Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Pulling Together Land Use & Transportation

It passed. AB 375 got the votes it needed to move forward bringing together transportation and land use planning.
Senate Bill 375 – commonly referred to in the popular press as the “climate change smart growth bill” – is going to become a law. The newspapers have been calling the legislation “precedent setting,” but it’s got nary a new idea in it. If you peel back the layers, you’ve got what old-timers like me call a “growth management law” – one that ties transportation funding to growth patterns.
It'll be interesting to see how this works if it works. According to Bill Fulton, Contra Costa County has adopted similar measures, but that hasn't stopped the sprawl in Brentwood and other places or moved transit funding away from roads there. Much of the transportation funding is going to a 4th bore in the Caldecott tunnel.

In somewhat related news, the Governor changed his mind and decided that he will sign bills that will go to the voters, not wanting to withhold them from a public vote. This means HSR prop 1a will be on the ballot.

No comments: