive development, the writer points out that the governor will ''have to take on at least some of these interest groups'' to succeed in his plans.
''It's unlikely that he -- or any future governor,'' he concludes, ''will ever have this much money and this much leverage again.'' -- The Los Angeles Times 2/4/2007
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Will 2007 Be a Watershed Year for Smart Growth in California?
The passage of some $40 billion in infrastructure bonds last year ''may make 2007 a watershed year for smart growth'' in California, depending on the success of smart-growth-minded lawmakers in ''attaching strings'' to this new housing and transportation money, writes Sacramento Capitol Weekly reporter Cosmo Garvin, with Planning and Conservation League (PCL) Executive Director Gary Patton saying, ''Forty-billion dollars is a very significant inducement to do good -- or to do bad.''
Democratic Assemblymen Dave Jones and Mark DeSaulnier welcome the increased opportunity to do good. The former is preparing legislation under which governments would have a better chance of getting state aid for their housing and transportation if they were ready to reduce local ''vehicle miles traveled'' (VMT) by 10 percent within 25 years.
''It could be encouraging mixed-use development, it could be revitalizing aging commercial corridors, it could be investing in public transportation,'' Assemblyman Jones says, confident that VMT reduction plans would alleviate most environmental and social problems, including gridlock, sprawl and greenhouse gas emission.
On the other hand, Assemblyman DeSaulnier is focusing on the need for better regional coordination of local growth-management policies, possibly under a new independent state board, to ease municipal competition for tax revenue.
''We tend to think of ourselves in California as being cutting edge in all things,'' he observes. ''But on growth management, we've been absolutely dysfunctional.''
Still, PCL Director Patton feels a state-board proposal would face strong opposition in the legislature and considers the budget process crucial for smart growth efforts. And these, the writer notes, seem to antagonize builders.
''The voters weren't asked to vote for smart growth or habitat conservation or achieving certain air-quality objectives,'' argues California Building Industry Vice President Tim Coyle. ''If you try to get too cute, voters are going to say 'Wait a minute, that's not what we voted for'. And the next time -- and there's going to be a next time -- they're going to say no.'' -- Capitol Weekly 2/1/2007
Resource(s): www.capitolweekly.net
Los Angeles to Get First Taste of Transit-Oriented Mega-Developments
Accustomed to mega-development accessible only by cars, Los Angeles will test it now for mixed uses near transit, with the L.A. Live ''sports-entertainment'' hub near Staples Center and the Grand Avenue towers on Bunker Hill already under construction and a major Universal City studio site expansion just unveiled -- all three expected to cost some $7.5 billion and advance smart growth.
''This is very different from past development in L.A. We have in the past seen sort of a limitless amount of land,'' said City Planning Director Gail Goldberg. ''And I think that there were opportunities for sprawl that don't exist anymore.''
The L.A. Live hub, reports Los Angeles Times writer Cara Mia DiMassa, will feature a convention center and hotel, a 7,100-seat theater, 14-screen movie theater, broadcast facilities, several restaurants and clubs, and luxury condos.
The Grand Avenue project, ''touted as the much-needed heart for the city's center,'' will ultimately include eight condo and office towers, shopping arcades, a 16-acre park and a boutique hotel.
Universal Studio's plan for its underused back lot envisions a street with homes and apartments, restaurants and stores, plus a hotel on adjacent NBC-Universal property.
Some skeptics worry about the size of the projects, whose impact may overshadow incremental increases in transit use, with a Grand Avenue environmental report showing that despite the Read Line subway alongside, downtown traffic could significantly worsen.
''It has much to do with changing people's perceptions of how they want to travel,'' observed UCLA Planning Professor Richard Weinstein, pointing out that congestion has begun to affect individual decisions about where to live, which contributes to the boom in upscale downtown lofts and condos, but the future residents of the three transit-oriented mega projects would also have to change their lifestyles accordingly.
Still, former longtime L.A. planning chief, now Urban Land Institute's Center for Balanced Development in the West Director Con Howe, foresees wider benefits. Big projects often become ''a generative or a regenerative force'' for adjacent areas, he stressed, with Forrest City company official Greg Vilkin confirming that its new upscale Met Lofts have already sparked significant residential construction in the surrounding South Park neighborhood.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is optimistic too, saying this development type not only encourages transit use, but also greatly expands urban core housing. -- Los Angeles Times 12/13/2006
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Councilman Says San Diego Land Use Is About ''Walkable, Livable Communities''
In a 5-3 vote, the San Diego City Council banned 90,000-square-foot and larger big-boxes that use 10 percent of their space for groceries and other sales-tax-exempt merchandise, with Councilman Kevin Faulconer voicing opponents' doubt it's the council's role ''to dictate where families should buy their groceries,'' and Councilman Tony Young saying for the majority that San Diego land use is ''about walkable, livable communities, not big, mega-structures that inhibit people's lives.''
The ban requires a second vote, probably in January, reports the Associated Press, quoting Mayor Jerry Sanders' spokesman Fred Sainz, who called the move ''social engineering, not good public policy'' and promised a mayoral veto, although it can be overridden by a five-member majority.
The council is taking aim at Wal-Mart, whose Supercenters average 185,000 square feet and carry groceries, the agency says, noting that the company has 18 regular stores in the San Diego area, including four inside city limits, and is perceived as planning local expansion to a Supercenter.
Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin McCall expressed disappointment over the council's vote, but pointed out that there are ''still a number of steps left in this process'' and that the company will look at its options. This, the agency observes, may mean a suit or a push for a referendum, although the company has recently dropped its legal challenge to a similar ban in Turlock, a city of 70,000, about 85 miles southeast of San Francisco.
A federal district court judge decided in July that Turlock's new zoning ordinance, which prevented a planned 225,000-square-foot Supercenter, did not violate Wal-Mart's constitutional rights, with the state Supreme Court refusing to hear the case. -- USA Today 11/29/2006
Resource(s): www.usatoday.com/
Gov. Schwarzenegger Breezes to Victory Over Challenger Phil Angelides in California's Gubernatorial Race
Buoyed by his name recognition and compromises with the state Democratic legislative majority, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger defeated Democrat Phil Angelides by 55.8 to 39.2 percent, while campaigning for and helping secure approval of a bipartisan $40.1 billion bond package to fund transportation, affordable housing, schools, levees and resource conservation, and eventually committing himself against property-rights Proposition 90, rejected by 52.5 percent of voters on Election Day.
Pushed as necessary in the wake of the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold municipal rights to condemn property for private redevelopment (Kelo vs. New London, Conn.), Proposition 90 would have barred governments from using eminent domain for such purposes and forced them to compensate owners for land restrictions if not directly related to public health and safety.
Opponents have warned the public that Proposition 90 could undercut everything from environmental safeguards to workplace rules to consumer protections, and Governor Schwarzenegger took that stance a week before the election, opposing the measure as poorly written and likely to cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
In contrast to the $3.77 million in support of the measure, coming mostly from New York libertarian Howard Rich, a broad state coalition of environmentalists, builders, bankers, unionists and public officials raised $12.45 million to inform voters about its true implications, which ensured its defeat.
As to the bond measures (Propositions 1A through 1E), $37.4 billion of the $40.1 total was placed on the ballot by the governor and Democratic lawmakers after several months of intense negotiations.
''We put the largest state bond proposal ever on the ballot,'' said Senate Democratic Pro Tem President Don Perata as returns began to signal its passage on election night. ''It required a two-third vote (of the legislature) to do that, and it proves if everyone works together, you can get things done.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 11/8/2006
Resource(s): http://sfgate.com/chronicle/ ; www.sacbee.com
Bay Area Voters Return Mixed Results for Growth Management, Land Protection Initiatives
Local county and municipal initiatives to strengthen or expand growth management and land protection in the San Francisco Bay region had mixed electoral results, report San Francisco Chronicle writers Glen Martin and Patrick Hodge, finding five of them successful, but another four thwarted.
In Contra Costa County, 63 percent of voters told the county to adopt growth boundaries or forgo some sales tax revenue (Measure L).
In Napa County, 54 percent of voters approved creation of the Regional Park and Open Space District (Measure 1), to augment county and municipal parks, trails and recreation, while conserving, restoring and enhancing natural areas for greater public access.
In Sonoma County, 75 percent of voters extended a quarter-cent sales tax until 2031 (Measure F), to raise between $17 million and $30 million annually for the county's Open Space Authority.
In Brisbane, 73 percent of voters blocked a proposed opening of the former Guadalupe Valley Quarry to a residential project (Measure B), with 52 percent of voters rejecting a larger mixed-use quarry development in Pacifica (Measure L).
On the other hand, in Santa Clara County, 51 percent of voters rejected development limits for some 400,000 acres of ranchland and hillsides (Measure A), which would have curbed sprawl by allowing only one home per 160 acres of ranchland and four homes per 160 acres of hillsides, instead of the eight currently permitted on such tracts, respectively. The California association of Realtors, farmers and builders, the writers note, argued that such restrictions would unfairly lower land values in affected areas.
With similar objections raised in Solano County, about 52 percent of voters said ''no'' to keeping its 1984 growth boundaries until 2036 (Measure J).
In San Mateo County, the proposal to increase the sales tax from 8.25 to 8.38 percent, to generate about $16 million a year for park maintenance and improvement (Measure A), required a two-thirds majority and failed with 55 percent of votes.
And in Fremont, 66 percent of voters objected to severe development limits for 512 acres near Coyote Hills Regional Park (Measure K), where owners of a 420-acre historic ranch are projecting 800 homes, 20,000 square feet of retail and other facilities. -- San Francisco Chronicle 11/8/2006
Resource(s): http://sfgate.com/chronicle/
Gov. Schwarzenegger Says Proposition 90 Too Costly for Taxpayers
Well ahead of Democrat Phil Angelides in polls since the summer, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been neutral on Proposition 90, which combined eminent domain limitation and ''pay-or-waive'' takings provisions, until a week before the election, when he finally found it too costly for taxpayers. ''Governor Schwarzenegger strongly believes in defending property rights and was disappointed when the U.S. Supreme Court decided to allow governments to seize properties just to trade them out with other land uses,'' said his campaign spokesman Matt David. ''But the governor does not support Proposition 90 because it is a poorly written initiative that could cost taxpayers billions of dollars and could prevent the most basic use of eminent domain laws for vital roads, schools and construction.''
The announcement pleased business groups, which have been among the governor's closest allies, reports Sacramento Bee writer John Hill, but pits him against some influential Republicans, including state Senator Tom McClintock, who is hoping to become lieutenant governor.
Yes on Proposition 90 campaign manager Dave Gilliard said the initiative has drawn wide bipartisan support and regretted that the governor ''parroted'' its opponents. Earlier in the campaign, Stateline.org writer Pauline Vu quoted the manager as saying, ''At least with eminent domain, if you lose property, you get paid something. With regulatory takings, you don't get anything. One day your property's worth something and the next day it's worth nothing.''
In response, No on Proposition 90 campaign spokeswoman Kathy Fairbanks said, ''We agree with the 'yes' side that something does need to be done to address eminent domain abuses in California, but Proposition 90 is not the answer. The measure includes a very extreme provision having to do with regulatory takings, which is completely unrelated to eminent domain and protecting homes, but is going to cost taxpayers billions of dollars as a result of junk lawsuits.'' -- Sacramento Bee 10/31/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/ ; www.stateline.org
Sacramento's ''Complete Streets'' Program to Expand Public Right-of-Way, Allow More Transportation Choices
Motorists' reign over Sacramento region roads ''is about to end,'' reports Sacramento Bee writer Tony Bizak, with the county's $10 billion transportation sales-tax measure of 2004 requiring ''(r)outine accommodation of bicycles and pedestrians'' in all transportation projects, the money flow beginning next month, and planners expanding the public right-of-way program under a new ''Complete Streets'' name.
''The old way of doing things, of just building more lanes, wasn't working,'' points out Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) transportation expert Mike McKeever, describing ''Complete Streets'' as part of overall efforts to promote mixed uses. ''This is a different way of thinking about building communities, where more of your daily life,'' he observes, ''is available to you at short distances.''
Instrumental in the shift toward pedestrians, bikers, and transit passengers, Sacramento County transportation executive Tom Zlotkowski says, ''Our mobility culture is evolving.... It's about quality of life. People are tired of fighting traffic. We want choices.''
Unable yet to estimate the total ''Complete Streets'' implementation price, he expects the extra costs to range from minimal on some street or interchange improvement projects to 25 percent on others. County engineer Dan Shoeman agrees. ''There are going to be some real challenges based on physical constraints at times,'' he explains, noting that the county has long been moving away from designing roads only for cars. ''You could have higher costs.''
North State Building Industry Association official Dennis Rogers supports ''Complete Streets,'' while mentioning the need for balance to ensure that planners won't target ''too much buildable land for transportation infrastructure.''
Many solutions pursued or planned in Sacramento County are already standard in Davis, Yolo County, some 12 miles west, the writer reports, quoting Davis bicycle and pedestrian coordinator Tim Bustos, who says, ''That's basically what we've been building for decades.'' With its high-wheel bike logo, the writer adds, Davis is really an urban village, where people can bike and walk everywhere. They have bike lanes on almost all major streets, and 27 bike and pedestrian bridges or tunnels, including one under Interstate 80. -- Sacramento Bee 10/23/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
San Jose's Mayoral Candidates Approach Smart Growth from Different Perspectives
Preoccupied with development speed and scope this election, San Jose voters should feel fortunate that both mayoral candidates, Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez and Councilman Chuck Reed, agree on key land-use issues, vow to update the city's overdue 10-year plan, and embrace smart growth, differing mainly in their approach, with the former considered more creative and the latter more methodical.
They both champion high-rise housing near transit, pedestrian-friendly projects, and links between the city's neighborhoods and its network of trails and bike paths, reports Mercury News writer Deborah Lohse, with former mayoral aide, lobbyist Sean Morley, giving a couple of extra points ''on practical development'' to the vice mayor and ''on technical land-use ability'' to the councilman.
Vice Mayor Chavez learned her development skills on the job as a councilwoman whose district included the downtown core, where she helped secure approval for at least seven residential high-rises. She also stood firm for mid-rise housing at Tamien Place near light-rail and Caltrain stations, and helped mollify local opposition by increasing nearby open space. She won the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters, its chairman Rod Diridon saying, ''Cindy has taken a leadership position on the tough issues that have faced the city.''
Councilman Reed, whose resume includes 20 years of real estate law expertise, 14 years on the Santa Clara County and San Jose planning commissions, and participation in numerous land-use task forces, spent four years on the council spearheading mixed uses in a master plan for a 1,000-acre development in his district's North San Jose section. The high-density development, promoted by its advocates as a model of smart growth, is to include 32,000 housing units and almost 27 million square feet of high-rise industrial buildings, with most future residents and workers expected to walk, bike and ride light rail. Afraid of ''a traffic nightmare,'' the writer notes, the county and nearby cities stalled the plan in court. This, along with the planned 3,200-acre mixed-use development in Coyote Valley in largely rural South San Jose and the 500-acre and 320-acre projects in East San Jose, the writer adds, will likely consume the next mayor's time more than anything else, and voters must decide to whom they should entrust the task. -- Mercury News 10/16/2006
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
Funders Step Up Efforts to Pass Proposition 90 Behind Screen of Tax-Exempt Advocacy Groups
With $3.4 million of the $3.6 million they spent so far provided by an intricate network of tax-exempt advocacy groups that front for libertarian New York real estate investor Howie Rich and hide the identity of individual donors, conservative California activists are stepping up their campaign for Proposition 90, whose passage, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Patrick Hoge, would bar the use of eminent domain for private development, force public payments for property value losses caused by land-use rules, fuel countless lawsuits and undercut municipal planning and environmental protection.
In contrast to out-of-state funding for Proposition 90, its opponents raised most of their $3.9 million locally, with $1.4 million from the League of California Cities, $400,000 from the California Public Securities Association, and $250,000 from the Forest City Residential West development firm.
In interviews and e-mails to The Chronicle, the writer notes, Howie Rich said the pro-90 tax-exempt groups help protect people who share his view that government powers should be curtailed but fear retribution - especially if they do business with local governments - if their names are found in campaign-finance disclosure reports. ''That is why most groups do not disclose their donors,'' he maintained. ''It's truly a First Amendment concern.''
Both he and Republican insider Grover Norquist, whose Americans for Tax Reform group put money in some libertarian efforts, the writer reports, mention some liberal tax-exempt groups, including unions, as also contributing to political campaigns. ''The difference is they steal their money (from union members),'' Grover Norquist said, ''and we got ours voluntarily.''
Critics hardly can take that as a given without a donor list disclosure, convinced that Howie Rich is trying to create the illusion of popular support. Officials of the labor-backed tax-exempt Ballot Initiative Strategy Center in Washington, D.C., which counters libertarian efforts and spent just $60,000 on five minimum wage and clean energy initiatives across the country, intend to identify their key donors without specifying contribution amounts. ''I welcome a comparison between the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center and Howard Rich,'' said center spokeswoman Kristina Wilfore. ''We're not dumping money into shell organizations.''
Experts told the writer that tax-exempt advocacy groups in political campaigns should disclose their donors, especially since the George Washington University's Campaign Finance Institute reported in July that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does little to deter a potential abuse. Institute Associate Director Stephen Weissman said, ''If people (voters) are being asked to support something, they ought to know who is asking them.''
University of Southern California's Initiative and Referendum Institute President John Matsusaka agreed. ''Why does it have to be so secretive?'' he asked. ''It smells bad, and there ought to be more transparency.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle 10/5/2006
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Transportation for Livable Communities Program Funds Mobility Projects in Bay Area
Under its 1998 Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) program for promoting smart growth and the link between transportation and land use in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) awarded a total of nearly $17 million in capital grants for 11 cities to help them finance pedestrian, bicycle and street improvement projects.
''The TLC program puts smart growth principles into action,'' said MTC Planning Committee Chairwoman and Suisun City Mayor Jim Spering. ''Whether in downtown areas or in other neighborhoods, TLC projects promote a sense of community by making it easier and more inviting for residents to use public transit, walk or bicycle. The streetscape enhancements and pedestrian/bicycle access improvements built with this money will pay immediate dividends for these communities.''
