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California
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
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