Judging by the likes of Oakland, Berkeley, and, of course, San Francisco, a plan to encourage density, transit use, and environmentalism in the Bay Area might seem redundant. But these vibrant urban centers are just small elements in the sprawling, nine-county region that is the subject of the fourth and final Sustainable Communities Strategy to be drafted for California's major urban areas. Branded as Plan Bay Area and devised by the area's paired regional planning organizations�the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission�the SCS attempts to extend the smart growth ethos from the bustling streets of SoMa and the Haight all the way out to Sonoma, Napa, and Solano counties. "The plan is this notion of trying to knit together housing, land use, climate change challenges, and livable communities into a unit so that we can talk about it all at one time," said Randy Rentschler, director of legislation and public affairs for MTC. The plan's Preferred Land Use Scenario and Investment Strategy was approved unanimously by a joint session of the MTC and ABAG boards in May; the agencies are now working on alternatives and will release a full draft of the plan in December . MTC also voted to approve the "One Bay Area Grants" (OBAG) program, and ABAG approved a draft housing allocation methodology for Bay Area cities. The plan is intended to help the region accommodate 2.1 million new residents and 1.1 million new jobs by 2035. Whether every locale in the Bay Area will welcome these jobs and residents remains to be seen. Many of the Bay Area's outlying suburbs have long maintained their cultural distance from the center cities and have been concerned that regional planning efforts would impose unwanted density on them. Self-described Tea Party supporters have been concerned that Plan Bay Area would go so far as to force residents out of their homes and put strict moratoria on the development of single-family houses. Officials say that the plan has been deliberately constructed so as not to upend residents' suburban lifetimes. "They got this idea that we were going to try to impose this urban vision in places were it didn't make sense," said Rentschler. "That's the last thing we were trying to do." As with the SCS's devised by the other three of California's "Big Four" MPOs�mandated to create SCS's by Senate Bill 375, the 2008 law that seeks to reduce driving via compact development and transit use�Plan Bay Area is designed around a core of transportation investment as described in the accompanying Regional Transportation Plan update. Though the Bay Area already famously has Bay Area Rapid Transit and other major elements of public transit infrastructure, the RTP includes elements such as a BART extension to San Jose, the San Francisco central subway, and 270 miles of new and converted express lanes on the region's freeways. Even with all of those investments, the plan actually emphasizes maintenance of the existing transportation system over the development of new infrastructure. Planners have hailed this "fix it first" strategy, which allocates 88% of transportation funding�up from current levels of 80%--to maintenance. "The very positive change is when we look at the shift in transportation money, where a much higher percentage is spent on maintenance and operation and a decline in the amount of expansion," said Egon Terplan, regional planning director at San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association.  As well, the plan includes performance-based funding, which directs transportation investment towards areas of greatest need. To meet SB 375's goals of reducing per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 7% in 2020 and by 15% in 2035, planners estimate that�if current residents maintain their travel patterns, then each marginal resident will have to drive 75% less by comparison. On the land use side, Plan Bay Area centers on an innovative program that encourages cities to comply voluntarily with SB 375. Cities may submit applications to adopt "Priority Development Areas" (PDA's) and thereby become eligible for grants and technical assistance from MTC/ABAG. To be eligible to become a PDA, an area had to be within an existing community, near existing or planned fixed transit or served by comparable bus service, and planned for more housing. Though PDA the program has been in effect for six years, the advent of the SCS has given it greater purpose. Currently, there are 115,000 acres of PDA's in the Bay Area, in various stages of build-out. The "OBAG" grant program will allocate $14 billion of One Bay Area Grants to localities to plan and invest in PDA's. The plan intends for 75% of new housing and 64% of new jobs to be located in PDA's and for per capita vehicle-miles travelled to fall accordingly. Though this strategy has garnered widespread praise, some observers fear that achieving SB 375's greenhouse gas emissions reductions poses a greater challenge in the Bay Area than in the state's other big three MPOs. Many places in the Bay Area�most notably San Francisco�are already compact and already have high transit ridership. Therefore, achieving the marginal decreases in greenhouse gas emissions may be more difficult because the region is relatively efficient in the first place.            "For SCAG to reach its targets, it was more about encouraging a modest densification of land use patterns that are already in line with what the market is doing," said Terplan. "For the Bay Area, a place where per capita driving is already less than in a lot of other regions, getting a 15% reduction is harder." In fact, the plan acknowledges a six-percentage-point gap in emissions reductions for 2035. "The region really needs to look at pricing mechanisms, particularly road pricing, as a way to close the greenhouse gas emission gap," said Terplan. Others feel that those concerns are overblown, and they say that the region's density and, especially, its transit infrastructure simply provides greater opportunities for effective infill development.   "There's lots and lots of redevelopment opportunities around the Bay Area's existing network," said Hobson. "We don't have to spend a lot of money to put thousands of new homes and jobs around transit centers. In other regions, they need to build transit in order to have TOD." The big money, though, will be directed towards transportation projects. Through 2040, the region will invest $277 billion in roads, mass transit, and non-motorized transportation. As it turns out, getting people around is only half the battle for Plan Bay Area. Many planners and public officials in the region have also approached it as sort of economic development plan, with housing at its core. While MTC can direct the investment of transportation funds, Rentschler stressed that the plan's success relies on the participation of the region's localities�namely the 101 cities that make up the metro area. The plan calls for those localities to complement the region-wide investments with local plans and investments of their own. "If you want the Smart Train in Marin and Sonoma, that's great," said Rentschler. "But unless you want empty trains, communities in those counties have to �.you have to support those stations. In some cases that means TOD, in some cases that means retail, in some cases that's a big parking lot." The plan is designed to accommodate the Bay Area's Regional Housing Needs Assessment allocation, which is determined by the state. However, many planners are concerned that the plan still will not alleviate the region's notoriously high combination of transportation and housing costs.   "The most significant concern is that the agencies' own analysis shows that the share of income that low-income families spend on transportation and housing is going to get worse, not better," said Hobson. "So displacement risks are going to be much higher.  Though many communities consider the production of housing�especially affordable, subsidized housing for low- and moderate-income residents�to be a burden, regional planners are trying to convince localities of the opposite: that more housing will translate to greater regional economic growth. "If you provide the housing at a reasonable cost, you're going to get the strong economy that you're seeking," said Rentschler. Rentschler noted that, despite the tech boom in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, the Bay Area economy has been largely stagnant for the past decade. Those goals are frustrated by communities that are reluctant to grow, regardless of what incentives Plan Bay Area may offer. "I am concerned with a growing perception in the Bay Area that we are built out," said Terplan. "One of our great challenges is to overcome that perception and see the positive benefits of growth, particularly of adding housing�and the densification of existing employment centers." If that growth comes to pass, it would likely contradict the claims of Plan Bay Area's loudest opponents. Members of the Tea Party movement have accused the plan of being everything from a United Nations conspiracy to a plot to advance communism. More substantively, they fear that the plan's emphasis on dense development will impose on the suburban lifestyle in the suburbs. "A lot of these folks don't like government anyway so they're not going to give it a chance to be understood," said Rentschler. "What's ironic is that many of these folks who are from the Tea Party live in places that are going to be protected because we're going to be building dense housing in other cities. They should have come to our meetings and cheer-leaded us." More mainstream critics have raised concerns about whether the plan provides sufficient incentives and accommodations for private sector partners. A coalition of Bay Area business groups�including the Building Industry Association (BIA), the Bay Area Council, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group�issued a letter to the MTC and ABAG boards imploring them to ensure that the plan matches up with the realities of the housing market. As well, BIA officials have questioned whether the plan disadvantages suburban areas by investing in city centers. "We are concerned that the preferred scenario is not geographically balanced and may lead to �planned' economic marginalization of large parts of the Bay Area, especially suburban jurisdictions," said Paul Campos, senior vice president of governmental affairs for BIA of the Bay Area. Campos said he was concerned that inland job centers such as Pleasanton, Walnut Creek, and San Ramon might get overlooked and suffer from under-investment. Supporters of the plan contend that, despite the plan's nominal promotion of "urban" virtues, it is designed to benefit outlying cities as well. "If anything, the Priority Development Area framework sets such a low threshold, there are communities all around the Bay Area that have access to these funds," said Terplan. PDA's have been approved for cities on the region's outer edges, such as Gilroy, Livermore, and Petaluma. Terplan said that if outlying cities feel shut out of transportation funding, it's only because the plan's performance-based funding naturally hews towards center cities, where transit use is particularly intensive and, therefore, "more people are going to ride them for less money." Moreover, planners say that the BIA and other critics are responding more to a discomfort over the dense, multi-unit housing than to genuine flaws in the plan. "The challenge is always going to be, when you make public investment and improve a place, it changes the economics of that locale," said Rentschler. "I think one thing they're responding to is the fact that a traditional model in which their members worked and built is in transition." Rentschler added that planners need to pay attention to developers' concerns, to the extent that those concerns can bear on the plan's execution. "If they're advising us that we're creating a situation that can't happen in the real world then we want to be responsive to that," he said. In fact, suburban communities are already following Plan Bay Area's principles. Though the Contra Costa County city of Danville has not applied for a PDA, Chief of Planning Kevin Gailey said that the city's new downtown plan would be a strong candidate. He said he did not feel that the plan would be a burden on the city or its residents. "We're embracing the idea that�the lion's share of job growth and residential development is going to happen within 4-5% of our area" said Gailey. "Whether we're doing the SCS and doing a PDA, I don't think we'd be doing much different on our update." Whether or not their concerns are well founded, the Tea Party participation, in particular, has made public meetings unusually popular, according to Rentschler. Whether the volume of public participation�and strong gripes from the left and right�has created a better plan is not clear, however. "We used to have a hard time getting anyone interested in what we were doing. If we had 10 people show up and fed them cookies we thought we were doing good. Now we have packed rooms," said Rentschler. "I'm not sure that's a huge qualitative improvement, but it certainly means that a significantly larger spectrum of society is engaged." Rentschler also cautioned that the current plan is designed to evolve as it is updated at regular, four-year junctures. "What we're in here is a continuous planning effort," said Rentschler. Contacts: Paul Campos, Senior Vice President of Governmental Affairs, BIA of the Bay Area, 925.951.6840 Kevin Gailey, Chief of Planning, City of Danville, 925.314.3305 Jeff Hobson, Deputy Director, TransForm, 510.740.3150x312  Randy Rentschler, Director of Legislation and Public Affairs, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, 510.817.5780 Egon Terplan, Regional Planning Director, San Francisco Planning & Urban Research, 415.644.4284

Update: Yesterday the leadership of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association decided to oppose the current draft of Assembly Bill 904, which seeks to lower parking minimums in transit-oriented areas. Here is the APA's letter (.doc) to bill sponsor Nancy Skinner.   Ever since the 2005 publication of UCLA professor Don Shoup's book, The High Cost of Free Parking, the relaxation of parking minimums has been seen by many planners as the next best thing to manufacturing new land. Yet, the introduction of a bill that would enact a modest page from the Shoup playbook has roused opposition from a surprising source: the American Planning Association.  Last week Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-Oakland) introduced Assembly Bill 904, which would require cities to impose reduced parking requirements in transit-oriented areas. The goal of the bill, which has been promoted primarily by the Infill Builders Federation (formerly Infill Builders Assoc.), is to promote the development of housing by reducing parking requirements and therefore making development less expensive in areas well served by public transit.  Among other provisions, the bill would prohibit cities from imposing minimum parking requirements of more than one space per residential unit or 1,000 square feet of commercial space in "transit-intensive areas"�defined, with certain qualifiers, as areas within a half-mile of a major transit stop.   