In this round of supplemental funding, the MTC Planning Committee received 60 applications, awarding the grants to ongoing projects in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Concord, Daly City, El Cerrito, Fremont, Livermore, Morgan Hill, Santa Rosa and South San Francisco. Since 1998, MTC has invested more than $84 million in 81 such projects throughout the Bay Area. Details at www.mtc.ca.gov/planning/smart_growth/index.htm. 9/27/2006
Resource(s): http://biz.yahoo.com/
BART's Pleasanton Station Funding Plan Includes $15M Advance Payment from Developers Leasing Land for Transit Village
In an unusual $80 million funding partnership, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) will put $50 million into construction of its second station in Pleasanton, just across I-580 from Dublin, with an additional $15 million coming from local, state and federal grants, and another $15 million from advance payments by developers who will lease 17 acres of BART land for a planned ''transit village'' on both sides of the highway.
''This is new for us,'' said Oakland-based Ampleton Development Group village planner Bob Russell. ''It's pretty unique across the country. It's not a typical way of doing things.''
The transit village, reports Contra Costa Times writer Sophia Kazmi, is to include 210 condos, retail space and a 150-room hotel on Dublin's side, and offices or housing on the Pleasanton edge, with a walkway over the highway allowing pedestrian access to the station and passage between both cities.
Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart expects the station ''to be a redevelopment vehicle for our downtown.'' Pleasanton Mayor Jennifer Hosterman hopes the transit village's planners will decide to replace offices with residential space on her side. ''It could provide more workforce housing,'' she observes, referring to lower-income residents who can't afford the area's typical $600,000-$800,000 starter-home price. ''That is the kind of development we want to encourage.'' -- Contra Costa Times 9/24/2006
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
L.A. Officials Outlining Plan to Build ''Urban Villages'' Along L.A.'s Transit Corridors
Anticipating Los Angeles Basin population growth from 16.7 to 23 million by 2030, Los Angeles Democratic Mayor Antonio Villareigosa has been quietly working with city and Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) experts on a 2007 plan to rezone hundreds of parcels within a half-mile of bus stops and train stations in several transit corridors for high-density, mixed-use ''urban villages,'' focusing first on the $640 million Expo Line rail project being launched this month.
''The goal is to produce urban villages with high-quality development that would encourage pedestrian and transit-oriented design,'' said the mayor's transportation deputy Jaime De La Vega, confident it would boost area transit, currently used on a regular basis by just 5 percent of Los Angeles County residents.
MTA has already slated some two dozen of its properties along rail and subway lines for construction of at least 2,800 apartments, 385 condos and 285,200 square feet of retail, with MTA real estate chief Roger Moilere saying, ''This creates an enormous economic engine.''
To facilitate transit-oriented development, city and MTA officials are looking at the possibility of relaxing requirements for parking space and building heights, reports Los Angeles Daily News writer Rachel Uranga, noting that according to a recent study, density along the Expo Line would almost have to double to secure developer profits. With some residents convinced that current regulations already favor developers, afraid of land speculation and substandard projects, and likely to oppose local rezoning, some experts are cautious about the mayoral plan.
''A lot of developers will just drop out. You have landowners that are holdouts and developers who say they can't wait,'' noted former Transportation and Land Use Collaborative of Southern California director, now Cleveland-based Forrest City Enterprises Vice President Katherine Perez.
''This sounds like a really ambitious agenda,'' observed National Center for Metropolitan Transportation Research Director Genevieve Giuliano. ''In some of these areas, there are going to be issues with existing neighbors that are not going to want high-rise development. This will really be challenging.''
Friends 4 Expo light-rail advocacy group co-chairman Darrell Clarke concurs. ''The devil is going to be in the details,'' he commented. ''We have a lot of developers that build boxes. The question is, will they (the projects) really be transit-oriented development or put more cars on the street? Will they have amenities and will they fit into the neighborhoods?'' -- Daily News 9/3/2006
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/
Columnist Analyzes Gov. Schwarzenegger's Decision to Support California's Global Warming Solutions Act
Unpersuaded by the urgent need to pass the controversial California Global Warming Solutions Act right now, especially since its emission caps won't be enforced before 2012, Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters thinks the main reason for this virtual ratification of the ''Kyoto greenhouse gas treaty that the Bush administration has shunned'' stems from Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's desire ''to stake a claim on global warming as he seeks reelection.''
The governor knows ''it's a popular case -- bordering on a secular dogma -- among the middle-class independents whose votes he needs.''
Consequently, writes the columnist in two consecutive pieces, he has been doing ''image-enhancing'' deals with Democratic legislators on their top issues, including the minimum wage increase, prescription drug discounts and global warming, ''to enhance his claim on being effective centrist governor.''
On the other hand, the Democrats know his interest in those issues ''might wane'' once he is reelected, while environmentalists realize ''they have more leverage on the governor now than they will ever have in the future.''
With a new Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll showing the governor with a 45-32 percent lead over his Democratic challenger, state Treasurer Phil Angelides, the columnist calls it ''a moment in time that both parties exploit to their mutual benefits,'' but he would prefer the greenhouse gas emission deal to have been done differently, without ''this frantic effort with all sorts of last-minute amendments.''
Concerned that the international commitment to carbon emission reduction ''exists mostly on paper,'' he writes, ''The huge, rapidly developing industrial economies of India and China, for example, are exempted from the Kyoto treaty's emission standards -- as if Mother Nature would somehow distinguish between Chinese carbon and California carbon.''
In this context, he concludes of the bill ''cobbled together'' for a vote on the last day of the legislative session: ''That's a lousy way to write legislation that could have a major effect on the California economy -- but with term limits, neither Schwarzenegger nor most of those casting votes will be in office a decade hence when its impact become evident. For politicians, therefore, it's symbolic gain without any pain -- for them.'' -- Sacramento Bee 9/1/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
California Could Become First State in Nation to Follow Kyoto Climate-Control Treaty
The world's 12th-largest source of carbon emissions, California has become the first in the nation to follow the Kyoto climate-control treaty with Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act -- passed 32-14 in the Senate and 46-31 in the Assembly -- which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels, or 25 percent, by 2020.
Expected to cut emissions by 174 million metric tons of gases, reports Sacramento Bee writer Judy Lin, the bill directs the California Air Resource Board to work out regulations and a mandatory emission tracking system by 2006; requires major industries, including utilities, oil refineries and cement kilns, to meet quotas through new technologies and credit trading by 2012; and authorizes the governor to lift emission caps for one year under extreme circumstances.
In a break with his fellow Republicans who claimed it will take jobs and business out of the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to sign the bill, pushed by conservationists and hammered out in intense negotiations during last days of the legislative session.
''We can now move forward with developing a market-based system that makes California a world leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions,'' he said in a statement. ''AB 32 strengthens our economy, cleans our environment and, once again, establishes California as the leader in environmental protection.''
Assembly Republican leader George Plescia insisted that climate change should be dealt with at the national instead of a state level, but Assembly Democratic Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate Democratic President Pro Tem Don Perata stressed the need for the state's action.
California ''has always been a leader in protecting the environment,'' said Speaker Nunez. ''And we have now moved it to the next level.''
President Perata shared the sentiment. ''The facts are if we do not do something to stop carbon emissions in this world, we are going to see a diminution of both the quality of life, and eventually all life.''
Instrumental in the bill's creation and passage, environmental leaders hailed lawmakers for their foresight. ''We've reached a tipping point in the fight against global warming,'' said Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) President Frances Beinecke. ''Other states, the nation and other countries would do well to follow California's example.''
Others echoed the view. ''We commend California business, faith-based and legislative leaders who made this happen,'' said Environmental Defense President Fred Krupp. ''By capping emissions in California, world-class entrepreneurs can dispel the myth that reducing global warming emissions will harm our economy. This provides even more momentum for Washington to act -- Americans want action on global warming.''
And Environmental Defense senior attorney Jim Marston drove the point further. ''States must lead in the absence of federal action on global warming,'' he stressed. ''It's no wonder that today 19 states and four former EPA administrators also filed Supreme Court briefs to force the federal government into action on reducing our global warming pollution.'' -- Sacramento Bee, StopGlobalWarming.org 9/1/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/ ; www.stopglobalwarming.org/
''Focusing Our Vision'' in the Bay Area: Communities Invited to Put Personal Touches on Regional Development Plan
Taking stock of what Bay Area jurisdictions have accomplished since the region's 2002 smart growth visioning process, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and the Bay Area Air Quality Control District invite local officials, neighborhood leaders and other stakeholders to a Focusing our Vision series of public events, to work out a joint ''nine-county regional development plan'' necessary to accommodate another million residents by 2020.
Responsible growth planning is well under way in many communities, state ABAG President Dave Cortese and its executive board members John Gioia and Gwen Regalia in a Contra Costa Times guest commentary, citing as examples several Contra Costa County cities.
Walnut Creek, they write, is working hard to protect neighborhoods, locate housing near transit and bike and pedestrian paths, and boost downtown. Hercules is pursuing its clear vision of a well-designed, walkable and transit-oriented community, while promoting local businesses and housing options.
Richmond and Martinez have created inter-modal transportation hubs and expanded housing and commercial opportunities, the latter celebrating its downtown, waterfront, architecture and open space through a theatre and a farmers' market. Pleasant Hill will soon have a transit village near a BART station. Pittsburg and Antioch want to revitalize their downtowns by mixing businesses and housing. And Concord is drawing up a plan for former military areas, while creating family-oriented programs, diversified housing near its BART station, and a downtown business core around historic Todos Santos Plaza.
''These are all forward-planning, vision-based efforts that reflect how our diverse local needs can be successfully connected to a regionwide network of neighborhoods,'' they write, telling all prospective participants in the Focusing our Vision process that their input ''will help determine how and where growth should occur and what area should be protected.'' -- Contra Costa Times 7/27/2006
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
Improving Urban Services Could Curb NIMBY Resistance to Infill Development
While smart growth is making steady progress, it still faces frequent Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) resistance, mostly because some people fear change, think higher density only increases traffic and lack full explanation of mixed-use benefits, reports San Diego Business Journal writer Pat Broderick, citing four local smart growth practitioners.
The question is how to guide growth ''in a graceful way that improves the city,'' pointed out MW Steele architectural firm principal Mark Steele, with London Group Realty Advisors Inc. principal Nathan L. Moeder stressing the need for urban investments. ''We have to start contributing money to these areas, so neighborhoods see that by allowing density in their back yard, they are benefiting as well,'' he noted. ''We need to reallocate money to invest in sewers and cracked sidewalks. We need to put tax dollars and permits and fee dollars back into the community. That is what has been missing with smart growth.''
Sudberry Properties Inc. vice president Stephen Haase, who helped plan the early Rio Vista West example of smart growth in 1992 and other mixed-use projects since, found people's interest in adjacent development natural.
''My theory is that we are all NIMBYs. We do care about what happens around us,'' he observed. ''The fact is, some people take it to the extreme, and are opposed to any growth at all.'' In San Diego's early growth phase, NIMBYism wasn't a factor, but now ''most of the vacant land is gone, and more development will be infill and will be in people's back yards,'' he said. ''It will have to be high quality and smart growth,'' with builders meeting local needs.
''Smart growth is that you don't have to go to different places to live life,'' he continued. ''Neighborhoods are nothing without people. The strongest social capital has a diverse community, rich and poor, different ethnicities, genders and religious beliefs. That's the beauty of our society.''
Douglas Wilson Cos. Chairman and CEO Douglas Wilson, a prime mover in downtown San Diego revitalization, agrees. He also thinks that some fear of growth is natural in human nature, and that the solution lies in smart growth and higher urban densities.
''It's a much preferable alternative to taking more and more rural land, and disrupting it and having to build brand-new infrastructure, and requiring longer commutes.'' Noting that much of ''the negativity'' can be quelled through cooperation with all involved and exhaustive explanation of project benefits, he adds about smart growth, ''we are in the early innings of a much longer ballgame.'' -- San Diego Business Journal 7/17/2006
Resource(s): www.sdbj.com/default.asp
Santa Clara Supervisors Approve Ballot Measure Limiting Residential Construction on County's Unincorporated Areas
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a November ballot measure that would limit residential construction on 400,000 acres of the county's unincorporated land, with both sides ready for its ''largest land-use fight'' in 15 years -- the smart-growth People For Land And Nature (PLAN) coalition of the Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance and Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society stressing the need to curb sprawl and protect open space, water resources and other natural assets, but the Alliance for Housing and the Environment, which includes the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, Hillside Owners Association, Silicon Valley Association of Realtors and Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, fearing violation of basic property rights.
While the county currently allows one home for 20 to 160 acres in hillside areas, depending on a parcel use, reports Milpitas Post writer Ian Bauer, the so-called ''Initiative for Conservation of Hillsides, Ranchlands and Agriculture'' would set a strict 160-acre lot minimum.
Proponents collected 58,633 signatures under their ballot petition, or 22,000 more than needed, raised $200,000, have the same in pledges, and may reach perhaps $1 million, says PLAN coordinator, Palo Alto Councilman Peter Drekmeier, who feels good about this ''tremendous support'' and prospects for a November success.
Opponents claim the initiative would make it ''cumbersome'' for property owners to enlarge or add homes, because each such project would have to be approved by the county board, and would also hurt value of land.
''It will immediately devaluate it,'' said County Farm Bureau Executive Director Jenny Derry, noting that the majority of the county's more than 500 farmers run family businesses, but admitting that her group faces ''an uphill battle.''
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter spokeswoman Melissa Hippard pointed out that the initiative will save landowners money in the long run. ''Property affected is definitely going to be taxed at a lower property tax,'' she observed. ''If you're a rancher, you don't want to pay a higher property tax.''
Adding that the initiative will help the county manage growth without eroding rural areas, she said, ''We want to see growth absorbed in existing urbanized land. We don't want to see mini-mansions dotting the hillsides.'' -- Milpitas Post 7/13/2006
Resource(s): www.themilpitaspost.com/
Solano County Will Get Two Chances to Bring Order to Development
The last among the eight San Francisco Bay Area counties on the Greenbelt Alliance's 100-point Smart Growth Scorecard, with an overall policy score of 39 percent -- its high marks of 65 percent for Growth Management and Agricultural Zoning policies undercut by weak ones of 30, 25 and 10 percent for Open Space Protection, Conservation Planning and Transportation Choices, respectively -- Solano County will certainly get more points if the Board of Supervisors approves an unprecedented 30-year ordinance to bar residential development in unincorporated areas next month or if voters do it in November by passing a grassroots Orderly Growth Initiative, put on the ballot by some 15,000 signatories.
The supervisors, reports Vacaville Reporter writer Jason Massad, had a chance to build on orderly growth ordinances enacted in 1984 and 1994 by passing the proposed long-term measure on June 27, but instead they approved a 30-day study of its implications. With Vacaville Chamber of Commerce consultant Dan Sharp acknowledging broad public support for orderly growth, but questioning the measure's 30-year reach, criticized by developer Bryant Stocking as ''mind boggling,'' Orderly Growth Committee chairman Ernest Kimme said it suffers from a ''tremendous amount of misinformation'' and Benicia activist Marylin Bardet pointed out that farmland seemingly ''marginal'' now, will prove its value in the future.
The Vacaville Reporter welcomes the 30-day study of the measure's details as prudent, noting that the Board of Supervisors will likely ''forgo a costly election,'' but wants ''to probe several key questions being posed by critics and supporters alike.'' The most important questions are whether and how the 30-year measure will affect the county's growth blueprint, and future farming, tourism, wind-power projects and housing.
''Voters have proven they want to see separation between communities, something the growth ban in rural areas can help accomplish,'' says the daily in an editorial. ''Having cities, not the county, manage urban development is important. Cities are staffed to oversee housing, schools and high-density transportation systems. The county's role is much different.''
Confident that the slow-growth advocacy effort ''ensures continuance of the Orderly Growth Initiative, in one form or another,'' the editorial adds, ''we want to see development corralled in the seven cities, not spread across the rural county land,'' but ''we cannot imperil the future of agriculture or our local economy.'' -- Vacaville Reporter 6/28/2006
Resource(s): www.thereporter.com ; www.greenbelt.org/resources/reports/smartgrowthscorecard/countyscores.html
San Francisco Region Needs to Redouble Smart Growth Efforts to Meet 2020 Growth Needs
To accommodate another million residents by 2020, the eight-county San Francisco Bay Area must do much more to advance smart growth, states the region's Greenbelt Alliance in a first-of-the kind policy analysis widely reported on in the press, the 100-point Bay Area Smart Growth Scorecard, in which the 101 municipalities average 34 points, meaning ''they have only one-third of the needed policies to achieve smart growth,'' and the counties 51 points, meaning ''they are doing half of what they could do to promote smart growth.''
The separate evaluation of cities and counties, the alliance says, reflects their separate roles, in which counties should channel development to cities, protect land and natural resources, and provide transportation options between cities, while cities should ensure a healthy environment and high quality of life through compact pedestrian-friendly development, especially downtown and near transit stations.
Accordingly, the alliance scored the cities in seven policy categories -- Preventing Sprawl with Urban Growth Boundaries; Making Sure Parks Are Nearby; Creating Homes People Can Afford; Encouraging a Mix of Uses; Encouraging Density in the Right Places; Requiring Less Land for Parking; and Defining Standards for Good Development.
The counties were scored in five categories -- Managing Growth; Permanently Protecting Open Space; Preserving Agricultural Land, Conserving Natural Resources; and Offering Transportation Choices.
Among cities, the top five are Petaluma, San Jose, Santa Rosa, Napa and Windsor, with combined scores of 70, 69, 65, 65 and 61 percent, respectively; the five at the bottom are Belvedere, Hillsborough, Atherton, Orinda and Dixon, with 0, 0, 3, 10 and 11 percent, respectively.
The counties' ranks and overall scores are: Alameda, 66; Contra Costa, 61; Santa Clara, 54; San Mateo, 53; Marin and Sonoma, 46 and 46; Napa, 41; and Solano, 39 percent.
