Greenbelt Alliance In the News
July 2, 2006
How does your region
grow?
EDITORIAL
Byline
THE San Francisco Bay Area will be gaining
1 million new residents in
the next 15 years, regardless of whether cities and counties are ready
or not.
A new report on local governments' growth planning suggests they are
not.
In its "Smart Growth Scorecard," the conservation group Greenbelt
Alliance rated the planning policies of 101 cities and nine counties
in the Bay Area. Criteria included a local government's policies for
preventing sprawl, building affordable housing, promoting parks,
encouraging density in the "right places" (such as near downtown
and
transit stations), reducing parking, incorporating mixed-use
development and "defining standards for good development."
To be sure, the report was an imprecise snapshot of the region's
approach to growth -- because it only rated the policies, and not
whether the cities and counties were adhering to the policies they
had. Even so, the dearth of clear, strong growth policies throughout
the region is a cause for concern. Tom Steinbach, Greenbelt
Alliance's executive director, noted that what happens in those
planning codes "affects what happens on the landscape."
On average, Bay Area cities scored 34 percent in the growth-policy
scorecard; counties scored a better, but still-unacceptable, 51
percent.
The top score (70 percent) went to Petaluma, which the report said
"illustrates that through strong local leadership in planning for
growth, a city of moderate population can create a livable town and
help protect the greenbelt." San Jose fared best among the major
cities -- 69 percent -- with high marks for its voter-approved growth
boundary and its efforts to reduce the need for parking.
One of the most striking findings of the report was the variation
from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. This, too, is a cause for concern.
After all, a city that is striving for sound-growth policies could
have its quality of life affected by less-visionary neighbors. A
prime example was Contra Costa County, where Walnut Creek (at 50
percent) is surrounded by communities with abysmal scores.
"I wish we could do a scorecard of good-growth planning by the
regional agencies," Steinbach said. "The reality is we don't
have
regional agencies that have that power. Our region would be much
better off if cities and counties had to coordinate with each other.
"They don't."
One of the few notable strides toward better regionwide planning was
the decision of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission last July
to require communities along new transit corridors to adopt wise
land-use planning policies -- along the lines of those in the
Greenbelt Alliance index -- before funds could be released. Even
better, the MTC offered to help fund those planning processes. That
policy should help the region optimize the benefit of new rail lines
such as BART to Antioch and San Jose, as well as the proposed
Dumbarton rail corridor between Union City and Redwood City.
The Bay Area is going to keep growing. The question is how well our
quality of life fares with the addition of 1 million people and the
resulting demands on our roadways, our open space, our air, our
housing costs, our parks and our overall quality of life.
Without planning -- without meaningful, regional strategies -- the
prospect of a million-plus population boom is grim indeed. It's time
for cities and counties throughout the region to raise their
awareness of what's coming -- and to get to work on raising their
"smart growth" quotient.
The full report, which includes scores for cities and counties, can
be found at www.greenbelt.org.
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