Described by supporters as a modest but important reform�especially as cities are trying to comply with Sustainable Communities Strategies�AB 904 is characterized by others as giving the state too much influence over local land use policies.  "The primary issue is that it's a one-size fits all statewide standard," said APA California Vice President for Policy and Legislation David Snow. "While APA supports the concept that this bill puts forward�.from APA's perspective, a uniform standard from the state that doesn't take into account local considerations isn't the appropriate way forward."  APA California also contends that, by imposing lower parking requirements, cities would be less inclined to support transit and to support higher, denser infill development. APA California acknowledges that many cities want to "grow up and not out" and calls such a strategy "responsible."  In that sense, the APA and Infill Builders Association would typically be considered natural allies.  "The APA's best-selling book is The High Cost of Free Parking," said Mott Smith, a founding board member of the Infill Builders Association. "It's a bit weird that they would have this reaction." Shoup himself has publicly expressed his support for the bill.  Though Snow contends that the bill may be unduly limiting, Shoup's thesis�shared by many of AB 904's supporters�is that many existing parking standards are arbitrary and inefficient, and therefore are limiting in their own right.  "It's a relaxation of restrictions, not an imposition of restrictions," said Smith.  A similar bill, AB 710 (also sponsored by Skinner), met its demise last year when the League of California Cities and some nonprofit housing developers raised two major objections: the bill would impose improper uniform standards statewide, and it could undermine the parking bonus provision of SB 1818, which promotes affordable housing.  Supporters say that this year's version (introduced as a gut-and-amend bill) is far more flexible than last year's. It enables cities to opt out of the law if circumstances on the ground meet any of four criteria. Supporters also say that, on balance, it will promote affordable housing by making the production of both market-rate and low/moderate-income housing easier. In other words, the benefits of not having to provide what supporters consider excessive parking will more than outweigh any provisions in SB 1818 that might be undermined.  Cal APA has yet to take an official position on the bill, but an email to members dated June 13 expresses serious concerns, calling the bill "restrictive" and calling the matter "urgent." Cal APA executive director Sande George followed that email up with a detailed memo criticizing the bill.  The ensuing struggle inspired a nearly instant, and unusually spirited, debate among land use professionals once Cal APA's email alert went out. Few bills in recent memory have created such debate among planners who consider themselves progressive.  "The recent decision by Cal APA to oppose progressive transformation may actually hint at a larger chasm that is emerging between two distinct schools of thought," said Will Wright, director of government & public affairs for the Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Wright characterized the debate as a "lively" one of "classic old school sensibility versus progressive thinkers."  In its mailing last week, APA leadership issued a warning about AB 904 and asked members for input, but the group has not yet taken a position. Any opposition, however, surprises AB 904's supporters Smith called APA's recent concerns "out of left field," in part, he said, because he and other supporters have been trying to address concerns of AB 701's opponents.  California APA did not oppose last year's more restrictive AB 710. Though many groups that did officially oppose the bill, the APA does not appear in the bill's list of official opponents, dated August 26, 2011. Snow claims that California APA was involved with last year's discussions.  "We had conversations with the bill's authors," said Snow.  The League of California Cities opposed AB 710, and has indicated that it will reprise its opposition this year. A recent League newsletter contends that AB 904, "fails to address the League's concerns from last year's AB 710."  Snow said that California APA had not been privy to the language of AB 904 had not been able "to work in a thoughtful and productive manner to resolve issues with the infill proposal given the shortened period with which to work on the proposal." Smith said the bill's supporters still welcome input from all parties.  "We've been working with for the better part of the year to try to accommodate (opponents') concerns," said Smith.  "Anybody who's got constructive suggestions...we want to talk to." Smith said that the result of discussions thus far has been this a more flexible version than last year's  bill and that it includes provisions that were specifically designed to respond to concerns voiced last year. To opt out, cities would have to demonstrate one (or more) of the following in a transit-intensive area: insufficient walkability, insufficient transit, conflicts with existing parking standards designed to promote transit oriented development, conflicts with existing station-area plans that seek to reduce off-street parking.  Snow said that he had not thoroughly read through the provisions of the bill that would exempt cities, but he maintained that the bill's uniform treatment of cities throughout the state amounted to an undue imposition. Notably, California APA's email of June 13 incorrectly claims that cities would have to meet all four criteria in order to opt-out � rather than any one of the four.  "These certainly provide flexibility," said Snow. "I don't think they get us over the hurdle of having a statewide standard and imposing the burden." In particular, Snow noted that cities would have to expend money and manpower in order to present findings and comply with the bill's Jan. 1, 2014 deadline.  "I think that this is shifting a burden to local governments at this point that this isn't necessarily the right time for that with all the other difficulties and issues that local governments are facing," said Snow. Smith said, however, that AB 904 required nothing like a full environmental review and that findings could be made with "a few hours" of work, because the bill intentionally sets a relatively low bar for opting out and supports local control. He countered that under current conditions, cities that do want to reduce their parking requirements often have to go to great lengths to do so.  "Countless cities throughout California would like to have more infill-friendly parking standards," said Smith. "This bill gives cities basically a gift certificate to accept relaxed parking standards if they want them."  The bill's supporters have since responded with a document that outlines "myths versus facts" about AB 904, on the premise that much of the opposition is based on misunderstandings about how the law would actually operate. That document stresses that the Infill Builders is in accord with APA on the issue of local control.  "We don't want people to opt out of this capriciously," said Smith. "But at the same time we made the findings broad and inclusive so any city that legitimately wants to opt out." Snow said that APA did not have an alternative proposal for issuing parking reforms. He said that he encourages parking reform but that, without the passage of AB 904, "it would mean that cities need to figure it out one-by-one." Smith, however, says that a piecemeal approach will not help individual cities, nor will it contribute to the statewide effort to reduce vehicle miles travelled in major metro areas.

