The Loma Prietan
July/August 2003
Sustainable Land Use Committee Wants Your Help
by Irvin Dawid
The Sierra Club, along with many other mainstream environmental organizations, has long been associated with the conservation and preservation of open spaces, especially in regard to valuable wildlife habitat. More recently, in our Stop Sprawl campaign, we have made the link between conservation of open space in undeveloped areas and development within urban regions. As California's population continues to soar, this campaign seeks to reduce the thirst for open space to meet the state's housing need by directing the growth inward, toward already urbanized areas, and away from the undeveloped fringes of metropolitan regions.
It is with this conservation theme in mind that the Chapter's Sustainable Land Use Committee has recently undergone reorganization. At the April Conservation Committee meeting, a new work plan was approved, and I was appointed as interim chair. The purpose of the committee will be to promote what is commonly called "smart growth."
Excellent articles describing this term can be found on the Sierra Club's "Stop Sprawl" website (see the What You Can Do section at the end of this article). Broadly put, smart growth calls for conservation of open space, including wild lands and most agricultural areas, while focusing development in appropriate, urbanized areas. Development within the urban core areas is also called infill. In fact, since the development is occurring in areas that usually have already been developed, as opposed to "greenfields", it is actually a form of redevelopment that is being promoted.
A key goal is to make these new developments add to a region's livability. The point is not simply to make existing cities denser or more crowded, but to make them better places in which to live. In fact, Sierra Club California has organized a Livable Communities Committee largely based on promoting policies to make infill developments improve the communities in which they are proposed.
In addition to the conservation of open space, a critical component of smart growth is transportation. If a region's workforce is not able to find housing they can afford near their jobs, they are forced to commute from more distant communities. The effects on air pollution and transportation investments (usually extending and widening freeways) can be devastating to the environment.
Here in Northern California, Congressmen Richard Pombo is proposing to build a new freeway through the rugged wilderness and wildlife habitat of the Diablo Range. This new road would largely accommodate those who have moved to San Joaquin County because we in Silicon Valley have not built enough housing to meet the needs of the local workforce.
Supporting infill residential projects is not new to the Loma Prieta Chapter. As a founding member of the Santa Clara County Housing Action Coalition, we have worked within a diverse coalition of organizations to promote housing that is "environmentally appropriate" in our region. However, it is new for the Chapter to personally add its name to the list of endorsers of these projects.
At its June meeting, the Executive Committee endorsed the Chapter's third infill project: the 1000 El Camino Real apartment/retail project in San Carlos, by John Baer of JMS Development Partners. The term "infill" is best exemplified by describing Baer's project:
Take an abandoned restaurant and parking lot on a major transit corridor, near a rail station and thriving central business district, and recycle its use into providing desperately needed housing, plus some retail services. Furthermore, develop the property with an eye on higher density, and design it so that it encourages its residents to walk, bike, and use public transit rather than making every trip in a personal motor vehicle.
Within the last year, the Chapter had endorsed two earlier projects: one in San Jose, the other in Palo Alto. The 10-12 story towers of Vendome Place, due to break ground in August, are located by the San Jose Civic Center light rail station, and earned the Transportation and Land Use Coalition's "Best of Santa Clara County Development" award. (See www.transcoalition.org.)
The redevelopment proposal for the aging Hyatt Rickey on El Camino Real in Palo Alto, adjacent to a planned bus rapid transit station, was the Chapter's second endorsement. While some Palo Alto residents were not pleased with our endorsement of the project, members of the Conservation and Executive Committees remain committed to the goal of supporting well designed infill projects. At the same time, the Land Use Committee intends to improve outreach to our membership.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Read more on the Sierra Club campaign to promote smart growth. Eric Parfrey, co-chair of the Livable Communities Committee of Sierra Club CA, has written an excellent article on smart growth, found online at www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/community/smartgrowth.asp. Also explore the stop sprawl articles: www.sierraclub.org/sprawl/articles/.
2. Read more about the "smart growth" coalitions that the Chapter has joined:
• Transportation and Land Use coalition's smart growth campaign: www.transcoalition.org/c/sg/sg_home.html
• Criteria used by Housing Action coalition to endorse infill projects: www.svmg.org/Committees/Housing/Housing_Action_Coalition/HAC_Criteria.cfm
These criteria are initially being used by the Land Use committee to rate projects while it develops its own check list.
3. The Chapter is planning to do a membership outreach meeting to further discuss its smart growth activities.
E-mail: loma.prieta.chapter*sierraclub.org (replace * with @) or phone the Chapter office (650/390-8411) if you would like to be notified of upcoming events.
4. Contact Irvin Dawid if you would like to get personally involved.
Send e-mail to: irvindawid*hotmail.com (replace * with @) or call 650/853-0558.