Posted on 01/07/2005 10:37:32 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — The second-most-powerful California politician is proposing the state seize some zoning power from cities and counties to build projects that round out areas like Oakland and the East Bay as transportation hubs, where even depressed inner-city housing would then bloom — an issue voters may decide this year.
The proposal to ease sprawl, traffic congestion and housing prices is opposed by cities and counties but could go to voters this turbulent political year — with or without the support of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The governor is planning to call a statewide special election on a wide array of reforms, whether the Democrat-dominated Legislature approves the proposals or not. If it's without the support of Democrats, majority lawmakers said they'll put their own competing measures on the ballot.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, said Schwarzenegger's salesmanship would be key in selling the need for the state to supersede local land-use controls in certain cases.
"I believe he can sell big ideas to the state of California. That's his role. I believe our role is come up with some strategies that we believe we can use in support of that effort," Perata said.
Schwarzenegger administration officials declined comment, saying they had seen no formal proposal.
Representatives of local governments in the Bay Area and elsewhere throughout the state said they were against Perata's proposal on the surface but were open to listening to details once they are available.
Perata, who once served on the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, said city and county officials ultimately "buckle" under pressure from developers, worsening the linked problems of suburban sprawl, gridlock on roads and the affordability of housing.
"They are scratching each other's backs," said Perata, who is under federal investigation for alleged money-handling improprieties. "Only a damn fool would say it's not true. We could document that until the cows come home."
Experts said the average commute in California is now nearly an hour, and the median price of a home has risen to nearly $475,000.
"It's no wonder people are getting angrier and angrier," said the Senate leader, who replaced the termed-out Democratic Sen. John Burton of San Francisco. "They have to go hundreds of miles to be able to buy a home. They spend most of their time in their cars, not with their families.
"We are radically changing the lifestyle in California based upon our inability to wrestle with the problems of sprawl, congestion and affordability."
The root of the problem lies also with funding — which he hopes Schwarzenegger and the federal government will soon address — along with local government politics.
"The builders get together with the cities and they talk about what kind of changes that we're going to make," Perata said. "What they really talk about is that we'll give up on CEQA (environmental protections) a little bit and you support us on getting out from under the housing element (which guides development). Cities that want to get out from under the housing element don't want to change the way they live.
"So we have to go to some very radical things, some bold ideas. I'll say, much to the dismay of the League of California Cities, maybe we need to find those places in California where it makes a lot of sense for the state to step in and put an overlay zone," the Senate leader said.
Pat Leary, a spokeswoman for the California State Association of Counties, said local governments are opposed to the idea so far.
"It's easy to throw stones at local planners," Leary said. "But it's a pretty big hurdle to overcome, until there's more details, to say anybody in Sacramento could do a better job making decisions than local officials. It's OK to talk about reforms and another thing to talk about people hundreds of miles away making decisions for you."
Implying there's "negative and evil" relations between planners and developers is unsubstantiated, she said.
The more important factor, said Leary, is money.
"We've been talking about reforms for years now, but we need to have money first," she said.
Billions of dollars in transportation funds, in fact, have been shifted to other areas in deficit-plagued California.
But Perata said he foresees both an infusion of money and changes in the law transforming his own district, for instance.
"In the city of Oakland, there is a convergence of an interstate, the BART system, the Capitol Express train system, bus system and ferries. But there is nothing there that would indicate this is the center of a transportation hub," Perata said.
"I will guarantee you that if there was any effort to provide affordable housing, through higher density, there would be a (housing) rush like you wouldn't believe," he said.
But the responsibility to make the changes happen now lies with the governor and Legislature, Perata said. As a step toward the effort, he has combined the transportation and housing committees.
"We could pass laws up here that give people down in the communities the obligation and the responsibilities, knowing full well that they'd buckle."
Sorry, I just heard the show was cancelled due to phone problems.
Exactly!
Understandable. She did fine for a small town/area, long ago. It's possible she doesn't have the skills to manage more than a small town.
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