Yesterday the American Planning Association proudly released the results of a recent poll entitled Planning in America: Perceptions and Priorities , which it commissioned indicating that Americans are overwhelmingly supportive of community planning. Given the state of national politics, it's no wonder that Americans are reserving their passions for local issues. Boss Tweed and Mayor Quimby are looking like angels by comparison.  Some of the results are beyond obvious -- such as the fact that 77% of Americans "agree that communities that plan for the future are stronger" -- while others could, if heeded, foretell profound changes for the profession.  Let's parse the obviousness. The report's lead finding is that 79% of Americans "support community planning." What the other 21% have in mind, I have no idea. It's hard not to check "yes" to a question as dazzlingly broad as that one.  I'm trying to figure out what it means to "support community planning" -- or what role actual urban planners would play in this process. First, "community planning" is not the same as "urban planning." everyone loves communities, and they particularly love their own communities. But "community" extends to all sorts of formal and informal institutions: schools, organized religion, sports, businesses, ethnic and demographic connections, and indelible social networks. Professional urban planners, such as those who belong to the APA, can affect these institutions only indirectly. And its certain that most stakeholders would not want planners to influence them.  More importantly for planners, this idea of "support" is hopelessly value-neutral. KKK members in the backwoods are probably equally passionate about their communities as hipsters in Williamsburg are. Stefanos Polyzoides can "support" community planning just as strongly as Ron Paul can. It's just that each are in favor of vastly different results. So, if you're an urban planner and you're looking to capitalize on all of this "support," then you'd better hope that you're working in a homogeneous community whose stakeholders feel exactly the same way as you do.  Likewise, when over 60% of Americans across the political spectrum and in every type of settlement say that they want "more" planning. I'm not exactly sure what "more planning" looks like. Planning isn't measured in volume, like cake or gasoline. It's an set of approaches that are intended to lead to certain results. Even so, you really need to ask what kind of planning they want.  The poll's more substantive results reveal attitudes that may, I think, be unsettling most planners.  In case planners think that their job is to shape the built environment, they should think again. Out of either desperation or misunderstanding, the public thinks that their number-one job priority should be to effect job creation. Seventy percent of respondents said so. The next four priorities are as follows:  Safety: 69 percent Schools: 67 percent Protecting neighborhoods: 64 percent Water quality: 62 percent Unfortunately, only one of these things relates directly to urban planners, and that one thing suggests a rejection of progressive planing principles. The idea of "protecting" neighborhoods -- as opposed to developing, improving, or enlivening them -- implies a conservative desire to maintain the status quo. Stakeholders are certainly entitled to maintain their respective status quos, but I can't think of a planner worth his or her salt who would accept the status quo in 90% of the communities in this country. Like Clint Eastwood says, America has a lot of work to do. The poll even says so: 84% of respondents believe that their communities are getting worse or holding steady compared to five years ago. There's a contradiction afoot. It seems that Americans really want two things that planners aren't necessarily inclined, or equipped, to create: stagnant communities and more money. Seventy-two percent of respondents say that their local communities aren't doing enough to encourage economic growth, and 75% say that "engaging citizens through planning is essential to job creation." In other words, they're putting responsibility for a national economic crisis on to their local officials. (I suppose that's not surprising given that the rancor in Washington, D.C., has stifled national action.)  In some sense, the public has a point. Ever since the publication of Jane Jacobs' Cities and the Wealth of Nations , study after study has suggested that certain types of urban forms can create jobs. Those forms tend to center on density, diversity, transit, and interaction. In other words, Manhattan. But, time and again, social and political conservatives -- the type who prefer the status quo -- have rejected policies to make places more dense and vibrant. So even if planners were to accept this burden, it's unlikely that the public would embrace the job-creating those urban strategies that are most likely to foster jobs.  Some of America's desires, however, are not so fanciful and are within planners' powers. Asked what makes an ideal community, half or more of respondents said having locally-owned businesses nearby (55 percent); the ability to grow old in the same neighborhood (54 percent); availability of sidewalks (53 percent); energy-efficient homes (52 percent); and availability of transit (50 percent). Interestingly, these desires are a far cry from "preserving neighborhoods," since most neighborhoods have few or none of these components.  After attending April's APA conference and going to session after session about innovative planning techniques, I'm surprised that APA would publicize a report that, in many ways, undercuts the dreams of so many planners who are eager to implement contemporary planning ideas into their respective urban fabrics. The tone of the report suggests that APA is willing to follow popular sentiment, but I hope they don't give in to passivity. This desire for "more planning" -- and even for economic growth -- invites planners who can forcefully, and passionately explain what sort of planning can work best and how that approach can, directly and indirectly, create jobs.  If they can pull that off, then maybe those other 21% will come around. This piece also appears on Planetizen's Interchange blog.

If you're in a big hurry to build a road project, environmental review can get in the way. As Bill Fulton reports in this month's Insight column , the state budget pact exempted eight Caltrans projects from the California Environmental Quality Act so that they get built quicker. But some folks in Tehama County are saying, "Hey, wait a second" One of the exempt projects is on Highway 99 in Los Molinos, a small, unincorporated Tehama County community in the almond and pecan orchards between Red Bluff and Chico. Highway 99 is a two-lane highway in these parts. The speed limit south of Los Molinos is 65 mph; to the north, the limit is 55 mph. But the highway is the main drag and commercial corridor in Los Molinos. It's where the town's grocery store, pharmacy, gas stations, bank, post office, hardware store, restaurants and churches are located. The speed limit in town is 35 mph, but many motorists cruise through at 45-plus mph. Caltrans plans a significant traffic calming project to slow motorists passing through Los Molinos and make the situation safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Caltrans's project calls for building an island at both ends of town, a traffic signal, curb, gutter and sidewalks, and a crosswalk with pedestrian-activated warning lights. I envision something like Highway 299 through Willow Creek in Humboldt, a marvelous traffic calming project completed several years ago. Willow Creek, on Highway 299. But as the Red Bluff Daily News reports, not everyone is satisfied with the Los Molinos project plan. The Chamber of Commerce suggests one aspect of the project could make the situation more hazardous. I don't know if the Chamber's concern is warranted. I do know that this project could be the biggest thing to happen in economically depressed Los Molinos in decades. If Caltrans had to complete an environmental review of the project, we might get some answers to the Chamber's concern. Because of the exemption signed by the governor, we apparently won't know until after the project is built. – Paul Shigley

