Posted on 08/31/2008 10:29:31 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – California is on the verge of initiating a historic rewrite of local planning laws, fusing for the first time the issues of urban growth and global warming. Unprecedented nationally, the complex legislation would steer communities toward land-use policies to contain sprawl, using as much as $12 billion a year in state-controlled transportation funds as an incentive.
“This bill will change the way California grows,” said state Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, its author.
Under the measure, the state Air Resources Board would establish targets for 17 regions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of a broader campaign to curb global warming. It then would be up to local planning agencies, such as the San Diego Association of Governments – known as SANDAG – to help cities and counties implement land-use policies that would meet those goals.
Regional agencies are expected to encourage more compact development, linking residents to transit, jobs and shopping.
The legislation offers builders density concessions, relief from time-consuming and costly environmental reviews, stronger safeguards against litigation aimed at stopping projects, and assurances that proposals complying with general plans will not be arbitrarily derailed.
“It will be a national model,” Steinberg said. “This is the biggest bill in the country to combat sprawl.
The Senate approved the measure yesterday, sending it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor has not taken a position on SB 375, but he has championed many of its goals.
Despite the broad appeal the measure has enjoyed, there are reservations. Business property owners want the same deal given to home builders. Some transportation agencies seek more road-building flexibility. And less-populated regions worry about their ability to meet such stipulations as frequent bus service and placing new homes in proximity to job centers.
In San Diego, the reviews are mostly positive. Prominant planning figures and major developers say they do not anticipate a revolutionary shift in growth patterns because the region already is moving to encourage environmentally friendly projects that link housing, transit and jobs.
“Our planning policies are in sync with the goals in the bill,” said Barry Schultz, chairman of the San Diego city planning commission and an advocate for affordable housing. “We are all traveling down the same road. We all have the same values, the same interests, the same goals in mind.”
However, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce is opposed, primarily out of fear that transportation projects that are important but may not meet the goals of the air board could be derailed, said Ruben Barrales, the chamber's president.
Chamber officials also lobbied to extend the environmental concessions to business properties, but Steinberg held firm, saying such a significant change so late could unravel the delicate coalition of supporters. Steinberg said he expects to have to finagle legislation next year to address some of the complaints, including those leveled by the chamber.
“It continues to be a moving target,” Barrales said, referring to ongoing negotiations over the issue. “We're moving closer to a bill that is acceptable and, more importantly, workable for economic growth.”
The rewards, supporters say, are many. Residents are promised shorter commutes, improved mass transit and more affordable housing. “Future development will be more transit-oriented, more pedestrian-oriented, linking employment centers and housing centers,” Schultz said.
Just as important, supporters say, curbing the need for car trips would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a primary contributor to global warming.
“This is the missing piece in California's historic effort to reduce global warming pollution,” said Ann Notthoff, who represented the Natural Resources Defense Council in negotiating the bill.
Over the past two years, Steinberg has negotiated the carefully nuanced agreement with environmentalists, builders and local planning agencies.
It would provide the state Air Resources Board with an approved framework for how regional governments will comply with state law that requires significant rollbacks in greenhouse gas emissions. That way, supporters say, the air board will be less likely to impose Draconian regulations.
Steve Doyle, president of Brookfield San Diego Builders, said he mostly favors the bill but has some misgivings. He remains wary of the air board, noting that the measure is not as specific as he would like in limiting the agency's reach.
“Everything seems to be going the right way, but there is no assurance,” Doyle said.
The drawbacks Doyle sees:
Projects could still be subject to cumulative impact studies.
Not all regional planning agencies may be able to work out differences to qualify for transportation funds.
There is some uncertainty over how future regulations will apply to projects on the drawing board today.
“It's a complete turnabout in how business is done,” Doyle said.
Doyle's company has projects in different areas, in urban as well as suburban settings where there is more room for growth and pressure to change commuting patterns. His major concern there is whether overlapping planning agencies in Riverside County, Imperial County and other regions can reconcile differences with the targets. “I can see a lot of potential for confusion and conflict,” he said.
However, Doyle is confident that San Diego's regional government group will be successful. “SANDAG has an excellent history of jurisdictional cooperation.”
Sherman Harmer, president of the Building Industry Association of San Diego, said, “there's a huge new emphasis on reconnecting jobs and rooftops” in this era of $4 gas, growth pressures and climate change.
One reason he was drawn to the bill, Harmer said, is it would provide clear direction for cities and counties. “How do you implement something when there are no rules?” said Harmer, who is also the president of Urban Housing Partners. “The issue has been defined now.”
