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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

April 20, 2004

County transportation blueprint opposed

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The county transportation authority had planned to adopt a draft plan this week but growing friction between elected officials and special interest groups spurred a call for more negotiations.

"We need more time to resolve the differences," said authority member and Contra Costa Supervisor John Gioia. "If we adopt a plan Wednesday, we run the risk that some of the stakeholders will walk away ... which will translate into opposition."

County leaders hope to place the 25-year, $2 billion extension of a half-cent transportation sales tax before voters in November. Contra Costa voters first approved the tax with a spending plan in 1988. Such local measures have become indispensable as state and federal funds dwindle.

But the two-thirds voter threshold required has awarded extraordinary power to special-interest groups. Even minimal opposition can jeopardize a measure, and critics often threaten to withhold support unless spending plans reflect their views.

In Contra Costa County, environmentalists and bus advocates want less cash for roads and more money for bus service and affordable housing, as well as airtight compliance with the county's urban limit line.

"So far, this plan is the same old, business-as-usual approach," said Kathleen Nimr of the Sierra Club. "We need a new vision for Contra Costa County that looks 30 years into the future."

As written, the plan will fail, predicted Contra Costa Labor Council chief John Dalrymple. Instead of requiring developers to pay for roads, he says it robs dollars from transit services for seniors, the disabled and workers.

"The authority has ignored its own polls, the community workshops and the expenditure plan developed by a diverse citizen group, " he said. "It's not acceptable."

Elected city leaders, who comprise the bulk of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, say they have conceded to many of these demands but have refused to budge further.

Most of their constituents drive and the budget crisis and recession has drained the traditional sources of funds to repair and expand roads.

"It's not a perfect plan, but I believe it is a new vision for Contra Costa County," said Antioch Mayor Don Freitas in a recent impassioned speech. "This is a balanced, reasoned plan. ... . that we even have a category in this plan for (smart growth) is extraordinary."

From the beginning, the measure has been a test of smart growth commitment.

Groups that won considerable success in Alameda County's sales tax plan in 2000, such as the Greenbelt Alliance and Transportation and Land Use Coalition, transferred their attentions to Contra Costa, much to the chagrin of many local elected officials.

Advocates foresaw a major victory if they could leverage road money for smart growth in Contra Costa, one of the Bay Area's fastest-growing regions.

Its members sat with home builders and business leaders, among others, on the authority's citizen's advisory committee to write the first cut at a spending plan.

Committee members called the result an unprecedented compromise among labor, environmental and business interests that would guarantee widespread support.

Most of the authority members viewed it as a private deal rammed through by special interests. They politely thanked the committee and forged ahead.

"For the authority to disregard the broad consensus we reached among diverse groups ranging from seniors to home builders to road builders is hard for me to understand," said Save Mt. Diablo Executive Director Ron Brown. "I thought this was going to be an evolutionary process that we worked through together."

While critics say the authority's draft plan does not go far enough, it differs sharply from the original measure adopted in 1988.

The rewrite sets about a third of the proceeds for construction, down from two-thirds in the old program. Projects include a fourth bore in the Caldecott Tunnel and Vasco Road improvements.

Bus service would see a boost from 8 percent to 15.4 percent of the money. The new one also would create a $100 million smart growth or transit-oriented development fund, which cities could use to help redirect growth into existing communities near bus and train stations.

The draft also calls for more stringent growth controls.

Unless a city or the county agrees to abide by the urban limit line, it would not receive streets maintenance money or qualify for the smart growth fund.

The draft also conditions money on whether a city or the county can prove it has built an adequate number of houses or show that it has zoned enough land for them.

The current measure allows cities to self-certify on housing and other conditions and no community has ever been denied its money.

The authority remains deadlocked on how a city would comply with the urban limit line, an issue that could stall the new measure.

Environmentalists and Gioia want every city to vote on an urban growth boundary specific to that community. Gioia's colleagues on the Board of Supervisors have also demanded this provision as a condition of support.

"Cities have talked the talk about smart growth," he said. "This is where they walk the walk."

Oakley Councilman Brad Nix and Walnut Creek Councilman Charlie Abrams prefer that city councils sign a urban limit line contract.

Delegating land-use decisions to voters gives special interest groups too much power, Abrams said. If a voter-approved line is a "must-have for the county, it is a must-not-have for cities."

The authority's attorney, however, has said a contract will not legally bind cities to the line. Only the voters can do that.

In addition to Wednesday's meeting, the authority will host a countywide transportation summit on May 1 and has scheduled May 19 to select a final plan.

The authority must then secure majority approval from the Board of Supervisors and city councils that represent a majority of the county's population.

The supervisors have until Aug. 6 to place the measure on the November ballot.
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Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers transportation and land-use. Reach her at 925-945-4773 or lvorderb@cctimes.com.

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