''In every area, at least one city or county is doing well, whether it's a city that is encouraging walkable neighborhoods or a county that is preserving its agricultural land,'' said Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Tom Steinbach. ''Cities and counties can share the tools they're using to deal with growth -- and the entire region will benefit.''
See the full report and detailed score lists at www.greenbelt.org/resources/reports/index.html 6/28/2006
Resource(s): http://insidebayarea.com/
Oakland City Council Approves Waterfront Infill Project; Plan Includes Affordable Housing, Condition for Company to Hire City Residents as Trade Apprentices
Endorsed by a coalition of advocates for transit-oriented infill, affordable housing and local workers as a ''textbook example of smart growth,'' Oakland's mixed-use Oak (Street)-to-Ninth (Avenue) project for 64 acres of the Bay waterfront just south of downtown -- 465 of its 3,100 housing units slated for families making $25,000 to $50,000 a year -- was approved by the City Council in a 6-0 vote, but some neighbors still complained about prospective density and added traffic, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Desley Brooks abstained from voting, wishing it had a school and more open space, and council candidate Aimee Allison called the deal ''corporate welfare.''
During a four-hour public hearing, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Christopher Heredia, Signature Properties President Mike Ghielmetti described his and the city's work over several years to amend the initial plan and satisfy community groups' requirements for the 15-year project. It now will include not only 15 percent of low-income units, but also 30 acres of company-maintained public parks and trails in addition to 200,000 square feet of retail, a 170-slip marina and restored wetlands.
Also, the company will hire 300 city residents as trade apprentices and the city will invite proposals to redevelop part of the 180,000-square-foot historic Ninth Avenue Terminal for recreational, cultural or retail use.
''This project can be a success if ... we negotiate a good deal'' instead of spending ''tax dollars to buy back land sold to the developer at a discount,'' said council hopeful Allison, who is in a November runoff with incumbent Pat Kernighan, upset that the Port of Oakland will get from Mike Ghielmetti $18 million for the tract plus several millions for a cleanup, but the City Council will pay him $29 million for the section on which affordable housing will be built and the Redevelopment Agency will spend $85 million on its construction.
The city, the writer notes, expects to recoup all investments in the project through the taxes it will generate over the next decades.
Area civic leaders back the arrangement. ''We've worked hard to reach consensus and represent the needs of families in Oakland,'' said Oak-to-Ninth Community Benefits Coalition member Leonor Godinez. ''This is one of the best projects in the Bay Area,'' stressed East Bay Community Foundation President Mike Howe. ''With this development, we will have a model for the rest of the country.'' San Francisco Chronicle 6/22/2006
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Expert Panel Says Success of San Diego's Highway Program Could Undermine Transit Program, Promote Car-Oriented Development
Commissioned by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to assess the transit element of its Regional Transportation Plan, being updated for 2007, a six-member panel of independent experts acknowledged the agency's commitment to smart growth, but thought it should put more money into transit than roads, because the current and prospective allocations under the $42 billion TransNet measure passed by voters in 2004 compel a question of inadvertently promoting car-oriented development and sprawl, with Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority panelist David Mieger, saying, ''The very success of your highway-building program may undermine your ability to do an effective transit program.''
Presenting the report ''as questioning rather than critical,'' observes San Diego Union-Tribune writer Jeff Ristine, the panel expressed concern over spending billions on reversible ''managed lanes,'' already under construction in the I-15 median between Sabre Springs and Escondido and promised for I-5 and I-805. Accessible for buses, vehicles with two occupants, and single drivers who pay tolls that get higher as traffic thickens, the reversible lanes could also accommodate a Bus Rapid Transit system, with stations just off the highway.
But the panel concluded that such increases in highway capacity favor dispersing development and may make transit less appealing, especially since the rapid bus stations wouldn't be in the median. The panel praised the Mission Valley East trolley link, completed last year, but advised against it for the Mid-Coast corridor along I-5, convinced that express buses would attract more riders in the area dominated by light industrial uses.
SANDAG Executive Director Gary L. Gallegos countered some panel conclusions and recommendations, the writer reports, noting that the TransNet half-cent sales tax revenue goes in roughly equal shares for highways, transit, and road improvement projects.
''If you put all your eggs in the transit basket, it won't work. On the other hand, if you put them all in the highway basket, that won't work either,'' director Gallegos said. ''Our attempt here ... is to try to get the two modes to work with each other, not to compete with each other. This is about balance and providing choices.'' -- San Diego Union-Tribune 6/19/2006
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
In Chula Vista's Otay Ranch Community, the Emphasis Is on Walking
Ever since the car began to dominate in America, pedestrians and their needs have been neglected, with streets built almost like freeways, intersections gargantuan, and sidewalks rare, often dangerous and downright ugly, but not so in the 3,500-acre mixed-use community of Otay Ranch in Chula Vista, writes Metz Public Relations principal Barbara Metz in the San Diego Daily Transcript about this four-village ''walker's paradise,'' its heart formed by seven schools and its overall plan honored by smart-growth awards from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) and the Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI).
''From the beginning of the planning process'' in 1988, said Otay Ranch Co. executive vice president Kim Kilkenny, ''we recognized that pedestrians on the street affect the very nature of a community -- creating places that are friendlier, healthier, safer and environmentally sound.''
The first village, Heritage, which opened in 1999 and includes 27 affordable apartments, vice president Kilkenny continued, features beautifully landscaped paseos as short-cuts for pedestrians and bikers, promenades with extra-wide sidewalks flanked by trees and parkways, and a village pedestrian-bike-electric-car pathway to other villages.
Particularly happy with the SANDAG and ULI awards, she observed, ''These awards attest to the fact that we have put heart back into community development, while encouraging public transportation, reducing reliance on automobiles, and saving precious resources.''
Under the community's ever-expanding walkability plan, the writer notes, a new 540-foot-long pedestrian bridge between Otay Ranch High School and the Heritage village will open next month, and a 414-foot bridge will link the villages of Countryside and Hillsborough. In addition, Heritage Elementary, together with Chula Vista and Chula Vista Elementary School District, is preparing a ''Walking School Bus'' program as a prototype for the district's 43 other schools.
''The Walking School Bus is the ideal vehicle for encouraging the walking habit,'' Kim Kilkenny stressed. ''Our plan is so pedestrian-oriented that many youngsters can walk to school by crossing only one street.'' Details at www.otayranch.com. -- Daily Transcript 6/13/2006
Resource(s): www.sddt.com/
San Diego Developers, Officials Review Region's Smart Growth Options at Roundtable Discussion
The San Diego County population has passed 3 million, the county may be some 80,000 to 100,000 homes short, and the area's construction and infrastructure industry professionals see a solution to its housing and road congestion problems in smart growth, with Otay Ranch Co. vice president Kent Aden telling a roundtable hosted by the San Diego Daily Transcript that for him smart growth means ''reducing reliance on the automobile and creating pedestrian-friendly communities,'' without ignoring the need for varied housing choices.
Similarly, for Centre City Development Corp. president Nancy Graham smart growth requires grid-based neighborhood layouts, reports Transcript writer Erik Pisor, quoting her as saying, ''There is substantial value in designing a smart growth community because they will sell for more and hold their prices.''
Much of the roundtable discussion focused on hurdles developers face as they propose or launch their smart-growth plans. San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) executive director Gary Gallegos counted a total of 200 possible smart-growth sites in the county's 18 cities, but thought developing them won't be easy, if only because of community resistance to higher densities and the prospects of eminent domain.
''If we're going to provide more housing opportunities . . . we're going to have more density,'' he observed, with Black Mountain Ranch LLC. senior vice president Bill Dumka and Sanford Goodkin & Associates founding partner Sandy Goodkin also worried by frequent neighborhood opposition to denser development or redevelopment.
Some of this opposition stems from local concerns about infrastructure and transportation capacity. North County Transit District service development manager Stefan Marks pointed out that the standard practice of building homes first and bringing transit nearby much later has caused the county's huge infrastructure deficit, but is now being changed by construction of the Sprinter rail line in his district, offering the area an opportunity ''to do proactive planning'' and providing a model for other areas.
Although the district used eminent domain to acquire land in the Sprinter corridor, such acquisitions are becoming increasingly difficult, the discussants noted, calling them critical for a smart-growth redevelopment process.
''While there are horror stories (about eminent domain uses), what you don't hear in the same way is the incredible amount of success,'' said Nancy Graham, with Phoenix Realty Group LLC vice president for acquisitions Tammy Harpster stressing, ''Our biggest struggle to date is getting the political willpower to acquire the properties that you need in order to develop.''
And Kent Aden concluded, ''A key is finding those political leaders who are willing to step up and take the heat for doing the right thing.'' -- Daily Transcript 6/13/2006
Resource(s): www.sddt.com/
State Treasurer Angelides Victorious in California's Gubernatorial Primary
Strongly backed by the party leadership and unionists for the gubernatorial nomination, state Democratic Treasurer Phil Angelides won 47.9 percent of the primary vote, with ''more centrist'' state Controller Steve Westly getting 43.4 percent and quickly endorsing the winner, and a Santa Cruz Sentinel editorial attributing his victory to ''a message of tax hikes for the wealthy, cracking down on corporate corruption, more money for schools and smart growth planning.''
Although California Democrats outnumber Republicans by a good margin, Independents make up about 20 percent of the electorate and have become crucial in deciding recent elections, the editorial says, noting that they ''tend to be fiscally conservative and yet socially liberal'' and that the incumbent governor may do better among them than other Republicans.
With the state economy growing and the governor recovering from the sound defeat of his reformist measures last year, the editorial advises the democratic gubernatorial candidate to ''go easy on the attack ads'' during the campaign and don't ''come across as overly negative in comparison to Schwarzenegger's Hollywood optimism.''
The editorial concludes that to win in November ''Angelides and his party backers will probably have to move to the center.'' -- Santa Cruz Sentinel, Alameda Times-Star
6/8/2006
Resource(s): www.santacruzsentinel.com/ ; www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/
Napa County Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Property Rights Measure
Modeled after Oregon's Measure 37, which forces local governments to pay owners for land value losses caused by conservation rules or waive development restrictions, property-rights Measure A got drubbed by 64 percent of voters in rural Napa County, with upbeat nine-county San Francisco Bay Area's Greenbelt Alliance leaders hoping California voters will show the same foresight this November and reject a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit most condemnations and limit government power to adopt certain land use, housing, environmental and other regulations, a measure sponsored by Anita S. Anderson and known as the Anderson Initiative.
''These extreme measures are a bad idea for California,'' said Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Tom Steinbach. ''California residents care deeply about the spectacular landscapes that define our state. Napa's Measure A and the Anderson Initiative are attempts by wealthy developers and landowners to gut the land protections local residents have worked hard to achieve.''
Greenbelt Alliance's Solano-Napa Field Representative Nicole Arnold added, ''Over the years, Napa County residents and their elected leaders have made good decisions about growth, making Napa nationally famous for its productive vineyards and high quality of life. Measure A would have destroyed the ability to do that thoughtful planning.''
The alliance's press release points out that under Oregon's Measure 37, approved by voters in November 2004, landowner claims exceeded $3 billion so far, and Napa County would have faced and California still may face a similar threat. -- Greenbelt Alliance, California Redevelopment Association 6/7/2006
Resource(s): www.greenbelt.org/index.shtml ; www.calredevelop.org/
Court Rules San Diego's Inclusionary Housing Law Is Unconstitutional
Passed by the San Diego City Council in 2003 and quickly challenged in court by the San Diego County Building Industry Association (BIA), the ''inclusionary housing law'' that requires developers to include low-income units in their projects or pay to subsidize them elsewhere, raising more than $9 million so far, was ruled unconstitutional by Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer last month, with the city now asking him to reconsider and a hearing on its motion scheduled for July 14.
Judge Meyer threw out the law as lacking an ''exemption'' clause, under which, reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer Lori Weisberg, developers could argue that they don't have to obey the affordability requirement because ''their projects do not contribute to the city's affordable housing shortage.''
BIA chief executive Paul Tryon called the city move predictable. ''Whether the city asks for rehearing or reconsideration, that's a pretty typical tactic before considering an appeal,'' he noted. ''I expect the judge to stay with the decision.'' He added that BIA attorneys are researching whether they can demand the return of $9 million in developer affordable-housing fees.
City Attorney Michael Aguire, who will be helped by specially hired attorney Charles Christensen, said in the motion the court is bound to take a ''less intrusive'' approach than nullifying the law. If the judge disagrees, he said, the city will request a new trial. -- San Diego Union-Tribune 6/5/2006
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Smart Growth Advocate Cites Economic, Cultural Losses for Communities Nationwide in Battle Against Big Box Stores
Citing a Webster definition of progress as ''development of a society in a direction considered superior to the previous level'' and calling herself ''a firm believer in a free market and business competition,'' Amador Citizens for Smart Growth Chair Kathy Allen cautions Amador County residents they will not achieve progress if they degrade their cultural heritage, quality of life, and economy ''by allowing big-box stores in.''
Concerned about a proposed Home Depot on a historic mine site in Jackson, she writes in an Amador Ledger Dispatch guest opinion that it is not progress ''to drain the city coffers at the whim of a retail store based outside Amador County'' or to undercut home values and related property taxes that fund schools or to destroy a vista that helps bring in tourist dollars.
''The question should be asked,'' she points out, ''if the projected sales tax revenue of any new retail enterprise will be sufficient to (a) cover the additional costs generated by that business in the proposed location and (b) make up for lost public revenue generated from businesses impacted by the new retail enterprise.''
Asking county and municipal officials to heed lessons ''learned painfully by other communities,'' the smart growth advocate tells them that on Cape Cod big-box stores provide fewer jobs and less tax revenue per square foot than local stores; that in Barnstable, Massachusetts, big-box retail produces a net annual deficit of $468 per 1,000 square feet; that in DuPage County, Illinois, costs of infrastructure and service extension for big boxes exceeded their property and sales taxes; that Concord, New Hampshire, added 2.8 million square feet of big-box retail within 12 years, but lost 19 percent of sales tax revenue; that big boxes cost eight small towns in Ohio 44 cents per square foot each year; and that other small towns like Alamosa, Colorado, are littered with empty box-stores that come and go, eroding property values all around.
''The idea that any big-box store in Amador County or its incorporated cities will generate a positive cash flow,'' she concludes, ''is just smoke and mirrors.'' -- Ledger Dispatch 6/2/2006
Resource(s): www.ledger-dispatch.com/
Hercules City Council Uses Eminent Domain to Reject Wal-Mart Big-Box Store; Historic Waterfront Slated for Redevelopment
Cheered by some 300 residents in the audience, the Hercules City Council became the first nationwide to use eminent domain against a planned Wal-Mart big box, just months after Wal-Mart rejected the city offer to buy its 17-acre lot near the San Pablo Bay waterfront -- the unanimous vote letting the city begin the condemnation process and save the historic waterfront for redevelopment into a mixed-use pedestrian-friendly village.
For 90 minutes before the vote all speakers except four urged the council to fight Wal-Mart, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Patrick Hoge, quoting resident Steve Kirby, who said, ''Throw the bums out. Wal-Mart will never understand what we want.''
Resident Anita Roger-Fields echoed the sentiment. ''(Wal-Mart is) the worst thing that could happen to our community,'' she cautioned. ''They want to crush the competition.''
The vote elated residents. ''This is the result we wanted. The fact that it was unanimous is wonderful,'' exclaimed Brenda Smith Johnson, with Valerie Wilgus emphasizing, ''Why should we have to sell ourselves short when we have this great waterfront?''
In a letter the council received on the day of its hearing, Wal-Mart attorneys argued against condemnation, writing that the company downsized the proposed store and garden center from 167,000 to about 100,000 square feet and strived to give the shopping center ''a very attractive, village-like appearance.''
But opponents pointed out that the store would still be more than 50,000 square feet larger than the one approved before Wal-Mart bought the site.
The writer notes that Hercules, some 12 miles north of Oakland, was the first in the state to prescribe street design, building sizes and some architectural features, including front porches, in its redevelopment plan, the key part of which envisions a waterfront village with high-density housing and shops, a shoreline park, a train station, a ferry stop and bus service. -- San Francisco Chronicle 5/24/2006
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Treasurer Angelides Pledges Smart Growth Plan, Renewable Energy Policies in Bid for California Governor's Office
''As governor, I will lead California to reduce gas and diesel use by one quarter, make us the global leader in combating global warming, protect our coast, adopt a real smart-growth plan and put California at the forefront of renewable energy, environmental technology and clean, alternative fuels and vehicles,'' pledged state Democratic Treasurer Phil Angelides two weeks before the June 6 primary, his bid for the party gubernatorial nomination strongly backed by conservationists.
The treasurer, reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer John Marelius, endorsed an alternative energy initiative proposed for the November ballot, under which a state oil company tax would raise some $4 billion over 10 years for research and investment in new energy technologies.
His rival in the Democratic primary, state Controller Steve Westly, who has not taken a position on the ballot initiative, the writer notes, is trying to undercut the treasurer's environmental credentials in television ads about his acceptance of almost $500,000 in oil and gas industry campaign contributions over a number of years.
Denouncing the controller for breaking his promise to ''run a clean campaign,'' the treasurer said some of the donations were made to the party in the early 1990s, when he was its chairman.
Last month, three nonpartisan polls showed the controller ahead for the nomination, but newer internal campaign polls find the race to be in a dead heat. -- San Diego Union-Tribune 5/23/2006
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Ballot Measure to Determine Fate of Santa Clara County Ranch and Hillside Development Issue
Mindful of Santa Clara County's projected population surge from 1.76 to 2.25 million by 2040, its environmental People for Land and Nature coalition gathered 61,906 voter signatures, almost twice what's needed, under a petition for a November ballot measure that would curb development on some 400,000 acres of ranches, hillsides and large farms, with the campaign coordinator, Palo Alto Councilman Peter Drekmeier, saying, ''We want to see smart growth, not sprawl.''
