CEQA under attack in Sacramento

, State Legislative Director

We are in a real fight in Sacramento. The fight is over the wish of developers to weaken our single most important environmental law. At stake is the ability of Californians and planners to design development that has fewer impacts on our air, water, and land. As you can imagine, developers have kept up a steady effort over the years to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. But they apparently have a new ally in the corner office - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

When Schwarzenegger was running for office, he had a good platform on growth issues. In his veto of Assembly Bill 2055, Schwarzenegger wrote: 'I have begun work with my Cabinet to develop strategies to ensure that Californians have enough housing and better roads, while at the same time maintaining the natural splendor of our open spaces and the rich economic value of our agricultural lands.'

I thought this was a pretty good start, as most governors have avoided talking about growth and planning strategies altogether. But I was concerned when he appointed Sunne Wright McPeak as the Secretary of Business, Transportation, and Housing because of her spotty record as a local government official (former Supervisor for Contra Costa County) and her close ties with developers. When the Governor installed Lucetta Anne Dunn - also a close ally of development interests- as Director of the Department of Housing and Community Development, I thought things might really go downhill - and they did.

Last year, Schwarzenegger assigned a cabinet-level task force to develop a major smart growth policy that he could announce in his 2005 State of the State address. This sounded promising, given his running platform. But the task force, led by McPeak, did not give him anything close to a progressive policy on growth. Instead, the Governor's new 'smart growth' policy came out like this in his State of the State address in January: 'A home of your own is part of the American Dream. I believe in such dreams, so I will propose legislation that eliminates the regulatory and the legal hurdles that delay construction and increase the costs for new housing.'

When I heard those words, it immediately indicated to me that California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) would be under attack. In addition, given that Schwarzenegger's biggest contributors, both during the campaign and since taking office, are developers and real estate interests, it certainly seemed that the story line was leaning toward his siding with the development community.

The proposed legislation is terrible for our air, water, and habitat. It is cleverly constructed so that developers can say that they don't want to 'gut' CEQA. That's because they don't have to -- the legislative proposals take care of the builders by making most housing projects not subject to local public hearings and discretionary permits and therefore exempt from CEQA.

The proposals mandate that local governments must show how they accommodate a 20-year supply of housing, but fall way short when it comes to requiring that the same government show how farmland, habitat, and open space is to be protected, paying only lip service to those principles of good planning. In other words, the administration wants to give 'certainty' to developers, but not certainty to the environment.

The proposals also attack the citizens' right to be involved, making it much more difficult for residents to challenge a city or county's decision on a development project. One of the most disturbing proposals is that a city or county may not expand their open space if they are not in compliance with their housing element, as determined by state officials in Sacramento. I must ask: this administration believes that it is good policy for a growing city or county to forgo opportunities to plan for more parks? Why would they take aim at open space instead of sewer extensions or another 'sprawl-mart'?

The Sierra Club, at the local chapter level and in Sacramento through Sierra Club California, works on a vision of smart growth - revitalized urban areas, better schools, more choices in housing, more transit, etc. The focus needs to be on upfront planning, as too many general plans are substantially out of date. We need urban growth boundaries, urban services lines, or analogous planning tools that make it clear where growth is preferred and where services like roads, sewer, and water can be provided and paid for by the new development. This local planning needs to support affordable housing, so that our teachers and firefighters can live in the communities they serve.

For now, it seems the Schwarzenegger administration is holding back on their proposals. To their credit and probably thanks to Cabinet Secretary Terry Tamminen's steadying hand, they are not pushing any radical proposals. And, we are working with Senator Don Perata, the president of the Senate, on Senate Bill 832 as an alternative approach. The dialogue and analysis will most likely spill over into next year to come up with something that environmental groups, local governments, and developer interests can live with, but I think it can be done.