In the High Desert north of Los Angeles, under the same patch of sky where Chuck Yeager first tore through the sound barrier, Palmdale Regional Airport has been the object of grandiose dreams for nearly two generations. Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) purchased 17,000 as yet undeveloped acres during the 1960s as a portal for commercial jets that would connect the Antelope Valley with any other point on the globe. High-speed rail would whisk passengers up from the Los Angeles Basin to this new international air hub. Three decades later, you can't fly from Palmdale to San Francisco, much less Singapore. In the most recent effort to get even a modest vision off the ground, United Airlines initiated in May 2007 two daily nonstops to SFO from the rechristened LA/Palmdale Airport (PMD), which had operated from Air Force Plant 42 since 1971. United was the eighth carrier to operate from this rinky-dink terminal amid the Joshua trees, but 18 months later, in December 2008, United cancelled the service. United's departure creates more than an inconvenience for High Desert dwellers. It marks perhaps the most grave setback in a long, frustrating effort to spread Southern California's immense amount of air traffic more evenly across the region. "Palmdale is basically the lifeline of the future," said University of California, San Diego, political science professor Steve Erie, a longtime observer of air service in Southern California. "It's just that the future hasn't arrived yet." United had agreed to serve Palmdale in part because of $4 million in federal and local subsidies, plus a heap of enthusiasm. Wheels Up Palmdale, a coalition of the cities of Los Angeles and Palmdale, LAWA, the Air Force, and local business groups, had lobbied for the service and for the subsidy. Their goals included local economic development and shorter drives for High Desert residents who would otherwise use LAX or Burbank airport. " would have a positive ripple effect throughout the county and region," said Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Michael Antonovich, who represents northern Los Angeles County. "It would be a tremendous boon for the area, improving air quality, the economy, and mobility." "When we went up there for everybody was happy," added Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who served on the Southern California Regional Airport Authority (SCRAA). "But I knew it was a stretch. It was more symbolic about what the future could be than the reality of the moment." More than 300,000 people live in the immediate Palmdale/Lancaster area, with many more in the greater High Desert region. Smaller free-standing cities throughout California, such as Redding, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo, support commercial service. But, lacking major employment centers, the bedroom communities of the Antelope Valley did not generate the business United sought, and would-be passengers from surrounding areas did not materialize. "There simply wasn't enough customer interest," said United spokesman Jeff Kovic. "It was heavily marketed by United and our partners in the Los Angeles area." Because of freeway traffic and the crush of passengers at LAX, Los Angeles-area public officials and regional planning agencies have long sought to divert passengers away from LAX and towards the region's six other commercial airports (Palmdale, Burbank, Ontario, Long Beach, Orange County and Palm Springs). Palmdale features prominently in the Southern California Association of Government's 2004 "Integrated Metropolitan Airport System Plan," which had figured on up to 12.8 million annual passengers and $1 billion in investment in Palmdale by 2030. Now, LAWA has actually relinquished PMD's Federal Aviation Administration certification to operate as a commercial airport (it can be reinstated), while jackrabbits preside over LAWA's 17,000 vacant acres. Proposals for using that property as a sanitation facility and even a solar power farm have recently surfaced. "Regionalization is dead for the near term," said Erie. "There was some commitment on the part of L.A. and L.A. World Airports, but the problem is that they cannot force the airlines to do what the airlines don't want to do. Airlines fly to markets not to airports. And the problem is that when the airlines are financially troubled they cut back on particularly new, uncertain, and marginal routes." As its proponents describe it, airport regionalization centers not so much on air travel per se but rather on the associated traffic and land use patterns. The hope was that public sector leadership could compel airlines to spread out flights among the region's airports so that fewer travelers would have to drive across the region in search of convenient flights and favorable prices, often found at LAX. The economic benefits an airport provides would also spread out. Though few local leaders voiced opposition, the political will and infrastructure to make regionalization a reality never materialized, as unorganized and often mutually uninterested municipalities and rival airport authorities made coordination nearly impossible. The SCRAA, which had convened sporadically for the past decade to discuss ways to coordinate Southern California's 14 commercial and cargo airports, was only an ad hoc group that garnered little attention and, like the Southern California Association of Governments, wielded no coercive or budgetary power. "It's difficult to coordinate the efforts unless everyone comes to the table willing to take additional air traffic," said LAWA Executive Director Gina Marie Lindsey, who praised the efforts of both United and Palmdale's local boosters. "Everybody to push their air traffic somewhere else as opposed to coming to the table and saying, ‘Let's divide this up evenly.'" Lindsey noted that, since 1980, LAX's share of regional passenger traffic has dropped from 74% to 57%. Whatever spirit of regionalization remains is now focused on L.A./Ontario airport, which can legally serve up to 30 million passengers per year but currently serves fewer than 10 million. The greatest long-term hope for Palmdale may therefore depend on the ground transportation infrastructure that comes of Los Angeles County's $30 billion Measure R, the 2008 sales tax initiative. "To make Palmdale ever happen you need the transportation links," said Rosendahl. "This needs a 10- to 20-year plan with the commitment from leadership that says we're going to do it. And there's never been that commitment from the regional approach." LAWA recently issued a post-mortem report declaring the airport currently unsuited for commercial service. Nevertheless, the City of Palmdale holds out hope that PMD can be revived. It may try to assume control of the airport and pursue a low-cost carrier. "We're going to take greater control of our destiny," said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, who has championed the airport since he first took office in 1992. "It is an economic engine that we have not even seen the beginning of." Ledford added that he welcomes LAWA's involvement if it chooses to return. While proposals for new airports historically meet with the fierce local opposition, Palmdale is eager to capitalize on an asset that is bought and paid for. "We have what I would submit is the best land use plan for an airport," said Ledford. "We have the best buffering, we've done the noise corridors; the air quality zones off the freeways are in place; it's part of our general plan." Ironically, though, the very same reasons why Palmdale will not become another El Toro – the former Orange County Marine Corps base that infamously failed to win approval as a commercial airport (see CP&DR Deals , May 2003 ; CP&DR , April 2002 ) – is the same reason why Palmdale is unlikely to become another LAX. "The difficulty in building or activating an airport is directly proportional to the population at the site," said LAWA's Lindsey. "The viability of a regularly scheduled commercial service at Palmdale is a ways off. There's not all that many people around the Palmdale airport. That makes it difficult to build traffic, but it does mean that there's not much opposition." Except maybe from the jackrabbits. Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, (661) 267-5100, www.cityofpalmdale.org . Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl, (213) 473-7011. Steve Erie, UCSD Department of Political Science, (858) 534-3083. Gina Marie Lindsey, Los Angeles World Airports, (424) 646-5260, www.lawa.org . Office of County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, (213) 974-5555.

