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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

July 6, 2004

Six cities expected to OK tax initiative

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After all, they've spent a year reaching out to the disparate needs of Contra Costa County's four corners and asking the diverse regions to compromise. The 25-year, $2 billion spending plan also more strongly links growth controls to transportation services.

"I think compromise is the way to go," said El Cerrito City Councilwoman Janet Abelson. "We don't necessarily want the same thing in El Cerrito as what they want in San Ramon."

Although the tax blueprint has encountered largely smooth sailing over the last three weeks from city councils, which must approve the proposal, the waters promise to get choppier as the idea moves from city halls to the November ballot, where voters will have the final word.

Powerful environmental lobbies haven't signed off on the measure, because they're upset about extra funding for roads and highway widenings instead of transit and bus services, as well as an undefined urban limit line that would curb sprawl development.

And while the environmental groups debate supporting the measure, transportation advocates must win two-thirds support among voters.

But advocates remain hopeful that a recent backlash against suburban sprawl, and the tax measure's link to growth controls, will equate to victory at the ballot box.

"I was very skeptical of its chances six months ago," said county Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier. "Now, I think it's going to get approved. I think people are fed up with the growth patterns, and if the electeds (officials) don't change it, they'll do it."

The proposal extends the half-cent sales tax first approved by voters in 1988. Known as Measure C then, the initiative paid for $1 billion in transportation projects, including BART service to eastern Contra Costa and widening of Highway 4.

But the tax expires in 2009, and advocates want to get a jump on renewing it, because they've seen voters in neighboring counties reject similar taxes in recent years.

If approved, it would provide $2 billion over 25 years for many projects, like a fourth bore through the Caldecott Tunnel, Interstate 80 improvements in the western parts of the county and a high-speed transit service known as e-BART in the eastern end.

The plan calls as well for stronger links between transportation and growth. But a key proposal calling on cities to comply with a county urban limit line, which keeps growth within city limits, is still being created and probably won't be clearly defined until after the election.

This has some environmental groups worried.

"They're asking us to support it, but the urban limit line has huge consequences and no one knows where it is," said David Reid of the Greenbelt Alliance. "We're asking for a very accelerated process so we can know what it will look like: This urban limit line is a make-it-or-break-it issue."

As the squabbles continue behind the scenes, the public has seen a largely cooperative process. City council after city council has approved the tax proposal in the last three weeks, though in some cases grudgingly.

Today marks a key milestone in the multi-year struggle to get the proposal on the November ballot. The proposal must win approval from a majority of city councils representing a majority of the county's population.

To date, Antioch, Clayton, Lafayette, El Cerrito, Hercules and San Pablo, or about 28 percent of the county's population, voted in favor of the tax extension. Though fervently pro-development in recent years, Antioch leaders have begun to cool their heels as residents cried out against traffic-inducing sprawl.

Today, on Super Tuesday, as it has come to be known in county circles, Concord, Danville, Orinda, Richmond, Pittsburg and Walnut Creek will vote on the proposal. The cities represent 49 percent of the county's population. Once the county Board of Supervisors gives the final approval, the measure can then be placed on the November ballot.

Orinda City Councilwoman Amy Worth, who also sits on the transportation authority's southwest regional planning committee, said an urban limit line will take time to develop. But the concerns of city and county leaders mirror those of the environmental lobbies, she said. They all want to see stronger growth controls, she said.

"To develop a new urban limit line will take some time because of the environmental review process, and it needs to be a public process," Worth said.

Mike Adamick covers transportation. Reach him at 925-945-4745 or at madamick@cctimes.com.

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