California Bill to Curb Urban Sprawl and Cut Carbon Emissions

[This is a guest post by Meg Hamill, who works at an environmental nonprofit called LandPaths, in partnership with the Sonoma County Open Space District of Sonoma County, California.]

Here’s a few sobering statistics: For the past twenty years, the number of miles driven in California has increased at a 50% faster rate than the rate of population growth. In the Bay Area alone, residents drive enough miles to get to the moon and back every day. Passenger vehicles are thought to be responsible for about 30% of all the state’s heat-trapping gasses.

>>More on California environmental policy at RG&B

Last Monday, the California State Assembly passed a bill, that if approved by the Senate, will become the nation’s most far-reaching attempt to curb urban and suburban sprawl. Interestingly enough, the main goal of the bill is to reduce the amount of time Californians spend commuting in their cars, and in turn reducing carbon emissions. The bill aims to accomplish this goal by promoting housing development near already existing industry and job sites. State Senator Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat sponsoring the bill, said that he expected the Senate to approve the measure soon, however Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has not made public whether or not he will offer his support.

If the measure does pass, three regulatory and permit processes, including land use, transportation and housing plans, must work together to meet new carbon emission goals. Upon passage of this bill, billions of dollars of state and federal transportation subsidies can be awarded to begin building livable communities within biking & walking distance of already existing industry.

Ed Manning, a lobbyist representing the state’s largest 25 homebuilding companies said: “What California is doing for the first time is planning for housing needs, transportation needs and climate-change needs all at the same time.”

Most environmental groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, strongly support the bill, while other groups are hesitant, saying that it relaxes some environmental constraints on developers.

Photo from Freefoto.com under a Creative Common License

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