Led by the Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance and Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, reports San Jose Mercury News writer Paul Rogers, the coalition believes the county should protect its quality of life by reducing the number of future homes in unincorporated areas from eight per 160 acres to just one on ranchland and to four on hillsides, and limiting the square footage of construction not only on these parcels but also on large-scale farms and ridges.
In response, the Santa Clara Farms Bureau, the Santa Clara Association of Realtors and the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors formed their Alliance for Housing and the Environment to launch a counter campaign.
''Open space and green hills are things that most voters want, including me,'' noted Farm Bureau Executive Director Jenny Derry. ''But there are so many hidden and unintended consequences to this ballot measure.''
Calling the current county land protections adequate, she said further restrictions would affect farmers' ability to obtain bank loans and to divide parcels for their children to build homes and continue farming. Observers expect ''a bruising battle'' between conservationists on one side and farmers, ranchers and the real estate industry on the other, the writer observes, quoting San Jose mayoral candidate David Pandori, who stressed, ''Our hillsides are at risk.'' -- Mercury News
05.08.2006
www.mercurynews.com/
5/8/2006
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
Smart Growth Issues Are Hot Topic for California's Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates
Sharpening their tone as the June 6 Democratic gubernatorial primary nears, state Treasurer Phil Angelides and Controller Steve Westly tried to ''out-green and out-criticize'' each other during a California League of Conservation Voters environmental debate in West Los Angeles, although observers consider their anti-pollution, clean-energy, and smart-growth commitments almost ''indistinguishable,'' reports Sacramento Mercury News writer Kate Folmar, quoting University of Southern California political analyst Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, who said of the debate, ''There was not much that separated the two.''
Endorsed by the California Democratic Party and major labor unions so far, the writer notes, Treasurer Angelides would work to cut pollution by curbing suburban sprawl, facilitating development near transit, and reducing gas and diesel use by 25 percent over 10 years.
Ahead in recent polls, Controller Westly would push the state toward solar energy, aiming for a 20-percent reduction in fossil fuel use by 2015, and a 40-percent cut by 2025. Both oppose off-shore drilling, but the treasurer criticized his rival for investment of millions of dollars in oil companies, while he himself was chided for paving over wetlands and violating the Clean Water Act in his earlier career as a developer. The treasurer said once he had realized his environmental permits were incomplete, he quickly rectified the situation, stressing that he was proud of building ''livable, walkable'' communities.
Still, state GOP Chairman Duf Sundheim declared in a post-debate statement, ''There's no good Democrat option on the June primary ballot, but there will be a very clear choice come November.''
With another Democratic debate on May 10 in San Francisco, the writer notes that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, ''a self-styled green Republican,'' reached out beyond his party by signing bills to let hybrid cars into carpool lanes and to create the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and by envisioning ''a hydrogen highway'' in the state. -- Mercury News 5/4/2006
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
Sacramento Favors Smart Growth in Quest to Be ''Most Livable City in America''; Options Aired for Development at Executive Airport
Expecting another 200,000 residents and 140,000 jobs by 2030, Sacramento planners increasingly favor mixed uses, higher densities and walkability not only for the few tracts the city could still develop, but also for those it may annex, its Development Services Department long-range planning manager Steve Peterson envisioning Sacramento as ''the most livable city in America,'' and emphasizing, ''we want to do smart growth.''
One such smart-growth target, under the comprehensive plan updates currently in the works, reports Sacramento Business Journal writer Mike McCarthy, may be the 540-acre Executive Airport, some three miles south of downtown and near a light-rail station, on an annually renewable $1 lease to Sacramento County since 1967.
The airport is big enough for about 5,000 housing units and 500,000 square feet of offices, which would boost the city's property and sales tax revenue and create well paying jobs, the writer observes, quoting planner Peterson, who estimated its ''huge economic development potential'' at more than $220 million.
But the county would like to keep the lease. Airport System CEO Rob Leonard said the airport ''plays a vital role'' in the area and the county is starting work on a master plan for its 20-year future. The airport served about 45,000 passengers in 2002 and houses 30 professional offices and businesses, whose owners aren't happy with the possibility of closure.
Nevertheless, CEO Leonard admitted ''this is a city land-use decision,'' noting, ''The city has a choice to make between its planning and aviation futures.''
Planner Peterson agreed. ''It's a significant development opportunity for the city that needs to be weighed against the benefits of the airport.''
Planners will be presenting their long-range growth ideas at city forums starting in June. -- Sacramento Business Journal 4/14/2006
Resource(s): http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/
Farmland and Farming Economy at Risk in California's Central Valley as Sprawl Claims Thousands of Acres of Fertile Land
The base of California's $13 billion agricultural output per year, the fertile 19-county Central Valley, running some 400 miles northwest to southeast, gained 784,000 residents (a 20 percent increase) in the 1990s and lost 97,000 acres, with an additional 27,000 acres paved over in 2000-02 and all numbers taken only from the fastest-developing 11-county mid-valley area, reports the American Farmland Trust (AFT) in a new study, urging state, local and grassroots actions to limit costly sprawl and advance smart growth. Otherwise, warns the study, the region may lose another 880,000 prime rural acres to mostly inefficient, lower-density development by 2040.
Although the 1990s development was largely kept near cities, rural ranchettes took about 33 percent more land, which resulted in an average regional development density of 8 new residents per acre and in speculative farmland prices often higher than commercial agriculture could afford.
Should the action to make development more efficient wait another 10 years, the state's tilt beyond the ''tipping point'' could become irrevocable, ''because every day of delay, and every new sprawling subdivision or commercial development approved, means that future development will have to be even more efficient to make up for it -- until the curve of needed improvement becomes politically and practically too steep.''
Fortunately, the study foresees ''another kind of tipping point, where the forces for change reach a critical level that makes long-delayed action not only possible, but very likely.''
As examples, the study mentions the gubernatorial ''California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley'' task force to scrutinize economic, social, and environmental problems; the valley's eight-council cooperation on a smart growth blueprint; the work of four valley counties and several cities on general plan updates; and the readiness of others for a new approach to ranchettes, farmland mitigation and urban infill.
To make sure sprawl is reined in, the study says state policy changes should include ''the effective enforcement of AB 857,'' a recent law calling for state agencies to invest in urban areas; California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) improvements, which would eliminate obstacles to smart growth; school siting and construction reform; and a state tax overhaul to free jurisdictions from competition for ''almost any and all commercial development.''
At the same time local governments should avoid development on the best farmland; use their land more efficiently; promote infill, along with transit-oriented and mixed-use projects; discourage the spread of 5-to-20-acre ranchettes; and stop amending their land-use or other plans ''so often that respect for them is lost.'' As a result of such amendments, developers think they can always push officials to exempt their projects from current rules, angry residents react with fights ''against virtually all development, beneficial or not,'' and farmers sometimes become land speculators.
''So, if you live, work or farm in the Central Valley, it is up to you,'' the study points out. ''Together, we can make a difference. And don't delay. The future is now.'' -- American Farmland Trust
4/11/2006
Resource(s): www.farmland.org/default.asp
Bay Area Transportation Commission Invites Nominations for Excellence in Motion Awards Program
The nine-county San Francisco region's Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) is inviting nominations for its ''Excellence in Motion'' awards for individuals, projects and organizations working to devise ''new and better ways to help people get where they're going each day,'' with the nomination deadline on June 2.
The MTC program includes five award categories: the Miriam Gholikely Award for community service, volunteerism, advocacy, leadership or minority affairs accomplishments; the Doris W. Kahn Accessible Transportation Award for service improvements helping the elderly or disabled; the David Tannehill Special Employee Award for a bus driver, train operator or other employee who goes beyond the call of duty; the Greta Ericson Distinguished Service Award for long-standing professional leadership; and the John F. Foran Legislative Award for a state or federal lawmaker advancing transportation.
In addition, the MTC will present Awards of Merit to persons, projects or organizations, regardless of their specific transportation focus. Details at www.mtc.ca.gov. -- PR Newswire 4/11/2006
Resource(s): www.prnewswire.com/
Hotel Conversion to Affordable Condos Part of First San Diego Smart Growth Fund Equity Investment
Formed by the San Diego City-County Reinvestment Task Force, the nonprofit San Diego Capital Cooperative and its national Phoenix Realty Group (PRG) partner have selected the first two projects for equity investment capital from their $90 million San Diego Smart Growth Fund -- remake of an empty hotel near the San Diego State University into 75 market-rate middle-income condos plus 3,000-square feet of retail, and construction of 10 Eastlake Village West Office Condos in Chula Vista.
''The college area has a great need for new, for-sale housing affordable to teachers, police, firefighters and administrative workers -- virtually any middle-income household that wants to realize the dream of home ownership,'' said PRG co-founder and president Keith Rosenthal. ''We will create a tasteful, Mediterranean-style development to replace a vacant, dilapidated hotel that is detrimental to the community.''
The Chula Vista office condos should boost small businesses and strengthen their community links, said PRG regional acquisition vice president Tammy Harpster, noting, ''Local businesses eager to share in the future growth of the South Bay region will welcome the chance to be property owners in such a prime location.''
With the $90 million Smart Growth Fund expected to leverage more than $500 million in private investment, San Diego Capital Collaborative CEO Barry Schultz promised to announce funding for other projects in the coming weeks. -- Business Wire 4/11/2006
Resource(s): http://home.businesswire.com/
CalBuild Proposal Would Invest $15 Billion in State Public Employee Funds for Urban Smart Growth
With Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's bond-based $222 billion public works plan still in the legislature and his approval percentage only in the mid-30s, state Democratic Treasurer and gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides presented a proposal to use $15 billion in public employee funds for infrastructure investment focused on urban smart growth, saying, ''We need to find innovative ways to finance infrastructure beyond general obligation bonds and beyond traditional government finance mechanisms.''
Called CalBuild, reports Oakland Tribune writer Steve Geissinger, the treasurer's proposal would tap the combined $337 billion portfolio of the California Public Employees Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System, promising them an up to 8 percent interest return, which might otherwise benefit only private firms, including Australia's Sydney-based Macquarie Infrastructure Group.
The largest toll road developer worldwide, the group expects more American business and investment options as state and local governments, pressed to build roads, look at variants of use-based fees instead of new public taxes.
''The opportunity to invest in our infrastructure ought not to belong to foreign or private companies alone,'' the treasurer stressed. ''We ought to have the opportunity to invest in these projects.''
Democratic Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez like the proposed pension fund investment as a good supplement to the prospective infrastructure bonds.
''This is a creative approach that could help address, along with the bond funding we are working on, California's massive infrastructure need,'' said the Senate president. ''I hope the pension funds will take a close look at the steps Treasurer Angelides is proposing.'' -- Oakland Tribune 4/4/2006
Resource(s): www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/
Environmental Leadership Awards Honor Real Estate Smart Growth Experts
In a rare coincidence of names, but increasingly frequent convergence of aims, California League of Conservation Voters executive director Susan Smartt and Forest City West Residential senior vice President Susan Smartt, along with numerous environmentalists, public officials and development professionals at the league's 24th Annual Environmental Leadership Awards dinner, enjoyed honoring three elite real estate industry smart-growth experts -- urban planner-designer Peter Calthorpe, developer Rick Holliday and Forest City Enterprises principal Gregory Vilkin -- writes San Francisco Business Times publisher Mary Huss, applauding ''(t)ree huggers hugging people who build things.''
The founder of internationally known Calthorpe Associates in 1983, the publisher writes, Peter Calthorpe has helped establish and solidify regional design principles and the national New Urbanism movement.
Co-founder of nonprofit BRIDGE Housing and founder of Holliday Development, Rick Holliday introduced loft living in San Francisco and built more than 1,000 homes on post-industrial sites in the Bay Area, with more than 25 percent of units affordable or priced below market rates.
Forest City Enterprises, represented at the award event by Forest City Residential West and Forest City Stapleton president Gregory Vilkin, pioneered responsible development models in several metro markets, with Residential West senior vice president Susan Smartt instrumental in shepherding its 865-unit mixed-income Uptown housing project in Oakland through the lengthy approval process and making it the centerpiece of downtown revitalization.
Congratulating the award winners, the San Francisco Business Times publisher commends the California League of Conservation Voters ''for honoring developers who believe in smart growth and sustainable development.'' -- San Francisco Business Times 3/31/2006
Resource(s): http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/
Demise of Older Malls Provides Boost for Smart Growth Efforts
Addicted to ''the immediate gratification of retail sales taxes,'' cities have long sought malls and big boxes for prime locations and pushed homeowners with their state-bound property taxes ever farther out, but once fiscal, social and environmental costs of sprawl became hard to sustain and many older malls deteriorated, officials and developers alike discovered smart growth, observes San Diego-Riverside region North County Times columnist Michael D. Pattison, excited by Carlsbad's plan to turn the Westfield Plaza Camino Real shopping center into a retail-residential complex, with 400 apartments and courtyard homes.
Noting that downtown San Diego was rebuilt and re-energized around its Petco Park, gaining ''a new sense of community in which to live, work, shop and recreate,'' the columnist points out that northern San Diego County ''is full of the same smart-growth opportunities.''
Worked out by Carlsbad officials and Westfield Plaza owners over the past two years, the redevelopment plan makes the best of the mall's proximity to two freeways, the new train line, other businesses and residential neighborhoods. The projected owner- and rental-housing promises to increase the land value and revitalize the area economically, while giving local teachers, firefighters, nurses, police and other employees ''the chance to live close to work instead of commuting from Riverside County,'' dozens of miles north.
And that would ease road congestion -- always the main argument for local housing project opponents, the columnist writes, posing these questions: ''So will they go for it? Will they support Westfield and its bold plans? Will they encourage the Carlsbad City Council to vote in favor? Will they live with their own rhetoric, or will it be the usual game plan of protests, referendums and litigation?'' -- North County Times
3/20/2006
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
Developers Balk at Sacramento River Project's Affordable Housing Requirements
Ready to participate in West Sacramento's nascent plan for transforming vacant Tower Bridge and Raley Field area properties along the Sacramento River into an upscale neighborhood of condo towers, offices, retail shops, restaurants and entertainment, developers Dan Ramos and Mark Friedman see only one obstacle that may turn them and others away, namely an obligation to make 15 percent of their housing units affordable to low-income households, the former saying this inclusionary zoning discourages ''any potential high-quality development'' and ''smart growth,'' the latter adding, ''It just adds to the cost of new housing.''
In some situations, reports Sacramento Bee writer Ed Fletcher, West Sacramento's policy lets developers fulfill the affordable housing requirement by building low-cost units off sites, an opportunity already given to Panattoni Development Co., which will build an 18-acre waterfront project, but hasn't yet proposed affordable units elsewhere. The City Council may soon eliminate such an option, with Mayor Christopher Cabaldon saying of the riverfront, ''we don't intend it to be a playground for the wealthy only.'' Some flexibility is possible, but if one developer can't comply, the mayor observes, another will.
National Housing Conference president Conrad Egan tends to agree. Noting his group's 2004 study, ''Inclusionary Zoning: The California Experience,'' he says inclusion of affordable units is easier ''when you are building single-family homes in a corn field,'' and increasingly difficult in city buildings, in proportion to their height, because of steeper construction costs. But more difficult doesn't mean impossible, he points out, convinced that the right incentives will keep developers at the riverfront. -- Sacramento Bee
3/20/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
San Diego Council Approves Update to Downtown Community Plan
Projecting downtown San Diego's population of 30,000 to triple and its 75,000 jobs to more than double by 2030, the City Council voted 6-2 for an updated Downtown Community Plan, following seven hours of acrimonious debate, started by Planning Commissioner Carolyn Chase, who praised the plan's ''smart growth'' concepts, but accused it of inconsistencies with citywide planning guidelines and provisions for development density, jobs and parks.
Prepared by the Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC), reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer Martin Stolz, the plan will encourage mixed uses and historic preservation by exempting street-level retail in residential towers and deducting historic structures from ''buildable space'' calculations. It will spur affordable housing by rewarding builders with density bonuses, and concentrate new jobs downtown by offering incentives for office development along trolley routes.
It also envisages creation of six neighborhood parks, totaling nine acres, with builders who buy development rights to these parcels being allowed higher construction density elsewhere.
Under a deal devised by Mayor Jerry Sanders and downtown Councilman Kevin Faulconer, the writer notes, sales of development rights to some additional parcels at $15 per square foot would help cover the city's recent $90 million park construction shortfall.
The councilman's defeated January runoff rival Lorena Gonzales called the plan a ''missed opportunity'' for improvement of the environment, development standards, affordable housing, schools and historic preservation, especially critical of the $15-square-foot parkland ''back room deals'' with developers.
Gonzales was backed by the Citizens Coordinate for Century 3 group, and the Center on Policy Initiatives, led by union consultant Donald Cohen -- the former arguing for further steps to improve the overall downtown quality of life; the latter for better downtown jobs, with higher wages and health care.
On the other hand, the San Diego Downtown Partnership, the Downtown Residents Group and the elected Centre City Advisory Committee endorsed the plan, with CCDC president Nancy Graham saying a higher wage requirement would ''cripple'' downtown as a job center and send prospective jobs elsewhere. -- San Diego Union-Tribune
3/1/2006
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
SANDAG Smart Growth Plan Aims to Focus Growth Within Designated Development Centers
In advanced preparations for the county's population jump from about 3 to 4 million by 2030, the San Diego Area Council of Governments (SANDAG) will hold a series of eight local workshops in April to unveil and gather input on its ''smart growth concept map,'' which would help the 19 jurisdictions expand housing, boost transit, preserve farmland and save on infrastructure costs by concentrating development in designated metropolitan, urban, town and community centers and rural villages.
The overall goal, reports North County Times writer Dave Downey, is to curb sprawl, ease road congestion and facilitate mixed uses, while building all 400,000 homes, condos and town houses needed for the newcomers instead of falling short by 90,000 units under current general community plans.
''If you continue to sprawl,'' cautioned SANDAG chairwoman, Escondido Mayor Lori Pfeiler, ''you have farther to go to get to the grocery store, you have farther to go to take your kids to school, you have farther to go to work, and you have farther to go to the movies.'' Carlsbad Mayor Pro Tem Matt Hall noted that although some communities ''will have more density,'' others ''will be left in open space.''
