The Loma Prietan
October 2002
Sierra Club California Endorsements
Proposition 46: SUPPORT
Sierra Club California endorses Proposition 46, which will provide $2.1 billion for affordable housing, with a strong emphasis on infill development. Building affordable housing in existing urban centers not only provides an antidote to land-gobbling sprawl, but increases housing near job centers, reduces vehicle miles traveled, and revitalizes urban centers, all of which have social as well as environmental benefits.
Proposition 46, a bond measure placed on the ballot by the Legislature, includes new “smart growth” criteria for its largest program, the Multifamily Housing Program. It favors infill projects, adaptive reuse, and projects near public transit, schools, recreational facilities and job centers. The net result? Proposition 46 will fund the development of some of the most environmentally friendly housing in the State.
Proposition 50: SUPPORT
Sierra Club California supports Prop. 50, the Clean Water and Coastal Protection Bond of 2002. This $3.44 billion bond, placed on the ballot by initiative, will allow state and local agencies to carry out a wide range of resource protection projects and water management programs that Sierra Club has advocated and supported. These projects and programs will help to protect and restore the state’s natural resources and environmental quality.
The projects included in Proposition 50 may be grouped into three broad categories: (1) Water supply and water quality protection, $2.110 billion; (2) Coastal resource protection, $1.050 billion; (3) Inland resource protection, $280 million.
Projects funded by this bond measure will help protect our watersheds, rivers, lakes and coastal water from pollution and sewage, and restore natural resources critical for drinking water supplies and wildlife habitat.
Proposition 51: SUPPORT
Sierra Club California has endorsed Proposition 51, the Traffic Congestion Relief & Safe School Bus Act, an initiative placed on the ballot by the Planning and Conservation League and many allied groups. The measure would allocate 30 percent of the state share of the sales tax on new and used cars and trucks to a new trust fund for transportation alternatives and mitigation of transportation’s environmental impacts. Programs funded by the initiative include public transit, safe bike and pedestrian routes and facilities, clean-fuel school buses, wetlands and habitat protection, and water quality enhancements.
Pacifica Measure E: OPPOSE
The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter strongly opposes Measure E in Pacifica. Measure E, if enacted, would allow for a massive, out-of-character development in the Quarry area of Pacifica, west of Highway 1. The proposed Pacifica Village Center project would be sprawl-inducing, add to air quality problems along the Peninsula, threaten various endangered or protected species, and is nothing less than an assault on the State Coastal Act. Sierra Club activists in Pacifica are involved in trying to stop this project. We urge a “no” vote on Pacifica Measure E.
Santa Clara Cty. Measure B: OPPOSE
Measure B in Santa Clara County would require that all VTA discretionary funds be used for roads and highways, meaning none for transit. This inflexible measure is wrong-headed. We urge a “no” vote (see page 10 for more information on Measure B).
Governor: Gray Davis
Since governor is the office with by far the most influence on California’s environment, Sierra Club California conducted a comprehensive and deliberative endorsement process. After weighing the pros and cons, the Sierra Club California Political Committee, Regional Conservation Committee, and Executive Committee all voted to endorse Davis, the incumbent.
Among Davis’ many environmental accomplishments are: signing a bill making California the first state in the nation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from
motor vehicles; campaigning for two major environmental bond measures; launching a huge energy conservation campaign in 2001 that successfully averted blackouts and improved air quality; and appointing accomplished environmentalists to key regulatory bodies.