Harmer and Doyle say the incentives were important to the building community. “There has to be rewards,” Harmer said.
Despite his endorsement, Schultz, the San Diego planning commissioner, said communities must be vigilant. Developers should not be able to wiggle out of complying with other key elements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), he said.
“You have to be careful you don't streamline and sacrifice the goals of CEQA,” Schultz said. “That's the challenge.”
Despite strong support from key environmentalists and home builders, the measure has drawn some stiff opposition.
Transportation agencies, particularly, are concerned that road projects were not included in some of the provisions meant to streamline projects.
Darren Kettle, executive director of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, said the measure could make it more difficult for his region to win voter support for a 2010 sales tax increase to fund badly needed transportation projects. Opponents, he said, could seize on that uncertainty to argue that some projects approved in a sales tax measure would not be guaranteed because of the mandatory link to greenhouse gas emission reductions.
“Our frustration is the rules of the game are being changed,” Kettle said.
Developers were not the only ones seeking stronger shields against lawsuits related to compliance with greenhouse gas emission reductions. Cities and counties, including San Diego, have been pressured by Attorney General Jerry Brown, who had threatened legal action unless local governments became more aggressive.
Some Republicans maintain that the legislation cedes control over growth to the state.
“This bill changes the way land-use planning is done. (It's) 'smart growth' as defined by the state,” said Assemblyman Robert Huff, R-Diamond Bar.
But if that were the case, cities and counties would be rising up in opposition, said Bill Higgins, who represented the League of California Cities in negotiations.
Nevertheless, admitted Higgins, “it's like walking down the altar for a lifetime commitment. You're really excited, but you're really nervous.”
Ya got your carbon footprints .. so why not carbon blueprints, right? One nice tight little package.. what a country.
The BIG SHAM just burns on, and voter ignorance and complacency fuels the fire....
How do you unelect the unelected,, no , make that , how do you get the selected or appointed out when both gub and the legislature are hell-bent on screwing this state up even more?
If those who supported environmental legislation in the 50s and 60s had known what agencies would be spawn and let loose to be more a thorn than a boon to much of anyone, I wonder how many might have thought twice about the path they were told to go down?
Fighting Global Warming is like fighting vampires, or werewolves, or other imaginary creatures.
New Jersey already signed ‘smart growth’ into policy January 2007. The remap of zoning is considered ‘state policy’.
http://www.state.nj.us/dca/osg/resources/maps/prelimmaps.shtml
Same old eco-commie authoritarian crap—”we’re gonna tell you where and how to live”. Screw that.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
What a useless human being! This is exactly the type of personality and intellect that gravitates towards "public service".
If his ancestors were as useless and incapable as he, the human species would have stopped evolving shortly after standing upright.
Calif. bill would tie land use to carbon emissions
The enviromarxist central planners will do to California what the old-fashioned marxists did to the soviet union. It’s back to the USSR!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Thanks!
It’s almost pitchforks and torches time.. or shovels and buckets time.
What a mindless horde is running things these days. They sell themselves as having a vision.. I think they ate some bad acid myself.
We government bureaucrats know what's best for your and your miserable little lives.
This would spell the end of the single-family subdivision and force everybody into 25 story high-rises.
The #1 avoidable cause of CO2 emissions is FIRES. The firefighters have to spend their time and money, not on the best way to prevent CO2 emissions/stop the fire, but on the lives and houses of stupid people who built where they shouldn’t.
Solutions:
1. Announce to homeowners, insurance companies, etc that firefighters will no longer waste their time and money on the houses of the stupid. And write that into law and funding.
2. The same with stupid people who build on mudslide heaven.
3. Clear cut firebreaks to contain CO2 emissions. Of course, rotate the clear cut area from year to year. Recycle the cuttings as paper, particle board, whatever.
4. Pump sea water up over the hills to basins in the desert. The water lines up over the hills can then be used for fire fighting also.
5. Half The new water in the desert basins will evaporate into the atmosphere and increase the humidity and rainfall which will reduce the fire hazard and increase the value of the land for vegatation, both natural and agriculturak.
I believe the suburbs were originally created to remove families from industrial neighborhoods. It was a health and safety thing. Now they want to force them back together into cities - into environments where human impact is much greater (air, water, land use.) You can tell we are growing less and less family friendly and treating people more like populations that have to be managed.
thanks for the ping.... what does this mean?
I’m finding out what it means in bits and pieces. Some of the pieces has to do with changing where and how we live in NJ. Towns and areas are being awarded grants for Smart Growth areas, transit villages, and commuting restrictions. The Clean Air Act that Corine signed onto has mandatory car ownership restrictions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.