Since the 2004 voter-approved $14-billion TransNet measure that extends the county's half-cent sales tax for another 40 years after 2008 provides SANDAG with $280 million specifically for smart growth, said its land use and transportation planning director Bob Leiter, the agency will be using the $7 million annually to fund transportation infrastructure in the designated development centers.
SANDAG planners define the centers by their densities. In metropolitan centers, the density will be 75 housing units and at least 80 workers per acre; in urban centers, 40 units and 50 workers; in town centers, 20 units and 30 workers. Community centers and rural villages will have only residential density minima of 20 and 11 units per acre, respectively, each center basically a 150-acre ring around a transit station and each expected to house hundreds of people within a quarter-mile of bus, light rail or commuter trains.
Although an outspoken smart growth advocate, former Del Mar councilman Scott Barnett thinks that ''the lack of a regional governance structure with any teeth behind it really makes it (the) plan doomed,'' SANDAG chairwoman Pfeiler is optimistic. ''I think we are in a unique place in our history,'' she said. ''We are an aging population and the baby boomers are moving into retirement age. That is the exact population that will be interested in living close to their entertainment and close to the transportation corridors.'' -- North County Times
2/19/2006
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
Why Do Some Workers Find Long Commutes Attractive?
Even though the Sacramento metro area is still among the less-congested nationwide, a 40-minute or longer one-way commute within the city's 20-to-30-mile radius has become usual and many enjoy such trips as the most private part of their day, including some ''extreme'' commuters -- ''those people demographers point to, sociologists puzzle over and the rest of us pity,'' observes Sacramento Bee writer Tony Bizjak, mentioning Milipitas resident Lynda Hutson, who most weekdays drives two hours to work in Folsom and two hours back, for a total of 266 miles.
Hutson's sporty car is her castle. ''I have everything I need, my coffee, breakfast from home, my CDs, cell phone, and the radio if I want to catch up on the news,'' she says. ''I use the time to call and talk to my sister on the East Coast. I think about things. It's like my own little world.''
Researchers explain the attitude in terms of societal changes, situational pressures and personal adjustments.
''In most of our lives, we are not in control, not at home, not in the office, but we are in control in the car,'' says Dr. Michael Marsden, who teaches ''The Automobile in American Culture'' course at St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wisconsin. ''I can't tell you how many times people tell me, 'I use that 40 minutes to clear my mind, to get things in order.''
Washington-based travel behavior analyst Nancy McGuckin notes that many people would choose a 20-minute commute over none, recalling an interviewee who compared his commute to a ''good bottle of wine.'' And independent transportation policy consultant Alan E. Pisarski, author of the book Commuting in America, adds that long and congested commutes may frazzle drivers, but also let them ''decompress and get some mental distance from home and work.''
Finding this true for commuters he interviewed for his article, the Bee writer once again mentions Lynda Hutson. She has made the best of her four-hour daily commutes, yet like many others, she also worries about the cost of gas, lack of time for exercise and social life, worsened congestion and air quality, and dependence on foreign oil. Sometimes her firm lets her work from home two days a week and she thinks about staying in Sacramento some nights, but in the end, the writer notes, she expresses ''the lament of many'' when she says, ''I commute because I haven't been able to find a solution.'' -- Sacramento Bee
2/6/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Plans for Roseville's 300-Acre Mixed-Use Crocker Park Will Help Stem Sprawl, Bring Affordable Housing to Sacramento Region
One of the Sacramento area's typical cul-de-sac suburbs, the city of Roseville may finally check sprawl by rezoning almost 300 acres of the 500-acre Hewlett-Packard campus northwest of downtown for the high-density mixed-use Crocker Park complex, which would include 1,920 various housing units, a commercial center, an elementary school, a fire station, eight parks and 45 acres of open space, with the city earmarking $12 million to buy 40 acres and a large office building for a four-year university.
''It signifies a turning point for the city,'' project planner Mike Isom told Sacramento Bee writer Jennifer K. Morita, who notes that the Sacramento Area Council of Government's growth ''Blueprint'' calls for higher housing densities to reduce sprawl and traffic congestion.
With density of 26 units per acre, she reports, Crocker Park is modeled after the master-planned Rivermark community in Santa Clara, which made a great impression on Roseville officials and builders at a visit last year. Laid out on a street grid, it will offer single-family homes, town houses, attached cottages and apartments -- their exteriors featuring different materials and architectural details, front doors and porches, and back-alley garages -- all in easy walking distance of the commercial center, with its shops, restaurants and a public plaza.
Although some local residents consider the planned density too high for already-congested streets, Sierra Club Motherlode coordinator Terry Davis points out that housing near jobs and services is the first step to freeing people from car dependency and should be followed by providing better transit -- light rail or express buses on dedicated lanes.
''In many cases, people can simply walk to the transit stop and don't even have to get in their cars,'' Davis observes. ''But if people have to drive a considerable distance to use transit, there's a built-in incentive to just continue driving to your destination.''
And local mortgage company owner Scott Otsuka supports the Crocker Park project because it promises much needed ''work force housing,'' designed for first-time buyers and young professionals.
''It bothers me that I've got employees who are making good incomes but can't afford to live in Roseville,'' he says, adding, ''Truthfully, I make a good income, but I couldn't afford to buy the house I live in today.'' -- Sacramento Bee
1/30/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Ukiah Valley Needs Smart Growth Now, Experts Tell Residents and Officials at Region's First-Ever Educational Workshops
Sited between the northern Coast Ranges along the Russian River, scenic Ukiah Valley needs smart growth, said four experts at its first smart-growth educational workshops in Ukiah, all stressing ''the time is now,'' an encouragement found most helpful by more than 100 residents, officials, planners, builders and others in the audience, reports Ukiah Daily Journal writer Seth Freedland.
Co-sponsored by the city, Mendocino County and the Ukiah Smart Growth Coalition, he writes, the workshop outlined ''a path toward a near-utopian life,'' with walkable neighborhoods, slower traffic, safe routes to schools, abundant landscaping, faster emergency response, public transit and a good economy.
In a time of budget shortages, said the Local Government Commission's Center for Livable Communities director Paul Zykofsky, efficient land use will be crucial for the areas's future, urging it to focus on infill and mixed-use projects, with community centers and easy access for pedestrians and bikers. He pointed out that denser urban development reduces travel and infrastructure costs, and that narrower streets -- with greenery along sidewalks and angled crosswalks that make pedestrians look to the traffic from the left on a median strip -- increase public safety.
And walking is important for everybody's health, said California Department of Health Services expert Alex Ketler, citing research that sprawl-related car dependency and a sedentary lifestyle contributes to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses, all often leading to premature death while increasing health care costs for individuals and the public and private sectors.
Developer John Anderson of the New Urban Builders company slammed the long-standing practice of separate land uses as ''glacial debris left behind by former planners,'' explaining that smart growth creates pedestrian-friendly communities where everything is easily accessible without cars. And Fisher & Hall Urban Design principal Laura Hall said the area can prevent piecemeal development by adopting six zoning codes, which would create a simple gradient from most urbanized to most rural areas.
The Ukiah City Council, the writer adds, will discuss such a form-based code in the next few months. -- Daily Journal
1/21/2006
Resource(s): www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Stalled Sacramento Development Could Discourage Builders from Pursuing Projects Designed to Curb Sprawl
Ready for approval last fall, consistent with Sacramento County's regional land-use guidelines and endorsed by two advisory committees, the 107-home Robbins Nest project on an unincorporated nine-acre lot some 10 miles southeast of downtown Sacramento ''has suffered unacceptable delays'' from county supervisors, who pushed their vote back first to December 14 and then to February 8, regrets a Sacramento Bee editorial, pointing out that regardless of its image as ''smart growth'' or just ''niche'' housing, it certainly isn't ''the traditional big-house-on-big-lot county sprawl.''
The homes are only 1,100 to 1,700 square feet and will have equally modest prices of about $350,000 -- rather affordable in comparison with current ''stratospheric standards'' -- but the county seem to have discovered suddenly, the editorial observes, that they will stand across the street from installation bays of a new tire store and can't be subjected to the noise.
Instead of telling the store to damp the noise with a berm or a sound wall, because adjacent land was long zoned for residential use, supervisors told the developer to handle the problem on his end for their February meeting, the editorial says, disappointed by the whole episode and concerned about its potential chilling impact on other projects that would help curb sprawl.
''Builders hate delays because they lose money,'' the editorial concludes. ''They closely watch cutting-edge projects like Robbins Nest to see if they should follow suit. Sadly, Robbins Nest showed that Sacramento County can still be a hornet's nest for a builder who dares to try something different.'' -- Sacramento Bee
1/17/2006
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Mayor Villareigosa Taps San Diego's Planning Director Goldberg to Lead L.A.'s Planning Department
Instrumental in shaping San Diego's ''City of Villages'' plan to revitalize older neighborhoods, its Planning Director Gail Goldberg was chosen by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villareigosa to take over his planning department, thanks to their shared vision of smart growth and her successful work with local community groups, which will have a role in its adoption and implementation.
''We need to get in on the ground floor and do the planning now that we are going to need if this city is going to grow in a cohesive fashion,'' said Mayor Villareigosa, introducing his nominee at a news conference, which brought in many representatives of neighborhood councils.
With city planners hard at work to complete 35 community plans, and some people convinced that the city needs further sectional breakdown to reflect neighborhood population growth and density, reports Los Angeles Daily News writer Rick Orlov, the Department of Transportation and the Community Redevelopment Agency are also expecting new heads, who will help director Goldberg implement the vision of environmentally sound economic growth.
''We are doing a lot of construction of rail lines, out in North Hollywood and along Exposition Boulevard,'' the mayor pointed out. ''It makes more sense for us to become involved in planning now, while it is being built, than 10 years from now and try to come back to accommodate growth.''
Director Goldberg still must be confirmed by the City Council, but she already enjoys wide support. ''She seems to be someone who will work with the community,'' said Winnetka Neighborhood Council member Jaque Lamishaw. ''One of the concerns of neighborhood councils is that we have a voice and access.''
Weekly Planning Report publisher David Abel credited her with overcoming neighborhoods' ''skepticism over growth and densification;'' San Fernando Valley Economic Alliance representative Bruce Ackerman voiced hope she will be ''able to bring a renewed vigor to the planning process;'' and California State University urban and environmental expert David Diaz stressed, ''Her idea of getting planners out from behind their desks and out into the community will be a radical concept in Los Angeles and is something that is long overdue.'' -- Daily News
1/10/2006
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/
Ventura's City Manager Successfully Blends Smart Growth Principles With Projects-In-Progress
Having put Pasadena on its Old Town revitalization track in the 1980s and Azusa on an equally successful mixed-use course in 1998, journalist-turned-planner Rick Cole gained national renown as one of the most effective smart growth practitioners by the time he took Ventura's city manager post in April 2004, notes Los Angeles Times writer Daryl Kelley, quoting Ventura Councilman Bill Fulton, also a planning expert and author, who said, ''Rick made a decision to come in and grab three projects in midflight and turn them all around.''
Despite some initial opposition, the writer finds, developers and most local neighbors agree Rick Cole has made the projects better. ''Design matters enormously in the making of great places,'' he stressed. ''We have to design for what fits the land and its surroundings.''
He told Los Angeles developer Mike Sondermann to redesign a long-planned 300-apartment luxury gated project at Ventura Harbor for more diversified buildings, a village center and increased public access. Although the developer sued the city over the changes, and expects the project to be harder to build and to cost more, he also admits it may boost area activity, saying, ''Now it's less of an apartment complex and more of a neighborhood; it's unique for multifamily projects.''
In the east end, the state's largest residential infill builder, the Olson Co. Of Seal Beach, had to revamp its 232-home subdivision plan by increasing housing types from two to five, spreading duplexes and triplexes across the site instead of segregating them from other homes, providing for narrow streets, alleys and a central park, and ''deemphasizing'' the car. Some residents still seethe over the discounting of their 18-month input, and Rick Cole acknowledges he should have handled the matter differently, but area community group spokesman Graham Dawson thinks ''the project is better now.''
The same goes for a 172-unit downtown project in three Spanish architectural styles, which now includes an underground garage topped by a new street, front windows and doors, and several other improvements vital for city life.
Olson local representative Paul Dashevsky says the firm spent more time and money, but the result makes it worthwhile. ''Our architects are extremely proud of this project,'' he says. ''One put it on his Christmas card.'' -- Los Angeles Times
1/9/2006
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Gov. Schwarzenegger Proposes Long-Term Strategic Growth Plan, Sets Transportation as a Top Investment Target
''I've thought a lot about the last year and the mistakes I made and the lessons I've learned,'' said Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his State of the State speech, telling the majority of Californians their clear message -- ''cut the warfare, cool the rhetoric, find common ground and fix the problem together'' -- has made him ''happy, hopeful and wiser,'' and proposing a long-term Strategic Growth Plan, which will replace the long practice of ''piecemeal, crisis by crisis, traffic jam by traffic jam'' investment with ''a smarter way, a more fiscally responsible way to invest in our future.''
Eager for the state to meet this century's challenges, the governor asked lawmakers and voters, ''What California do you want in 20 or 30 years? What kind of highways will we drive on? What kind of schools will our children attend? What kind of jobs will we have? What kind of air will we breathe? And what kind of hospitals will care for our sick?''
Noting that California's population (about 35.5 million in 2003) may increase by 30 percent within 20 years, an equivalent of three new cities the size of Los Angeles, the governor pointed out that the state's systems are already at the breaking point.
''We need more roads, more hospitals, more schools, more nurses, more teachers, more police, more fire, more water, more energy, more ports ... more, more, more,'' he said, but he cautioned against thinking ''if we don't build it, they won't come.''
Quoting Republican Senator Tom McClintock's frequent remark that ''California stopped building three decades ago, and the people came anyway,'' the governor continued, ''And now the people sit in gridlock on our roads. They wait for hours in emergency rooms. They drop their children off at overcrowded schools.''
Impressed by what he recently saw in China, where ''construction cranes fill the sky'' and more than ''a billion people work and save and study'' to overcome their enormous environmental, social and political problems and prepare for ''a global future,'' the governor stressed that California ''is already on the leading edge of the global economy'' and mustn't let this advantage slip from its fingers.
As the state faces ''more than $500 billion in infrastructure needs'' by 2025, he observed, his Strategic Growth Plan's first phase ''will leverage $70 billion in bonding capacity over the next ten years to achieve a total investment of more than $200 billion'' without new taxes.
The three top investment targets will be transportation, air quality and K-12 education. Instead of getting worse, traffic can get better even as the population grows, he said, ''if we add 1,200 miles of new highway and HOV lanes into congested areas, and add 600 miles of mass transit,'' all of which will also create 150,000 jobs.
With congestion increasingly polluting air, pollution lowering productivity and raising health care costs, and one of six Central Valley children taking an inhaler to school, ''it is time to consider clean air as part of our critical infrastructure.'' And since the K-12 enrolment will grow by a quarter of a million within ten years, the state must build more than 2,000 small schools and 40,000 classrooms and modernize another 140,000, he said, proud that the launch of the $428 million after-school initiative this year will make the state the only one in the nation with comprehensive after-school programs.
Calling also for improving life for ''those who often work the hardest and earn the least'' by a dollar-per hour increase in the minimum wage, the governor urged lawmakers to work for the state's future as hard as Democratic Senator Martha Escutia had worked on her bill ''to get sodas and junk food out of the schools.'' He recalled he had told her, ''I love that idea. It's great to fight obesity. Let's do it together,'' and the bill was passed. But she had been working on the bill for six years, and it ''shouldn't have to take six years to address the health of our children,'' the governor said, amazed by her determination. ''I ask you tonight,'' he concluded, ''to have that same perseverance, that same stamina, that same commitment, to help our children, to help our families, to help our communities and our state.'' -- Los Angeles Times
1/6/2006
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Newspaper Lauds Gilroy Officials for Laying Groundwork for Long-Term Smart Growth Development
Having worked thousands of hours and involved many residents and developers in policy debates, Gilroy officials ''established the groundwork for a new area in smart growth'' last year, says the Gilroy Dispatch in its review of top 2005 local events, glad to see three major documents that will shape area development for decades to come -- the Downtown Specific Plan, the Glen Loma Ranch Specific Plan, and the Neighborhood District Policy.
The downtown plan includes guidelines for long-term revitalization, while attracting developers by freeing them from hundreds of thousands of dollars in permit fees.
The Glen Loma Ranch blueprint specifies standards for construction of 1,700 homes, a school, a fire station, and a town center in the city's southwestern section over the next 10 years.
The neighborhood district document reflects the city's intent to ensure ''a diverse mix of housing for all income levels, preserve open space and create public parks.''
Officials, the daily notes, decided against making developers include affordable housing in individual projects, but despite their objections increased the minimum share of affordable units within given neighborhoods from 10 to 15 percent. -- Dispatch
1/2/2006
Resource(s): www.gilroydispatch.com/
High Demand, Prices for San Jose's Santana Row Condos Illustrates Popularity of Mixed-Use Projects
Often hailed for showcasing Smart Growth, the mixed-use pedestrian-friendly Santana Row complex on a former strip-mall site some three miles southwest of downtown San Jose enjoys such demand among mostly young and wealthy home buyers that the Maryland-based builder, Federal Realty Investment Trust, is selling its 219 condos at record prices of up to $525,000 for 700 square feet, $1.45 million for 2,200 square feet, and $2.5 million for 3,800 square feet, with fewer than 60 units left.
''This proves,'' said its chief investment officer Jeff Berkes, ''that people want to live in a community where they don't have to get in their cars all of the time.''
The complex features a 214-room hotel and 555,000 square feet of upscale stores and restaurants, chiefly along Mediterranean main street, and a 12-screen cinema.
Complementing its 1,200 luxury rentals -- town houses, lofts and flats atop ground floor retail -- the fast-going Santana Row condos may reflect a larger market shift and bode well for downtown San Jose, reports San Jose Business Journal writer Sharon Simonson, quoting area Realtor Phil Billiet.
