New State Policies and Trends
September 7, 2005
Planning Context
• California will continue to grow at what some would characterize as
an alarming rate.
• California does not have a plan for growth, nor a statement of policy
about the State’s interests related to growth.
• Local governments make most of the major decisions about growth.
Such decisions are often made for reasons more to do with local
finances than with the needs of the community.
• Sprawling growth costs us all, including loss of agricultural and
resource land, increased costs of services and pollution.
• Rural sprawl has joined suburban sprawl as an urgent land use
problem.
• The legal process to restructure local government has not been
comprehensively revisited since 1963.
Tipping Point for Action
•
•
•
•
•
Traffic, Traffic, Traffic
Housing Prices
Declining Air and Water Quality
Food Security in Jeopardy
Loss of the California Landscapes We
Love
• Loss of Quality of Life
Tipping Point for Action
Congestion
Pollution
Sprawl
•
Asthma
Diabetes
Obesity
State Anti-Dumb Growth
Assessment
•Identifies and acknowledges significant “smart growth”
actions already taken.
•Catalogues significant work efforts not yet
implemented.
•Identifies possible actions to advance the State’s
interests in growing smarter.
•Presents options for policy and process actions to
accomplish key goals based on stakeholder interviews.
The Opportunity
Tremendous opportunity exists for a
comprehensive and precedent setting growth
strategy for California:
•There is strong evidence of the Administration’s
interest in “smart growth.”
•A planning framework is in place.
•The decade-long smart growth movement has
established significant common ground among broad
interest groups.
Clear Interest in Smart Growth
•Blueprint for a Hydrogen Highway.
•Formation of a Sierra Nevada Conservancy.
•Green Building Initiative.
•Green House Gas Emission Reduction
Targets.
•$5 Million in Blueprint Planning Grants.
•California Partnership for the San Joaquin
Valley.
Strong Planning Framework
The Planning and Zoning law sets for an extensive
structure for addressing regional planning, funding,
growth, environmental quality and growth issues.
AB 857 (effective 1/1/03) amended the Planning and
Zoning Law to establish three state planning priorities:
•Promote Infill
•Protect Environmental and Agricultural Resources
•Encourage Efficient Development Patterns
Current Dialogues
•The Governor’s Anti-Dumb Growth Work
Group
•BTH and HCD Led Housing Stakeholder
Meetings
•The CEQA Improvement Advisory Group
•The League of Cities – Builder Housing/GP
Task Force
•The Perata Working Group
•California Association of Counties
Housing/Fiscal Working Group
State “Anti-Dumb Growth”
Efforts
• Formed Anti-Dumb Growth Cabinet Work Group
• Focus: Housing, Housing, Housing
• Actions Taken: Regional Blueprint Grants; Go
California Transportation Bills; Global Warming
and Green Building Initiatives; other.
• Actions Postponed: Home California Proposal;
CEQA “reform” legislation; other.
• Formed CEQA Improvement Advisory Group.
• Assessment of Other Opportunities Ongoing.
Intent of Perata Bills
• Improve local and regional planning to provide
greater certainty for construction of higher
density housing, transit oriented development,
urban infill and protection of resources, habitat,
flood prone areas and agricultural lands.
• Create new financial and regulatory incentives
for housing construction and resource
protection.
• Provide funding for planning.
The Challenge
•Complexity of the issues.
•Legacy of prior efforts.
•Participant fatigue.
•Engaging the public.
•Partisan politics.
Prior Efforts
Previous “smart growth” dialogues have reaped only partial
reforms:
•1976:
•1980s:
•1991:
•1997-99:
•2000:
•2001:
•2002:
•2003:
An Urban Strategy for California
League of Cities: Action for the 90’s
Governor’s Interagency Council on Growth
Management
Commission on Local Governance for the 21st
Century
Smart Growth Caucus
Housing and Land Use Working Group
ULI Smart Growth Initiative
Environmental Growth and Policy Report
Growing Consensus to:
•Improve economic competitiveness and quality of life.
•Remove barriers to infill.
•Provide new and exciting housing and transportation
choices.
•Use land more efficiently.
•Protect farmland and habitat.
•Improve air quality and the environment.
Housing Choices in the Right
Places
Recommendations
•Fully implement AB 857 to redirect state functional
plans and funding to planning priorities.
•Establish a single-statewide, bi-partisan “task force” to
develop specific legislative, budget and policy changes
to achieve smarter growth patterns. (Evolution of the
CIAG)
•Support funding for planning at all levels, including
regional “blueprint” or countywide plans for growth and
conservation.
LAFCo’s Roles
•Participate in the statewide dialogue. Complete the work
begun by the Hertzberg Amendments.
•Role in regional planning efforts/developing
regional/countywide “smart” plans.
•Potentially expanded role to oversee local government
compliance with specific planning outcomes – infill, efficient
use of land, protection of agricultural lands and the
environment.
“The Administration will seek to reform onerous
regulatory and planning laws to promote home
building and accountability for housing production
while requiring less paperwork between local
governments and the State. Every local jurisdiction
should plan for and be prepared to accommodate their
own natural population increase and workforce, and to
do so on the most efficient land use pattern possible,
minimizing impacts on valuable habitat and productive
farmland.”
Governor’s Budget Message to the State Legislature