Have you registered to attend the nation's premier redevelopment conference? The 2009 CRA Annual Conference & EXPO will feature an outstanding slate of speakers and workshops that will provide attendees with new insights, useful strategies, and practical guidance on how to carry out the work of redevelopment in these difficult times. This year's event is being held on April 1-3 at the Monterey Conference Center and Portola Hotel in Monterey. This year's theme is Redevelopment. New Strategies for Making Communities Better and Greener. Attendees will learn the latest information on the State's budget, Federal Stimulus Package, CRA's lawsuit against the State, how to build green communities, how to build coalitions at the local level, CRA's California's Communities program, and more. CRA is so confident that you will learn at least three new things at the 2009 Annual Conference & EXPO that will help you build better communities; we will give your money back if you don't! Wednesday morning's opening speaker is former Governor of Maryland and chairman of the National Governors Association, Parris Glendening, who is President of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute. Governor Glendening will discuss the blending of smart growth and sustainability strategies to address the challenges facing redevelopment agencies. He will also discuss how, as governor, he created a groundbreaking smart growth initiative that focused on using the entire $23 billion state budget as an incentive for smart growth. The Awards luncheon will begin at noon followed by the 13th Annual Awards of Excellence ceremony. This year's program will recognize the eight award-winning projects and the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement In Redevelopment Awards and the William A. Carlson Fellowships. Concurrent sessions and bus tours will be held following the awards ceremony and on Thursday morning. A bus tour of a successful green development project in downtown Monterey is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, and a bus tour of Fort Ord's redevelopment area is scheduled for Thursday morning. Concurrent sessions will feature topics of discussion that include compact development to comply with AB 32 and SB 375; an update on real estate capital markets; innovative approaches to public/private Brownfields development; case studies on green downtown and affordable housing projects; building healthy communities; attracting new economy businesses; implementing AB 987; and, "Train the Trainer" sessions on effective presentations and use of PowerPoint. Thursday's luncheon features Huell Howser, the host and producer of California's Communities, CRA's ground-breaking public television series. Huell will discuss his adventures in filming California's Communities. A DVD featuring the first six episodes will be given free to all attendees at the luncheon! Huell will also be at the EXPO following the luncheon. Attendees will have an opportunity to say hello to Huell and have their photo taken with him. This year's EXPO begins at 2:00 p.m. and features 90 exhibitors displaying the widest array of redevelopment products and services in one place. A list of exhibitors is on CRA's website at www.calredevelop.org . At the website, click on Annual Conference then click on EXPO and Exhibitors . There is a line-up of outstanding sessions on Friday morning that attendees will not want to miss. It begins with concurrent sessions addressing how to lessen the impact of the foreclosure crisis on communities; exurbanization and its implications; declining assessed values; and pass-throughs to comply with AB 1389. Following these sessions will be a general session that will discuss a topic of vital importance to sustaining the funds and tools of redevelopment into the future—coalition building at the local level. Assembly Member Anna Caballero, Chair of the Assembly Local Government Committee, has been invited to begin the session. The session will then feature Dr. Tom Wolff, co-author of From the Ground Up! A Workbook on Coalition Building & Community Development. His topic, Coalition Building: Key to Avoiding More Takeaways of Agency Funds, will discuss how to build local coalitions to advocate redevelopment as an economic stimulus and job creation engine. Following Dr. Wolff, a panel of local redevelopment representatives will discuss how they are successfully building coalitions in their communities. The session will conclude with a discussion on strategies for the future of redevelopment. CRA is a State Bar of California approved Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) provider. MCLE credits will be available for many of the workshops at the conference. The conference program identifies those sessions eligible for MCLE credit. Registration for CRA's 2009 Annual Conference & EXPO is available online by going to the CRA website here .  Registration forms in the conference announcement can also be faxed to CRA at (916) 448-9397. For additional information on the conference, contact Judy Jennemann by email at jjennemann@calredevelop.org or by telephone at (916) 448-8760. Special Speed Coaching Session for the Next Generation of Redevelopment Leaders A speed coaching workshop for the next generation of redevelopment leaders is being held on Wednesday, April 1, from 3:45 – 5:00 p.m. at the Marriott Monterey Hotel (across the street from the Monterey Conference Center). The workshop will provide young, aspiring redevelopment professionals with guidance and counseling from senior level redevelopment officials on how to become leaders in the field of redevelopment. To learn more about this workshop, including how to register, go to CRA website and click on the Annual Conference then click Speed Coaching Workshop.

Need to know where you can find the Timberland Productivity Act in state law? How about the statute governing specific plans? Want to know what the heck the Mills Act really offers to owners of historic properties? Can't figure out where to locate an appellate court opinion that was issued in 1999? Then you need "The Quick List," a glossary of statutes pertaining to local government that also provides guidance on retrieving public documents, as well as links to useful government, planning and policy websites. The 28-page document is a very helpful reference guide for anyone with an interest in local government or land use matters. Compiled by the state Senate Local Government Committee, "The Quick List" has been around since the 1980s, and legislative staffers, government officials, lobbyists and journalists have been relying on it ever since. Staff members and Senate fellows have updated and expanded the document over the years, and the latest and greatest version hit the streets in February. "The Quick List" is available right here . – Paul Shigley

A few months ago, leaders of the California Building Industry Association started using the term "depression." When you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue that the homebuilding industry is not in a depression, rather than a recession. That's why builders are flogging a new, $10,000 state tax credit for purchasers of new homes. The tax credit was part of last month's state budget package, which appears to have had goodies for a large number of constituencies (see Bill Fulton's Insight column ). The homebuyer's program contained in SBx2 15 (Ashburn) provides purchasers a $3,333 credit annually for three years that may be applied to the buyer's state income tax return. The unit must not have been occupied previously, and the buyer must agree to occupy the home as a principle residence for at least two years. The program has a $100 million limit, meaning 10,000 buyers could receive the subsidy. Some buyers may also be eligible for the new federal tax credit program, although it appears the criteria don't overlap well. The intent of the state program is to kick-start California's moribund homebuilding industry, which is reporting the lowest number of starts since, well … since anyone started keeping track. In January, builders pulled permits for 2,007 units, the lowest seasonally adjusted month on record, according to the Construction Industry Research Board. The low numbers caused the board to knock down its forecast for 2009 to 56,000 housing starts – or about 150,000 fewer units than were produced in 2005. True, January is often slow for builders. Still, Santa Cruz, Merced, Madera, Napa, Solano, Sutter and Yuba counties