Having paid $455,000 for one of its smallest units, to move in upon his retirement, he will let his college-age daughter have it for now. ''The younger generation isn't looking for a house on a 7,000-square-foot lot where they garden on the weekends,'' he observed. ''This is what they're after today, and this is what I believe will be the new home demanded in the future.''
With 17 of the 43 Santana Row acres still undeveloped, the writer notes, Federal Realty may build 690 more condos, another hotel and 125,000 square feet of retail, but it can't compete with downtown cultural and recreational assets, which include the Tech Museum, the HP Pavilion and two large city parks.
Although macroeconomic trends may affect the industry -- with higher interest rates pushing condo prices down despite increased construction costs -- Freemont Investment & Loan regional acting manager Scott Thompson is ready to finance more downtown high-rises and underwrite 75 to 80 percent of the costs, even if he predicts ''longer sell-outs.''
Developers are optimistic too, proposing more than a dozen downtown condo projects, with a total of almost 2,700 units -- two towers already under construction.
''I'm going to get really rich,'' said developer Michael Kriozere, offering the city a record $28.6 million for 1.48 downtown acres, to build two towers, totaling 418 condos. ''Market demand for this kind of product greatly exceeds supply.'' -- San Jose Business Journal
12/19/2005
Resource(s): www.bizjournals.com/
Architect Urges Hollister Officials to Strengthen Infill-Oriented General Plan by Locating New Public Buildings in Urban Core
''Growth may be inevitable; sprawl is not,'' writes Hollister resident and architect Christine Breen in a Hollister Free Lance guest editorial, commending the City Council for inclusion of Smart Growth principles in the newly adopted General Plan, which ''inhibits sprawl and focuses instead on infill and revitalization of the downtown corridor,'' but also urging it to make sure that new public buildings are located in the urban core, including the city hall, the courthouse, the district attorney's office and the Gavilan Community College local campus.
Since Smart Growth principles ''encourage healthy communities by placing an emphasis on pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly downtowns and neighborhoods,'' she writes, officials should designate ''specific parcels within the city center for public facilities.''
Two years ago, she continues, San Benito County voters approved a bond issue to help Gavilan College, based in nearby Gilroy, Santa Clara County, build its new campus in Hollister. With some $12.7 million from the bonds and construction funds pledged by the state, the college has more than enough to buy a good Hollister site near downtown, which would offer an opportunity for mutually beneficial cooperation.
Pooling their resources, the college and the county could build a joint library and a performing arts center, she points out, noting that such cooperation is becoming increasingly popular ''as budget cuts force educators and local governments to think outside the box, in order to stay competitive.'' -- Hollister Free Lance
12/15/2005
Resource(s): www.freelancenews.com/
New Sources of Funding Sought for California Farm Conservation Easements
To stem the constant loss of some 50,000 rural acres to asphalt and subdivisions each year, California communities need yet another way to fund farm conservation easements now largely dependent on state, developer and foundation money, said experts at the Sacramento region's land preservation forum in Wilton, with Davis-based Institute for Ecological Health president John Hopkins citing the U.S. farm bill as a potential funding source, which could offer willing farmers not just the one initial cash payment, but ''a continual stream to maintain economic vitality.''
The region's growth pressures drive up farmland values, the experts noted, both within and far outside urban growth areas. They pointed out that since cities require projects to save one rural acre for each one taken, developers scramble to preserve distant farms, still much cheaper and never considered in local growth plans anyway.
Currently, reports Sacramento Bee writer Jim Wasserman, few Sacramento area farmers pursue conservation easements because developers offer them better construction deals with no strings attached. A builder, explained Elk Grove area farmer Ken Oneto, may pay $100,000 per acre for subdivision land, but only about $18,000 per acre at a farm protected by the city's conservation easement, and although the program compensates the farmer for the land's development value, such a one-time payment can be taxed and quickly eaten up by debts or home construction, and may leave little for investment, while its environmental clauses, including a possible ban on pesticides and herbicides, may affect farming profitability.
''It's hard to find willing sellers,'' confirmed Elk Grove environmental planning manager Taro Echiburu, saying the city will more than offset the loss of farmland for Reyen & Bardis Communities' 7,800-unit Madeira project by using mostly company funds to buy a conservation easement on 700 acres eight miles farther south. Coincidentally, the company dropped plans to develop another 205-acre tract nearby, because its several vernal pools now make it ''best for mitigation'' of Madeira pool losses.
Vernal pools and their value for mitigation, noted Sacramento Valley Conservancy executive director Aimee Rutledge, may become a factor in the region's land preservation efforts, with several farmers from beyond the suburban frontier already asking her for their conservation prospects.
One way or another, the region must strengthen the role of farms as its ''economic drivers,'' stressed Placer County's ''Placer Grown'' marketing firm director Joanne Neft, encouraged by the growing popularity of county Mandarin orchards that already attract 35,000 visitors a year. ''That's called ag tourism, folks,'' she said. ''For those of you who want to stay on your farms and ranches, I think ag tourism is what's going to save agriculture in California.'' -- Sacramento Bee
12/1/2005
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com
Santa Maria Halts Work on Wal-Mart Rezoning Request Following Crowded Public Hearing
After a crowded and emotional public hearing, with many of the more than 200 attendees watching the debate on TV monitors in the City Hall corridor, the Santa Maria City Council voted 5-0 to stop staff work on a Wal-Mart request to rezone a 55-acre site from light-industrial to retail use -- which would let the company leave its present store and build a Supercenter nearby -- citing the need to defend small local businesses, revitalize downtown and keep sufficient land for industrial firms offering better wages.
Wal-Mart, reports Santa Maria Times writer Malia Spencer, has also asked the city's planning department to amend its General Plan accordingly and revise an eight-year-old ordinance that limits the amount of groceries and other ''non-taxable'' goods a big-box retailer can sell.
''I think we need to protect the businesses that made Santa Maria the city it is,'' said Councilwoman Alice Patino, voicing the predominant opinion against development at the city edges.
Disappointed Wal-Mart construction regional representative Chris Danos thought the council should wait with its decision until the company completes all required studies and the project goes through the full administrative process. But officials explained that sometimes staffers present early reviews of controversial proposals to help council members decide if they even have an interest in further proceeds, a move which can save time and money both for the city and the applicants. -- Santa Maria Times
11/16/2005
Resource(s): www.santamariatimes.com/
Bay-Area Developers Taking Planning Decisions to the Polls
Exploiting the high demand for housing throughout San Francisco Bay's eastern flank, developers in Contra Costa County persuaded Antioch and Pittsburg voters to expand local growth boundaries for 700 and 1,700 homes, respectively, but failed with their boundary-expansion campaign for 2,800 homes in Brentwood and 2,450 in Livermore, Alameda County -- their relative success seen by industry experts, city officials and environmentalists as likely to incite similar ''ballot box planning,'' contrary to a methodical growth-management process, elsewhere in the region.
''This election cycle is the beginning of a long-term trend where I think developers are going to put their measures on the ballot,'' said Pittsburg boundary-expansion campaign spokesman Sam Singer, finding them no longer willing ''to be on the defensive and let opponents define the debate.''
In Livermore, where a $3 million developer campaign proved ineffective, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Jim Herron Zamora, Mayor Marshall Kamena agreed that many communities will face such measures. ''There's too much money involved for the developers not to give it a whack,'' he observed. ''If they spend a few million and make a billion, those are good numbers.''
Greenbelt Alliance spokeswoman Elizabeth Stampe noted that since voters want smart growth, developers outspent critics by some 10 to 1, portraying their projects as designed to save land and reduce traffic. In Livermore and Brentwood, ''voters saw through the developers' deceptive language and voted no on sprawl,'' she said. ''In Pittsburg and Antioch, unfortunately, developers were able to pass their measures by calling them growth control.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle
11/10/2005
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Multi-Family, Middle-Class Housing Is Focus of San Diego Smart Growth Fund
A proof of new investor trust in urban renaissance, the $90 million San Diego Smart Growth Fund, initiated in May with $60 million from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) and just filled up by the national Phoenix Realty Group (PRG), the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and Washington Mutual, will leverage over $500 million for residential and commercial projects in San Diego County municipalities, its main focus on multi-family middle-class housing at a median price of $400,000 -- affordable for buyers having between $50,000 and $126,000 a year, or 80 to 200 percent of the median county income of $63,000 for a family of four.
Managed by PRG with the aid of the city-county San Diego Capital Cooperative, the Smart Growth Fund will offer developers and community organizations capital and expertise to help them make the best use of their land and resources, with construction expected to generate more than 2,400 jobs and $18 million in sales taxes, plus combined sales and property tax revenues of $10 million a year upon completion.
''Middle-income families now will be able to purchase affordable urban housing, have a stake in their communities, reduce lengthy and expensive commutes between home and work, and have more time for family, friends, and community service,'' said PRG co-founder and CEO J. Michael Fried, noting that new housing near key job centers will make workforce recruitment and retention easier.
Confident that the shift toward urban living will accelerate, reports San Diego Business Journal writer Pat Broderick, PRG co-founder and president Keith Rosenthal observed, ''The rising cost of gasoline means more people will value living closer to their jobs in the city,'' adding that banks, pension funds and insurance companies increasingly ''look at workforce housing as a long-term investment opportunity that complements their overall real estate investments and enables them to diversify their portfolios.''
In addition to the San Diego Smart Growth Fund, PRG manages the similar $100 million Genesis Workforce Housing Fund, which will leverage more than $500 million for middle-income housing construction in greater Los Angeles. -- San Diego Business Journal
11/1/2005
Resource(s): http://home.businesswire.com ; www.sdbj.com/default.asp
Smart Growth Principles Will Help Fast-Growing Coachella Valley Maintain Quality of Life
Its population of 350,000 likely to at least double by 2030, the Coachella Valley, some 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles, can avoid gridlock, curb pollution and preserve the quality of life by allowing mixed uses, becoming more walkable, making schools community centers and pursuing other principles of smart growth, testified experts during a growth-management forum at California State University-San Bernardino's Palm Desert campus, with Azusa-based Transportation and Land Use Collaborative Director Katherine Perez saying ''the decision is ours to transform our urban environments.''
Held by the collaborative and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments, the forum -- third in a series of five -- focused on the economic, social and health benefits of smart growth, reports Palm Springs Desert Sun writer Lou Hirsh, listing its 10 principles promoted by the national Smart Growth Network and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Describing the redevelopment of the 4,000-acre former Stapleton airport in Denver, Colorado, into a mixed-use neighborhood, with interconnected streets and easy pedestrian access to stores, offices, parks and everything else, urban planner Peter Calthorpe told the audience that its clustered homes, in a wide price range, are already selling for 25 percent more than others around.
Riverside County Planning Director Robert C. Johnson cited data that gated communities, popular in affluent areas, aren't necessarily more secure, with Palm Springs architect Reuel Young pointing out that greater security can be achieved simply by making homes overlook not only one another but also common areas. And county deputy health director Michael Osur noted research showing that residents of well-planned communities -- 2.5 times more likely to have a healthy amount of daily exercise -- weigh 6 pounds less on average than those in car-dependent neighborhoods. -- Desert Sun
10/29/2005
Resource(s): www.thedesertsun.com/
Ventura County Marks 10th Anniversary of Landmark Open Space Ballot Measure
One of the nation's toughest land-use laws -- which confines development within urban limits and requires a public vote for outer projects -- the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) ballot measure, passed by the city of Ventura over vitriolic opposition in 1995 and by Ventura County and its seven other cities in the next five years, has kept this picturesque area northwest of Los Angeles semirural and inspired mixed-use redevelopment efforts.
On the measure's 10th anniversary, Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett, a former history teacher who co-founded the SOAR grassroots group with attorney Richard Francis, recalls, ''If you said in 1995 that Ventura would fully embrace the principles of smart growth, you would have been laughed out of the room.''
Although outspent 10 to 1 by growth-control foes in the 1995 campaign, ''SOAR changed the debate,'' says attorney Francis. ''Developers will still develop. But we said they should develop within these lines. And that is what has happened.''
In the past 10 years, reports Los Angeles Times writer Catherine Saillant, the city of Ventura has adopted a plan to reclaim its vacant sites, increase densities and rebuild aged structures for both residential and commercial use; voters have approved a few small projects outside city limits, but barred big residential ones in Ventura, Santa Paula and Moorpark; some builders have left and others have complied with the law and smart-growth guidelines for greater density on smaller lots and for mixed uses.
For example, the writer notes, Oxnard officials approved a proposal for 1,800 tightly clustered homes and about 1,000 apartments on a former mining-pit site, but seem unlikely to approve three proposed condo towers near a freeway, with the next SOAR test coming in February, when Moorpark voters will decide on a 1,700-home project for their northern hills.
Pasadena developer Donald Brackenbush, who lost his bid to develop Ahmanson Ranch at the county's eastern edge, thinks once cities reach their growth limits, SOAR may buckle under pressure to tap protected greenbelts and to provide a range of housing options. And Ventura planner and land-use expert William Fulton stresses the need for big highway and transit improvements in the next 20 years to avoid ''gridlock from Thousand Oaks to Santa Barbara'' some 50 miles apart, with Ventura in the middle.
But Commissioner Bennett and attorney Francis point out that the county will face these challenges with or without SOAR. ''The major lifting has been done,'' the attorney says. ''Now it's just a question of holding it together.'' -- Los Angeles Times 10/10/2005
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/
Developer Awaits Final Approval for La Mesa Transit-Oriented Complex
In the works for years, Fairfield Residential's proposal to build a mixed-use complex of 527 upscale apartments, 3,000 square feet of retail and a two-level garage at an 8.5-acre site near the Grossmont Trolley Station in La Mesa, some eight miles northeast of central San Diego, may soon get the final green light, with the City Council approving its key parts, Mayor Art Madrid hailing it as ''the poster child for transit-oriented development,'' and City Manager Sandy Kerl calling it the embodiment of smart growth, likely to increase transit ridership.
The final decision belongs to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, which owns the site, reports San Diego Union-Tribune writer Liz Neely, noting that La Mesa promised the developer about $2.7 million from its redevelopment fund to make 80 apartments affordable to lower-wage earners and obtained a $2 million smart-growth grant from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) to build two station elevators, which would ease pedestrian access to the Grossmont shopping center and Grossmont Hospital, both across the street.
The writer expects the final details of the project to be ironed out by December. -- San Diego Union-Tribune 9/29/2005
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/
Developers Preparing Plans for Residential, Commercial Projects in Natomas Basin Region
In general rapport with the six-county Sacramento Area Council of Governments' (SACOG) smart-growth blueprint for 2050, which envisions housing near employment to minimize commutes, several landowners and developers are preparing separate plans for a total of perhaps 57,000 homes and about 70,000 jobs in the several-square-mile rural stretch of the wildlife-rich Natomas Basin north and northwest of Sacramento.
Earlier this year, reports Sacramento Business Journal writer Mike McCarthy, three landowners have individually asked the city to annex a total of 2,241 acres in the 10,000-acre Sacramento county-city ''joint-vision'' area and this month Brookfield Land LLC followed with a 3,700-acre annexation request, while in adjacent Sutter County another group outlined its proposal to develop 7,500 acres of the south county portion of the Natomas Basin.
According to Sacramento county and city planners, about 7,000 acres of the 10,000-acre joint-vision area could be developed to provide 40,000 housing units; according to Sutter County's advisory Measure M, approved by voters last year, some 7,500 acres in its southern section could be turned to residential use with up to 17,500 units, and, what interests county officials most, another 3,600 acres could hold enough commercial development for 70,000 jobs.
The south Sutter group is working on detailed project plans, which will or may include a senior-only complex, a lakeshore neighborhood, a golf course, a community college or other educational institution, a large park, and a regional mall or other retail center. But the Natomas Basin is biologically sensitive and environmentalists, the writer notes, have already argued in state and federal courts against its 2003 habitat mitigation and conservation plan as inadequate to preserve threatened and endangered local species.
SACOG Executive Director Mike McKeever said the broad project outline presented by the south Sutter group ''is consistent with the Blueprint principles,'' but he reserved further comment until he sees all details. -- Sacramento Business Journal
9/4/2005
Resource(s): http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/
SANDAG Awards $19 Million in Grants for Transit-Oriented and Pedestrian Improvement Projects
Under its pilot smart-growth incentive program to ensure better urban land use, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) unanimously awarded $19.1 million in federal transportation enhancement grants to 14 transit-oriented and pedestrian-focused improvement projects, each project selected from among 33 countywide entries through competitive scoring for inducement of smart growth, streetscape upgrades, adequate completion dates and other livability factors, with special bonus points benefitting cities whose median incomes stay below the county average.
With San Diego winning a total of $9.7 million for six projects, and La Mesa, Chula Vista, National City and Imperial Beach, within its nine-mile radius, together getting more than $8.7 million, the residual of about $600,000 went to Escondido in North County. Its project was the only grant winner among the seven submitted by northern cities and the North County Transit District, reports North County Times writer Paul Sisson, finding area officials taken aback that their other projects were ''not smart enough.''
Noting that North County hosts a third of the county's population, yet gets only about three percent of its smart-growth incentive grants, Encinitas Councilman Jerome Stocks blamed SANDAG for ''parochialism'' and County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price called the ranking ''not even-handed.'' SANDAG analyst Stephan Vance acknowledged that ''the low-income household bonus'' in the pilot program's scoring formula ''had a significant effect on which projects got funded,'' pointing out that the only North County cities eligible for the bonus were Escondido and San Marcos.
SANDAG officials told San Diego Union-Tribune writer Jeff Ristine that in the next round of grants they will use different scoring to encourage development combining transportation with high-density housing and jobs nearby. And once they start permanent smart-growth project funding in 2008 -- with about $7 million annually coming from the TransNet sales tax, extended by county voters last November -- the scoring will focus on municipal and county applicants' progress in meeting their own targets for affordable housing. -- North County Times, San Diego Union-Tribune
9/3/2005
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/news ; www.signonsandiego.com/
Ventura's Infill-First Strategy Seen As Best Choice to Accommodate Growth and Preserve Quality of Life
Always on the forefront of growth management, Ventura -- some 106,000 residents -- plans to accommodate another 21,000 expected by 2025 inside its current urban boundary, along with an additional 5 million square feet of commercial and industrial space, while attracting higher-paying jobs, aiming for more work-force housing and less car dependency, and seeing any potential move into protected farmland or the northern hillsides only as a last-resort option should the infill-first strategy not suffice.
''This is a plan where people will actually start seeing positive things in their community,'' said City Manager Rick Cole before the City Council voted 7-0 for the massive update of the 20-year General Plan. City officials, reports Ventura County Star writer Kevin Clerici, went beyond the state requirements to address land-use, housing, transportation, open space and other issues, by amassing community input for each of the document's 10 chapters.
''This wasn't a behind-closed-doors document,'' noted San Buenaventura Conservancy spokesman Stephen Schafer. ''They listened to us.''
Other process participants agreed, with Ventura Chamber of Commerce President Zoe Taylor, saying, ''Let's get on with the plan.''
With city staff ready to start ranking vacant and blighted urban sites, to present a specific downtown redevelopment blueprint in six months, officials acknowledged an environmental impact report that says the infill-first strategy may degrade some local vistas, air quality and habitat pockets, but pointed out that its public benefits outweigh drawbacks and that all other scenarios would pose greater environmental risks.
Under the updated plan, the writer adds, the city will also annex the last rural tracts left within its limits, encourage transit and bicycle use, seek funding and location for a major transit station, expand the Brooks Institute into a campus-village with more housing and shops, link the harbor and downtown areas, and boost both historic preservation and ''green'' construction practices.
Crucial for the process will be further public input, said Community Development Director Susan Deloddung at the plan approval hearing, stressing, ''The citizen participation is what brought us to tonight and I see that increasing in the future.'' -- Ventura County Star
8/9/2005
Resource(s): www.venturacountystar.com/
Study: Curb Downtown Car Use by Setting Maximum Parking Limits at New Residential Buildings
One notion seemingly obvious but often overlooked came up in an exploratory San Francisco State University study that found car ownership rates and individual driving habits dependent on the availability of residential and public parking spaces, with authors telling the city, reports San Francisco Examiner writer Marisa Lagos, to ''impose parking maximums, instead of minimums,'' at new residential projects, especially in high-density, transit-rich areas like downtown and South of Market.
''Fewer parking spaces also means fewer car trips,'' observed researcher Elmer Tosta at a San Francisco Planning and Urban Association (SPUR) forum, saying the study -- commissioned by the nonprofit Transportation for a Livable City group -- focused on eight buildings throughout the city and found residents with access to one or more parking spaces almost twice as likely to own cars as residents of buildings with less parking.
The former used cars for about half of their work commuting and more for other trips. Consequently, the authors pointed out that the city should put new parking underground, to make it more limited and more expensive, and to free more street space for alternative mobility.
These recommendations, said City Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, dovetail with his long-planned legislation that would limit surface parking downtown. ''It's not a matter of philosophy, of cars versus other transportation -- it's a matter of geometry'' stressed SPUR President Jim Chappell. ''San Francisco is not getting any bigger. If we want our city to grow and prosper, we need to figure out ways to get more people here, not cars.'' -- San Francisco Examiner
7/29/2005
Resource(s): www.sfexaminer.com/
Reduced Budgets, Health Concerns Create Renewed Interest in Encouraging Students to Walk to Schools
The number of children walking to schools dropped in the last three decades from 66 percent to some 13 percent nationwide and seemingly even more in California, with only 26 of 524 kids from Ellen Feickert Elementary in Elk Grove near Sacramento coming on foot and four on bikes, but 72 being brought by carpools and the rest individually by cars.
Feickert vice principal Patrick Dolinar finds the numbers shocking, reports Sacramento Bee writer Elizabeth Hume, but he is hoping to inspire attitude changes, just as ''walkability'' expert Wendi Kallins did in her Marin County neighborhood, where the number of students driving to school fell from 62 percent to 50 percent in about five years.
Founder of the county's Safe Routes to School group, Wendi Kallinas was recently invited by Elk Grove Unified district officials to share her expertise at their workshop, sponsored by the state Department of Health Services' California Center for Physical Activity.
Desperate to save money, district officials are cutting bus service by more than half, which angers many parents, because even more of them will have to drive kids to school, causing and suffering worse traffic congestion and bad air.
At a tour of two local schools, she pointed out that their ramps, recessed utility poles and wide sidewalks can make pedestrian access easier, telling the workshop, ''It's a matter of developing new patterns -- getting people to branch out in how they are getting kids to school.''
She makes three recommendations for changing these patterns. Officials, she says, should introduce ''walk and roll to school days,'' offering walkers and bikers some rewards; organize a ''walking school bus,'' with parents accompanying a group of students to school and back; and encourage carpooling, especially in areas where walking and biking is risky because of traffic or otherwise difficult. -- Sacramento Bee 6/29/2005
Resource(s): www.sacbee.com/
Sierra Nevada Mountains Targeted as Golden State's Newest Boomtown
''California has a new boomtown: the Sierra Nevada mountains,'' says the South Lake Tahoe-based Sierra Nevada Alliance in a just-released study, showing that the region's home-building, other construction and vehicle numbers increased by 22, 35 and 36 percent since 1990; expecting its population of 600,000 to more than triple by 2040; and identifying a third of the 400-mile-long range as threatened by sprawl, gridlock and pollution.
Most of the 20 California counties in the Sierra lack conservation plans, with only six having a map or inventory of areas that need protection, reports Associated Press writer Don Thompson, quoting Sierra Nevada Alliance Executive Director Joan Clayburgh, who said, ''Population in and of itself really isn't a problem. It's how well we plan for it.''
University of California-Davis Professor Bob Johnston agrees. ''It is not a choice about having homes or businesses versus having wildlands and recreation,'' he noted in the alliance's news release. ''We can have it all in the Sierra -- but we need to plan now how we will do that. Smart planning can save the Sierra we love. Poor planning will sacrifice Sierra vistas and natural areas to the steady march of sprawl.''
Created in 1993 by more than 60 environmental groups, the alliance seeks better planning by Sierra region counties -- 20 in California and three in Nevada -- with broad involvement by residents and also visitors. The counties, the alliance says, should maintain ''the historic development pattern of compact town centers,'' preserve ''permanent open space as an integral part of new development,'' protect and ''restore natural areas,'' and secure ''the sustainable economic productivity of the region's farm lands, ranch lands and forests.'' -- Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sierra Nevada Alliance
6/21/2005
Resource(s): www.sierranevadaalliance.org/ ; www.reviewjournal.com/index.html
Land Trusts Working to Protect 5,000 Acres of Truckee River Area
Helped by the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land, the Truckee Donner Land Trust acquired another 1,400 acres in the Truckee River watershed, mostly in the erosion-prone Gray Creek descent area, while working with the Nature Conservancy on a future purchase of 3,600 acres in the Truckee River Canyon -- all these and other parcels eventually to be owned and managed by the California Department of Fish and Game, protecting the fragile region from low-density ''rural sprawl,'' but allowing recreational access to the river and highlands.
The Sierra Nevada population ''has tripled in the last 40 years, and is projected to triple again over the next 40 years,'' said Truckee Donner Land Trust executive director Perry Norris, stressing, ''You need only to drive in any direction from Truckee to understand the dire urgency to preserve land now.''
The newly purchased acreage along Gray Creek will now be brought back to its original condition by the Truckee River Watershed Council, reports Tahoe Daily Tribune writer David Bunker, quoting council director Lisa Wallace, who said, ''Restoring these areas will improve riparian habitat and decrease excessive sediment flow into the Truckee River.'' -- Tahoe Daily Tribune
6/15/2005
Resource(s): www.tahoedailytribune.com/
Plan for Lake Tahoe Affordable Housing Units Runs Into Local Opposition
In line with the 1996 Tahoe Vista community plan and the 2002 Kings Beach/Tahoe Vista Strategic Plan, both encouraging better lodging, expanded recreation and affordable housing, the long-crafted proposals to revamp two Tahoe Vista resorts, Tahoe Sands and Sandy Beach, promise a total of 16 work-force units, while the owner of a 12.4-acre Cedar Grove parcel near the lake, smart growth advocate Alex Mourelatos, wants to build all his 132-to-164 residential units for renters or buyers with just 80 to 120 percent of Placer County median income.
Disturbed that residents often oppose lower-income housing ''in their backyard,'' he tells Tahoe Daily Tribune writer Megan Michelson, ''That's naive and counterproductive.''
Still, Mourelatos notes that a lot of people came together over the last year, stressing, ''If we grow the right way, our community will become a lot stronger, both economically and socially.''
With the Cedar Grove parcel right outside his back door, resident Randy Hill wonders why Tahoe Vista is to have almost 200 low-income units, but adjacent Kings Beach fewer than 10. ''Tahoe Vista should not be a posterboy for affordable housing,'' he argues. ''We'll do our part, but let's just do a little bit.''
Instead of apartments, he would also prefer single-family homes as ''consistent with the spirit and flavor of the neighborhood,'' adding, ''Let's put affordable houses back there for the teachers and firefighters who can't afford to live here.''
The Cedar Grove project, with five Environmental Impact Report (EIR) density and rental-owner-mix alternatives, is currently in the review process, the writer notes, expecting officials to begin seeking public input early next month. -- Tahoe Daily Tribune 6/3/2005
Resource(s): www.tahoedailytribune.com/
$90 Million Smart Growth Fund Will Help Build Affordable Housing for San Diego County Workers
As companies in Southern California find it increasingly hard to attract and retain workers because of sky-high housing costs, San Diego County officials unveiled their public-private $90 million Smart Growth Fund, designed to help build affordable units for middle-income buyers and renters -- those who earn between 80 and 200 percent of the area's median income, or $49,600-$124,000 for a family of four, with the county's median home price reaching $484,000 last month.
Secured through a recent $60 million commitment from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), with $30 million expected from banks and insurance companies, report San Diego Union-Tribune writers Lori Weisberg and Emmet Pierce, the fund -- slated for formal introduction during a workforce housing conference at the University of San Diego on May 17 -- should leverage more than $500 million in additional residential and commercial development, producing some 2,000 new homes in older urban communities within five years.
San Diego Capital Collaborative CEO Barry Schultz, whose nonprofit will help oversee the fund, said the money will go to San Diego inner neighborhoods and to redevelopment areas in Chula Vista, National City, El Cajon, Vista, Oceanside and Escondido. The fund will be managed by the Phoenix Realty Group, whose official Jay Stark said workforce housing units ''are smaller niche products that have good economics, but no one has had a focus to enfranchise these kinds of developers'' who specialize in less costly urban housing and often lack money for their projects.
''The banks,'' explained Los Angeles condo builder Percy Vaz, ''provide a big piece of funding, but you can't get those loans unless you get an equity source to cover the gap between what the bank will lend and what is needed to make these projects financially feasible.''
San Diego affordable housing developer Michael Galasso also welcomes the Smart Growth Fund. ''This will help us compete for projects and land with large publicly traded corporations,'' he observed. ''So often we lose out because they can act quicker and have bigger bank accounts than us.''
Phoenix group founder J. Michael Fried noted that the planned housing will include mostly attached three-to-five-story condominiums, helping stem workers' flight to distant suburbs in Imperial and Riverside counties and bring ''policemen, firemen, nurses and teacher within an easy commute from where they work.'' -- San Diego Union-Tribune
5/15/2005
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/news/index.html
SANDAG Offers $17 Million in Federal Grants for Transit Center Mixed-Use Projects
The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) approved a $17 million smart-growth promotion program, offering the region's jurisdictions and public agencies between $200,000 and $2 million in federal grant money for mixed-use projects near transit centers, with SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos anticipating tough applicant competition, due to the projected population growth and ever-greater public support for urban revitalization.
The region will have more than a million new residents and a half-million new jobs, he observed, stressing, ''Our premise is that we need to do better in planning for that growth, and being smarter about reinvesting in the areas where infrastructure and support services are.''
SANDAG senior planner Stephan Vance said, ''The way we have been building requires people to get in their cars to go almost everywhere. We need to start bringing together the places where people live and where they work.''
The grants will go mostly to areas served by regional transit, he promised, adding, ''We're looking for projects that promote such things as pedestrian access, improved bicycle paths and bicycle parking, pedestrian lighting and public art.''
To qualify, reports North County Times writer Mark Walker, the applicants must contribute at least 11.5 percent of their project costs, with SANDAG staff and a citizen panel grading applications on smart-growth elements, project readiness and low-income housing inclusion.
Once the federal $17 million is gone, by 2009-10, SANDAG will use money from the half-cent TransNet sales tax, extended by voters last November -- about $7 million a year earmarked for smart growth -- while expanding the project range to parks, parking garages and other urban facilities. -- North County Times
4/23/2005
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
Debate Lines Being Drawn Over California's ''Transit Village'' Bill
In a preview of the hot debate expected over legislation (SB 521) that would let cities form redevelopment agencies to build mixed-use, high-density, varied-housing ''transit villages'' around rail stations, Democratic Senator Tom Torlakson says his bill could ease freeway traffic, improve air quality, and allow many ''to live closer to work,'' but Republican Senator Dave Cox sees it as part of the state's ''continual, incremental encroachment on the land-use planning done by local entities, cities and counties.''
Under the bill, reports Contra Costa Times writer Kiley Russell, each city-approved transit-village plan would need approval from the respective transit authority and the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to enable each new redevelopment agency to subsidize the initial project costs with area property tax revenue. Such an agency would later collect the post-development property tax increment that would have normally gone into county and state coffers.
The bill would also expand the definition of ''blight,'' to allow the new redevelopment agencies to condemn neglected land around rail stations in areas not predominantly urban or designated for high density. This provision worries the California Redevelopment Association, with its legislative lobbyist David Jones saying, ''Calling a neighborhood blighted simply because it doesn't have density is very, very troubling.''
City officials, the writer notes, are split on the bill. Walnut Creek City Councilman Charles Abrams argues state officials need ''to stay out of land-use decisions because they botch it up with all the policies involved,'' and Pittsburg mayor Nancy Parent thinks the bill ''just adds more people whose hoops we'd have to jump through.''
On the other hand, Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart finds the bill beneficial for the city's new BART station plan. ''We're a classic example of where that would work well,'' she points out, ''since we don't have a redevelopment agency and there's no reason for us to form one except for around the BART station.''
Land-use experts consider the bill both moderate and creative. Public Policy Institute of California researcher Paul Lewis says, ''This (bill) makes sure that what the city does isn't in its own interest alone, but in the interest of the region as a whole.'' -- Contra Costa Times
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
Developer's Offer of Road Improvement Solutions Gets Cool Reception in Nevada County
Keen to move on his proposed 1,000-home, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly Loma Rica Ranch project, some three miles northeast of downtown Grass Valley, developer Phil Carville urged Grass Valley, Nevada City and Nevada County to invest in a three-day road-improvement charrette, writing their leaders that since ''traffic is a regional problem,'' they should work together, and that his adviser, nationally known planning and walkability expert Dan Burden, came up during his recent visit with more solutions in one day ''than most staff would in a year.''
This didn't sit too well with the addressees, who appreciated the developer's effort, but advised him to follow proper channels, by submitting his concepts first to the Nevada County Transportation Commission, reports Grass Valley Union writer Becky Trout.
''It's not like (these) are new concepts,'' said Grass valley mayor Gerard Tassone. ''It's just that we have dismissed many of them due to practicality (or right-of-way issues).''
County Transportation Commission executive director Dan Landon wrote, ''In his exuberance for Mr. Burden's presentation, I believe Mr. Carville has overstated the potential of the recommendations, and the context of his letter implies some things that are not correct.''
During his presentation last month, followed by a city tour, the writer notes, the planning expert recommended such remedies as putting a median on the road along the proposed project, tightening turns at a key nearby intersection, and reducing the number of driveways at another junction. The developer maintained in his letter that these and other Burden recommendations could save the area about $6 million. ''Are we interested in saving $6 million in taxpayer funds?'' he asked officials. ''We must break a few conventional misperceptions, but we can do it.'' -- Union
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.theunion.com/
Builders Seek Land Guarantees for California's New Housing Projects, But Conservationists Fear Loss of Open Space
Having built 210,000 housing units last year -- a 15-year record and about 95 percent of what's needed annually to keep prices in check -- builders seek long-term land availability guarantees, counting on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's regulatory promises and eight related bills so far, while conservationists warn against weakening of the 1970 California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), calling instead for higher densities, smaller home lots, mixed uses and other ''smart growth'' solutions.
''What about certainty for habitat, the preservation of farmland and open space?'' asks state Sierra Club director Bill Allayaud about builder land demands. ''It's just a recipe for sprawl.''
But state Democratic Senator Tom Torlakson's spokesman Robert Oakes notes ''a feeling among Senate democrats that CEQA is being abused'' by some. ''It wasn't put in place to prevent working people from getting a house,'' he tells Los Angeles Daily News writer Lisa Mascaro. ''NIMBYs are shutting down too many reasonable housing projects.''
California Building Industry Association vice president of governmental affairs Tim Coyle, reports Sacramento Business Journal writer Mike McCarthy, holds NIMBYs responsible mainly for blocking infills. ''An individual, for a $175 fee, can file a complaint on a residential project and bring it to a halt,'' he complains. ''And this is especially the case in neighborhoods where builders want to build more housing.''
Because infill is crucial for smart growth, environmentalists may accept less stringent impact reviews for such projects, the writer observes, quoting Planning and Conservation League acting director Karen Douglas, who says, ''We're not coming out totally against it, but we're going to be very, very cautious'' about pending legislation.
The legislation currently includes five bills in the Senate and three in the Assembly. SBs 968 and 1026, the writer reports, would require local governments to identify their 20-year land supplies and zone for housing 10 years ahead. SB 948 would allow ''short form'' environmental impact reports (EIR) for infills. SB 785 would require NIMBY plaintiffs to disclose lists of members and their potential financial or competitive gains through the lawsuits, while SB 321 would make municipalities document that their developer fees for specific projects are proportional to the prospective impact.