combined issued only 15 permits for new units in January. Fifteen! These are counties with a combined 1.4 million residents. Essentially, new homebuilding has stopped in large portions of the state. Not slowed, but stopped. But will the tax credit program actually goose construction activity, or will it simply help some big builders unload inventory? "We should be able to see very quickly the willingness of builders to start pulling building permits again," Lane Marceaux, chairman of the California Major Builders Council and head of Shea Homes' Northern California division, told reporters during a recent conference call. But Marceaux and Tim Coyle, vice president of the CBIA, declined to predict how quickly builders would respond. "We can't predict it will produce the outcome we expect, but it does have a track record," Coyle said. He was referring to a federal program implemented in 1975, also during an economic slump. Congress authorized a tax credit worth 5% of home value up to $2,000 for the purchase of new homes. Home buying increased by 25% within a year and housing starts doubled in two years. Fear and uncertainty have been keeping people out of the home buying market lately, observed Coyle. He said the tax credit should help ease consumers' worries, but I'm not convinced. With the state unemployment rate steaming past 10% and real estate values continuing to drop, I think fear and uncertainty rule the day. Combine them with continuing tight credit for both buyers and builders, and reasons for confidence diminish further. I have other questions about the tax credit program, such as whether it should have been targeted to certain areas or certain buyers. But I'm probably asking for too much. Give the builders credit for trying to get something going. We'll check back later this year to see if the program seems to be working. – Paul Shigley

We may be witnessing the end of the auto mall as a cash cow for cities. Auto sales nationwide are half what they were a year ago. Perhaps as many as half of all auto dealerships will go under in the current economic downturn. Car buyers have shifted their browsing to the Internet with amazing speed. And they're buying cars from anybody they don't have to haggle with – no matter where the sellers are. As I suggest in my current Economic Development column in Governing magazine , auto malls may soon suffer the fate of general merchandise retail malls. Once they were impregnable fortresses of transactional commerce. Now they're beginning to wither away. So, as with retail malls a decade ago, cities will face a choice with their auto malls: They can play defense and try to maintain a strong position in the withering marketplace of car sales, or they can figure out something else to do with the land freed up by failed auto dealerships. Sacramento may be the first place where all this is playing out. The market is dwindling, and the two dominant auto centers – Roseville and Folsom – are beginning to suffer. Recently, the city and county governments of Sacramento made common cause against these suburban auto malls by agreeing to a sales tax sharing system for auto dealerships. The truth, however, is that this is not regional cooperation; it's circling the wagons. Wouldn't it be ironic if sales tax sharing finally came about after many years of political battles, but only to protect withering auto malls from dying entirely?  – Bill Fulton

Tom Bradley's dream for downtown Los Angeles was never realized – at least not in the form he originally envisioned. The city's biggest-thinking mayor (1973-1993) of the postwar era, Bradley wanted a great downtown like those in Chicago, Houston and San Francisco. By the 1970s, L.A.'s period of greatness, as distinct from mere bigness, had started: Los Angeles had surpassed Chicago as the nation's second largest metropolis, while the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, clogged with imports from booming Asian economies, were now busier than the New York-New Jersey ports. Los Angeles was the American gateway to the rising tigers of Asia, just as New York was the American gateway to a declining Europe. Los Angeles needed a downtown commensurate with its new status as financial hub of the West Coast. This downtown would have soaring towers, silk ties and firm handshakes. This downtown would be an essential location for Corporate America and all the blue stockinged lawyers, accountants and consultants holding its train. Above all, downtown would impose a center on a notoriously uncentered city, as if to rebut H.L. Mencken's notorious snark that Los Angeles was no more than a "group of suburbs in search of a metropolis." Today, downtown L.A. has become a great residential neighborhood and a significant office market, although developers and market forces ultimately played a bigger role than government or public policy. Prior to the 1970s, L.A.'s faded and obsolete downtown was fit for a smaller city of an earlier era. The center of downtown was the iconic City Hall on Main Street, a white tower with battened walls and a pyramidal dome that for many years was the tallest building downtown by city ordinance. Completing the symbolic triumvirate of downtown power was St. Vibiana's Cathedral, the seat of the Archdiocese for a heavily Catholic community, and the Los Angeles Times building. Industry and warehouses centered on the rail yards on the east side, near the river. The office district stood in the terra cotta covered buildings of Broadway and Spring Street, while Seventh Street's cluster of department stores was the regional shopping destination. The Pacific Electric Red Car made downtown a principal hub of a four-county commuter rail network. The rest of downtown was housing, primarily frame houses, some of which had fallen into slum-like dilapidation. Novelist Christopher Isherwood famously decried Bunker Hill as "the most squalid" neighborhood in the country. Highway construction during the 1950s and 1960s gave downtown new, de facto boundaries, with Interstate 10 to the south, Interstate 110 to the west, and the junction of Highway 101 and Interstate 5 on the north. On the east, the channelized Los Angeles River provided a fourth concrete boundary. The freeways "isolated downtown from the rest of town," according to Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Association, a trade group that promotes relocation and business growth. The former city center had become an island of bureaucracy. While industrially vibrant, downtown was rarely visited by the middle-class residents of the Westside or the San Fernando Valley. Downtown wasn't "nice." Unless you were a bureaucrat, a juror or a builder pulling a permit, there was no reason to go there. The Central Business District To achieve his downtown vision, Bradley realized the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) was his most important ally. Through seven different redevelopment project areas, the agency virtually carpeted the whole of downtown. Other city agencies, however. seemed to resent a redevelopment agency that danced to its own tune, while catapulting its chosen developers over the snake pit of the city's notorious entitlement bureaucracy. Detractors complained the CRA operated almost as a government unto itself. The powerful City Council in this weak-mayor city also seemed both wary and envious of the redevelopment agency. Councilmembers routinely waved through projects with little discussion, yet the council on several occasions tried to rein in the powerful agency and yank redevelopment, and its money, away from an ambitious mayor. The most lasting damage occurred in 1977 with the settlement of an oddball lawsuit brought personally by Councilman Ernani Bernardi against the agency. His suit charged that the redevelopment agency aided the development of office buildings at the expense of low-income housing and other social services. (Advocates of redevelopment might argue that the agency needs big taxpayers to finance affordable housing.) To settle the suit, the agency agreed to cap the spending of tax increment revenues in the Central Business District at $750 million. Repeated attempts to renegotiate the cap during subsequent decades – Bradley later suggested $5 billion – went nowhere because the settlement precluded any changes without all parties' agreement. The First Super Project: Bunker Hill After its formation in 1949, the CRA soon seized upon Bunker Hill as "Redevelopment Project Number One." For the next two