In the House, AB 1205 would make developer lawsuits against impact fees easier, while ABs 941 and 108 would block ''predatory lawyers'' from persuading or soliciting homeowners to sue for construction defects before allowing builders the chance to repair or rejecting the work results. -- Los Angeles Daily News, Sacramento Business Journal
3/13/2005
Resource(s): www.dailynews.com/
Writer Says Return to Downtown Living Not Actually a Return
After 16 years in the suburbs, Solimar Research Group president and journalist-author William Fulton moved to downtown Ventura and became ''an urbanite,'' more often eating out and running errands without a car just as many others do and another hundreds will soon, he writes in a Contra Costa Times guest column, noting that the state's high housing prices prompted developers to build 800 more downtown area units in the near future.
Welcomed by urban planners nationwide as crucial for reviving cities and curbing sprawl, he writes, this downtown living trend is sometimes seen as ''simply a return to the way things used to be -- a time when everybody lived 'above the store' in close proximity to jobs and everyday services,'' but, according to MIT professor Robert Fogelson, such an image ''isn't quite accurate.''
In his recent book, ''Downtown,'' professor Fogelson argues that the American downtown, especially in large cities, emerged between 1880 and 1920 as ''a business district where nobody lived'' -- its vitality due to efficient transportation, especially trolleys -- with many urban leaders convinced that concentration of retail and offices downtown and dispersion of residents in other neighborhoods and the suburbs is mutually helpful and beneficial.
This belief was proven wrong in the late 1920s and certainly after World War II, Fulton continues, as retail and office business inevitably followed customers into outer areas, creating ''a crisis among real estate investors who had staked so much on the downtowns.''
According to professor Fogelson, he writes, these investors ''actually appropriated the ideas of urban renewal and 'slum clearance' from housing advocates as a way of boosting downtown fortunes.''
The current trend to restructure downtowns with housing, Fulton thinks, ''is not likely to counteract the ongoing march of suburbia,'' but will continue for many reasons. Among them is the downtown role change from ''the one-stop shop for practically all retail and office-based business in a city'' to a place rich in entertainment and amenities, offering a ''lifestyle alternative.''
Somewhat concerned over downtown Ventura's odds of becoming ''an entertainment-oriented bedroom suburb for pricey Santa Barbara'' and over the recurrent police and homeless presence near his block, Fulton is glad he can walk to a local market and the 10-screen movie theater just past the library, concluding, ''I'll take the trade.'' -- Contra Costa Times
3/13/2005
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
More Transit-Oriented Housing in San Jose Could Help Secure Funds for Long-Promised BART Line Extension
Not alone in expecting the most from the best, California Business, Housing and Transportation Secretary Sunne McPeak asked San Jose -- recently given an A+ housing grade by the Bay Area Council -- to plan an additional 60,000 units, about half in still under-used areas, making clear it would help the state reach its smart-growth goals of urban and transit-oriented development, and consequently release the $760 million it promised in 2000 for a BART line extension from Fremont to Santa Clara and San Jose, some 18 miles south.
Addressing the area's housing summit, held by the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group late last month in Santa Clara, the secretary voiced strong support for legislation to make the state's affordable-housing push more effective.
The legislation, reports Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal writer Timothy Roberts, would hold local governments accountable for meeting state goals and allow lawsuits for non-performance, with courts imposing fines that would go into local housing-trust funds.
In line with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's new 2030 plan for the Bay Area, the linkage between land use and transportation funding would also benefit the Valley Transportation Authority, responsible for the BART system. The authority, the writer explains, hit by a sharp cost increase and income loss, delayed the date for new service from 2012 to 2015, and desperately needs state and federal funds.
Commission public affairs and legislation manager Randy Rentschler told the writer that Secretary McPeak's push for more urban housing could change the recent Federal Transit Administration's opinion that the proposed San Jose line wouldn't have enough riders to warrant about $1 billion in federal aid. After the secretary's speech, San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales expressed confidence that the city's ''housing plans in terms of smart growth are going to meet and exceed any others in terms of the community supporting BART.''
Manufacturing Group President and CEO Carl Guardiano, an ardent advocate of transit and affordable housing, applauded the state's move. ''Sunne (McPeak) and I have long talked about our mutual desire to see state investment in transportation meet key housing goals in high-cost Silicon Valley, so that working families can afford to buy a home,'' he said. ''And as many of those homes should be as close as possible to (provide) alternatives to the automobile so we make the best use of the land.'' -- Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal 3/4/2005
Resource(s): http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/
Contra Costa Growth Summit Closes Without Decision on Urban Growth Expansion
Contra Costa County spent $1 million and countless consultation hours over the past two years to draw up the regional ''Shaping Our Future'' growth-management plan, but county supervisors and leaders of its 19 municipalities ended their much-anticipated summit without agreeing on whether and where to expand the county's urban limit line and how to move it in the future.
The county's half-cent transportation sales tax, passed by voters last November, reported Contra Costa Times writer Lisa Vorderbrueggen before the summit, requires them to jointly approve either a countywide growth line or separate municipal lines, but the problem is that they mistrust one another.
A single urban line, she pointed out, would require each community to cede expansion decisions to county voters and a joint review panel, the latter deciding about ''how many homes and jobs the region needs and where it makes sense to build.'' With the ''Shaping Our Future'' plan envisioning mixed-use development near transit ''so people won't have to sit behind the wheel of a car three hours a day,'' the county supervisors and ''an unlikely coalition of home builders and environmentalists'' want to keep the current line and expand it gradually in the future if necessary or better yet, increase urban densities.
But many municipal leaders want to move the line now or at least elicit guarantees for their construction plans, afraid of possible roadblocks from environmentalists, who, the writer observed, ''rarely endorse development, even though they live in, as far as anyone can tell, actual houses.'' And although all know smart growth when they see it, the writer adds, they ''can't agree on how to define it.''
At the same time, Sacramento Union magazine writer Susan McLaughlin declared in the headline of her vitriolic column that '''Smart Growth' Is Coming to Sacramento -- And It's Really Stupid.''
Calling smart growth simply ''government-sponsored crowding and control,'' with the goal of eliminating the automobile and ''restricting the housing market to high-density, cost-shifted apartments or condominiums,'' she warned readers against ''infill development,'' ''intensification,'' ''densification,'' and ''other monstrous jargon'' about suburban office parks and ''underutilized'' land.
''Other multiple use plans could include locating mental health clinics and unemployment offices at public facilities,'' she announced. ''Schools, for instance.'' -- Contra Costa Times, Sacramento Union
2/27/2005
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/ ; www.sacunion.com/
San Diego Housing Plan Designates Nearly 40 Percent of New Construction for Low-Income Residents
Following its comprehensive land-use and transportation plan, whose smart-growth segment seeks development near transit and utilities, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) adopted a housing plan that directs San Diego County and its 18 municipalities to create zoning for construction of 107,301 units over five years, including 42,491 -- 39.6 percent -- for low-income residents, with communities exceeding their shares offered priority in SANDAG transportation grants.
Expected by the state Department of Housing and Community Development seven months earlier, the plan took longer to get hammered out because it involved ''a tough issue'' of money, reports North County Times writer Mark Walker, quoting both SANDAG chairman, Poway Mayor Mickey Cafagna, who said officials want to do more than just create new zoning, and San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who stressed that zoning alone does not produce affordable housing.
All involved agreed that neither state nor federal aid is likely, said the SANDAG chairman, pointing out that affordable housing typically needs subsidies of up to $150,000 per unit, which means $600 million for the newly adopted plan. ''Now let's just get out there,'' he said, ''and build as many as we can.''
With the county's median income at $63,400 for a family of four, and the median North County home price reaching $538,000 last month, the plan includes two affordability categories -- for ''low'' and ''very low'' incomes in four-person households, no more than $54,800 and $34,250 a year, respectively. Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce official Mitch Mitchell told the SANDAG board that only 12 percent of county residents can afford a median-price home, warning, ''We aren't building houses for the average family. This is a regional crisis that has to be addressed.''
The nonprofit Community HousingWorks group's executive director, Sue Reynolds, said, ''Our economy is growing through jobs that pay $30,000 or $40,000 and not $60,000 a year,'' pledging to help county and municipal officials build as many low-income units as possible. -- North County Times 2/26/2005
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
GoCalifornia Transportation Proposal Would Tap Private Funds for Road Projects
''We're putting the 'go' back into California's transportation system, which has stalled after years of neglect,'' said state Business, Transportation and Housing Secretary Sunne McPeak, unveiling the administration's ''GoCalifornia'' anti-congestion proposal, whose two measures to spur private capital for road projects are backed by the legislative Democratic majority, while its bid to tap gas taxes for two years to cut down the nearly $9 million budget deficit is considered untimely.
''I believe we should stop the raids on state transportation money,'' objected Senate Transportation Committee Democratic Chairman Tom Torlakson, ''because we need those funds for short-term and immediate safety improvements.''
The ''GoCalifornia'' proposal, reports Contra Costa Times writer Mike Adamick, calls for approval of two bills and a constitutional amendment. Assembly Bill 850 would let private companies build toll roads and High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes at their own expense, and recoup those investments from toll proceeds. Senate Bill 705 would speed up road improvements by letting construction firms also design major projects rather than compete for state-designed ones and by limiting plan ''change orders,'' which have often driven up project costs.
Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4X would allow paying down part of the state deficit with gas sales taxes, collected under 2002 voter-approved Proposition 42, while guaranteeing their use solely for transportation after two years. A rival Assembly bill, the writer notes, would block the use of the money for deficit reduction but allow the state limited borrowing against the funds, with interest. -- Contra Costa Times 2/25/2005
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
Dwindling Supply of Affordable Housing Spurs Four-Bill Legislative Package in California
''We may well be the first generation that will not be able to pass on a better lifestyle or the quality of life conditions to our children that we had ourselves,'' said Senate Democratic President Pro Tem Don Perata, unveiling a four-bill package of previously suggested and ''recycled'' ideas to spur high-density housing near transit, encourage affordable-unit construction, limit environmental challenges to downtown and inner-city projects, and make cities include clean air measures in their long-range plans.
Pointing out that only one among five residents in this state of nearly 37 million people can afford a median-price home, currently at $475,000, Senator Perata said the bills stem from talks among city and county officials, environmentalists and builders, but include ideas that require further negotiations. Specifically, notes Associated Press writer Jim Wasserman, the bills would more than double the under-four-acre maximum for central-city housing projects free from reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and triple their under-100-unit maximum, to preclude frequent delaying steps and lawsuit by local opponents.
Senate Environmental Quality Committee Democratic Chairman Alan Lowenthal stressed that strong CEQA protections would remain in force. -- Mercury News
2/25/2005
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
Reversal Sought for Court Rejection of West Sacramento Infill Project
Backed by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), the Building Industry Association and other influential groups, Sacramento and Regis Homes are asking the state's Supreme Court to reverse an appellate decision that blocked a 139-home project on 20 acres in the affluent Pocket area of West Sacramento because neighbors fault its aesthetics and seek an environmental impact report (EIR), with SACOG director and West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon concerned about ''the implication that this legal standard has the potential to shoot down infill and smart-growth development in the whole state.''
The neighborhood Pocket Protectors group's attorney, Susan Brandt-Hawley, calls it a ''sky-is-falling response,'' arguing that under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), aesthetic objections can warrant an EIR request, that the Regis project's approval flouts local planned-unit development (PUD) guidelines, and that her group proposes instead a 139-unit attached-condo project, which would be more affordable while offering larger setbacks and more landscaping and open space.
On the other hand, reports Sacramento Business Journal writer Mike McCarthy, Regis representatives, attorneys Tina Thomas and Sabrina Teller of Remy, Thomas, Moose and Manley, point out that local governments have the right to make their own decisions about the validity of local objections or preferences, that lengthy and costly EIRs could kill many infill projects because of their slim profit margin, and that Regis wouldn't make money on attached homes in the Pocket area.
Rejected by the Sacramento Planning Commission in 2002, the writer notes, the Regis project was approved by the City Council a year later, subsequently upheld by the County Superior Court and blocked by the state's 3rd Court of Appeals last December. In this ruling, says the California Building Association in a ''friend of the court'' letter to the state Supreme Court, the appellate court ''ignored the mandated judicial deference it must grant to local governments to interpret their own laws.''
The Napa County Board of Supervisors emphasizes the same point. And the Legal Services of Northern California affordable-housing advocacy group writes: ''The decision in Pocket Protectors vs. City of Sacramento will only encourage the filing of CEQA lawsuits which are not intended to protect the environment, but rather to block sorely needed affordable housing developments based on motives contrary to law and sound public policy.'' -- Sacramento Business Journal
2/18/2005
Resource(s): http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/
Citing Housing Crisis, California APA Pushes for 20-Year Housing Plan, Urban Infill to Meet Smart Growth Goals
Long on the state's smart-growth forefront, the California Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) will push for multi-prong legislation that would require the state to draw up a 20-year housing plan, promote urban infill, encourage inclusionary zoning, curb sprawl, and streamline the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process for projects in line with smart-growth and affordability goals.
''Families, singles and seniors will need homes, but continuing to add homes to the fringes of existing communities is not the answer,'' said APA state chapter president Jeri Rim at a Sacramento news conference. ''No one wants longer commutes, more pollution and added stress.''
Chapter legislative director Vince Bertoni stressed that the state is ''in the midst of an affordable-housing crisis,'' that home ownership is ''out of the grasp of so many people,'' and that all income groups need housing. APA leaders, reports Chico Enterprise Record writer Larry Mitchel, also want lawmakers to let counties and municipalities pass smart-growth and affordable-housing bonds by a 55-percent margin instead of the 67-percent super-majority currently required.
Pointing out that Butte County has already drawn a green line west of its seat in Chico, whose general plan emphasizes infill, the writer notes that the region's Republican Senator Sam Aanestad opposes the APA proposals. ''We should allow the free market and local leaders to guide development,'' the senator said, calling the idea of a 55-percent majority as sufficient for local bonds unacceptable. -- Enterprise Record
2/15/2005
Resource(s): www.chicoer.com/
Mountain View City Council to Review Proposals for Development Near Transit Station
Having made clear last year that the former Mayfield Mall and later a Hewlett-Packard office campus at the Mountain View-Palo Alto border next to a Caltrain station is best suited for high-density housing, the Mountain View City Council voted to study four options for the 27-acre site, including Toll Brothers' proposal to build a total of 631 single-family homes, town houses and condos -- a proposal backed by many residents and by groups as diverse as the Chamber of Commerce and the Sierra Club.
In partnership with Hewlett-Packard, Toll Brothers is planning 101 units on the Palo Alto side and 530 units plus two parks in Mountain View, reports San Jose Mercury-News writer Kimra McPherson, observing that the other three options for the site range from 365 single-family homes to 710 varied units to no housing at all.
Several area homeowners from the Monta Loma Neighborhood Association, the writer notes, voiced their opposition to high density because of related noise and traffic, wishing the council had also considered the site for 140 to 190 single-family homes or for a park. But on the eve of the council's hearing, a Mercury-News editorial cautioned that ''putting a huge park right at a transit site would be a terrible waste of the land.''
What's more, the editorial stressed, the council should expand the future environmental impact study to look into ''higher density than what's proposed'' and to prevent any reduction of the units later.
''Mountain View has created some great, walkable neighborhoods in the past 15 years,'' the editorial said. ''A new neighborhood with two parks at Mayfield will improve the existing area and help meet the region's need for housing.'' -- San Jose Mercury-News
2/7/2005
Resource(s): www.mercurynews.com/
CSU to Offer Master's Degree Program in Urban Land Redevelopment
In preparation for the huge population growth and housing demand in the Sacramento region and all over California in the next 50 years, this fall California State University (CSU) Sacramento will launch an interdisciplinary master's degree program in ''urban land development,'' which will examine subject issues from both private and government perspectives, helping educate ''a new breed'' of planning, construction, management and policy professionals, ''able to profitably build in a way that discourages sprawl and promotes infill, livable and affordable development.''
Spearheaded by CSU Real Estate and Land Use Institute Executive Director Professor Jaime Alvayay, and Public Policy and Administration Professors Ted Lascher and Rob Wassmer, the master's program will be offered jointly by the Department of Organizational Behavior and Environment, and the Department of Public Policy and Administration.
The first group will include about 15 students, with most classes in the evenings and on Saturdays -- to accommodate working professionals -- and full-time participants expected to finish the program in two years and then complete a ''real-world'' graduation project or report instead of a traditional thesis within a semester.
Classes will cover a broad array of subjects, including public and urban economic analysis, data analysis, negotiation, real estate investment, geographic information systems, urban policy formulation and governance, and personnel management.
2/2/2005
Resource(s): www.csus.edu/
Smart Growth on the Edge Conference Examines Ways to Promote Sustainable Growth
With Los Angeles development pressures expanding west into Riverside and San Bernardino counties and with Coachella Valley's population of 350,000 likely to at least double by 2025, Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley told some 300 officials, academicians and activists at the regional ''Smart Growth on the Edge'' conference in Riverside that the ''biggest enemy of sustainable growth is suburban sprawl,'' while state Business, Transportation & Housing Secretary Sunne McPeak stressed, ''We have to grow in a much different way.''
Although budget constraints, bureaucratic red tape and local NIMBY sentiments hinder ''turning smart growth from a theory into reality,'' several valley cities made a breakthrough toward mixed-use, higher-density, pedestrian-friendly development, reports Desert Sun writer Lou Hirsch, mentioning Palm Desert, La Quinta, Thousand Palms and Rancho Mirage.
Still, conference participants and others told him that the region needs more projects ''in the pipeline'' to ensure long-term smart growth momentum.
''We don't have a lot of projects yet where people have put things up and made a profit,'' said University of California-Riverside's Center for Sustainable Suburban Development managing director Andy McCue. ''We need some successes to show that this works.''
One way to make it work, national urban planning consultant Peter Calthorpe assured the audience, is to improve traffic flow and pedestrian mobility by revamping the typical arterial system, increasingly prone to |