decades, the agency commissioned a series of master plans in which large commercial buildings would replace declining residential neighborhoods. Following the scrape-and-rebuild mode of classic urban renewal, the agency demolished all the housing in 1970. In 1979, the agency finally settled on a master plan for an 11.5-acre area that called for an extremely dense project of 11 million square feet of office space, 3,000 apartments and 2,000 hotel rooms. The agency sought out developers, and the two finalists were a Chicago firm affiliated with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Rob Maguire II, a then-unknown who had assembled a team of young architects, including Cesar Pelli, Frank Gehry and Barton Myers. The agency chose Metropolitan Structures, perhaps for its financial strength, although its bland design of three identical, reflective glass towers, each 1 million square feet in size, seemed anti-climactic, even sadly ironic, after decades of planning. The CRA was forward thinking, though, requiring developers to build public amenities in exchange for public subsidies such as land assemblage or the sale of land at below-market rates. The agency, however, often played a weak hand in negotiating the devil's bargain of asking private developers to build public amenities. During the early 1980s, the CRA negotiated with the California Plaza developers to build the new Museum of Contemporary Art on that commercial campus. For some reason, the agency accepted a design that located the museum's front door 20 feet below street level. (My guess is that Metropolitan Structures did not want the cultural building to block the view of a hotel and apartment complex from the street.) The resulting museum building looks as if the ground had slumped beneath it, leaving only the pointed roofs visible from Grand Avenue. Renowned architect Arata Isozaki reportedly quit the job at least twice before its completion in 1984. Even more questionable was the design of a regional shopping mall in Citicorp Tower. Although the agency had long desired fancy shopping downtown, the CRA allowed the developers of the three-tower complex to sink a new shopping center into a hole 50 feet below street level. Except for a decorative "space frame" above the hole, the shopping center was invisible from the street. The developers apparently did not want the shopping space to block the view of their office towers, and the idea of designing the two together somehow did not occur to them. This bizarre underground mall, made up of three descending rings of retail centered on a shadowy round courtyard, resembled something out of Dante's inferno, except it was cold. The unfortunate center remains open today. If new public buildings were questionable, office buildings were hot. In 1985, foreign investment punctuated by the $550 million purchase of the Arco Plaza office complex made downtown L.A. arguably the most desirable place for a West Coast developer to buy or build. Even though some suburban office markets commanded higher rents than downtown, overseas investors targeted the center city, perhaps in belief that the center city would contain L.A.'s most valuable office market. By the 1990s, a real estate brokerage could publish a map of downtown office buildings with foreign flags attached to most of them. Despite record prices for land and buildings, downtown was not penciling out. Downtown's Fortune 500 companies, never great in number, almost disappeared entirely due largely to the late 1980s' merger-and-acquisition activity. Arco, IBM, Unocal and Security Pacific Bank all departed, leaving acres of empty sublease space that spoiled the market for full-price "landlord space." Downtown office buildings were rarely more than 85% occupied, the break-even point for many landlords. Macroeconomic troubles followed. The S&L meltdown combined with the Japanese banking crisis halted new office construction. Shuwa Investments, which had been Southern California's leading Japanese investor, was exposed as a naked emperor, having built its real estate empire by borrowing against the paper value of its stock market holdings. When those holdings went poof, the once-mighty investor vaporized like smoke from an incense burner. Since 1992, no speculative office project has been built downtown, although developers continue to propose them and the city has actually approved several. A New Wave Of Public Investment During the subsequent lull of the 1990s, the CRA continued to invest heavily in downtown L.A. The agency doubled the size of the convention center, while developing new apartment buildings and residential complexes in Chinatown, Little Tokyo and South Park, an area of aging industrial buildings and parking lots that the agency wanted to transform into a residential neighborhood. The agency built two apartment buildings and a condo complex in South Park, but market-rate housing was a tough sell. Except for people commuting between the U.S. and Asia and downtown business owners, few wanted to live downtown. By the late 1990s, downtown's 2,000 residents remained almost invisible amid the transient population of 500,000 daytime workers. Downtown also seemed resistant to the idea of loft housing, despite the popularity among artists of converted concrete buildings in the industrial area. Obsolete building codes didn't help; the small number of developers attempting to convert older buildings in the office district found they needed special variances. Even when completed, these pioneering developments sometimes fared poorly, because they were often isolated from other residential buildings. Developer Ira Yellin, who pioneered private sector preservation in downtown L.A. with the refurbishments of the sky-lit Bradley Building, Grand Central Market and Los Angeles Union Station, lost money during the early 1990s when he converted the upper stories of the Million Dollar Theater, an ornate movie palace, into rental units. Yet room to grow was limited. Architect Chris Martin told the Downtown News during the late 1990s that many aging office buildings were obsolete and impossible to convert to modern office space. Without a viable option for reuse, he warned, many buildings faced demolition. Downtown L.A. was choking on its own history. A single city law resolved this crisis and changed the urban landscape. In 1999, the City Council approved the adaptive reuse ordinance, a law sponsored by the Central City Association that encouraged developers to convert old buildings to housing by relaxing certain building and safety requirements. Historic buildings line Broadway. One outspoken developer was Tom Gilmore, who converted three 19th Century office buildings into what he called the Old Bank District. In the great Los Angeles tradition, Gilmore was a tireless promoter who stumped for downtown living from every platform he could scramble onto. His great discovery was rehabilitation of several adjacent buildings at one time, creating a sense of both community and safety. While some renters would complain of alleged shortcomings in his rehab efforts, Gilmore had done the impossible: He had popularized downtown loft living in Los Angeles, albeit after other large downtowns had long since hopped on the rehab wagons of SoHo, SoMa and LoDo. Los Angeles, in fact, was "the last major city to embrace downtown loft conversions," said Schatz, of the Central City Association. Developers and their lenders are herd animals, risk averse and hesitant to explore. With the acceptance of the Old Bank District, however, local and national developers were soon building luxury condos in older buildings, while new residential structures arose on former hamburger stands and parking lots. The one-time Standard Oil headquarters became The Standard, a hip hotel with a marquee stylishly hung upside down. (If you had to ask why, you were too hopeless to stay there.) Formerly feared and shunned by young professionals, downtown soon filled with the fleshpots of the yuppie and dink classes. Adaptive reuse and gentrification had achieved where urban renewal had failed. By the time Bernardi's curse came true in 2000 and the central district ran out of redevelopment money, it seemed a non-event. Downtown's loft scene had the "big mo." By 2008, nearly 47,000 people lived inside the freeway ring, according to the Central City Association. "I don't know exactly which number represents critical mass," said Schatz, "but I think we have achieved it." The Next Super Projects: Grand Avenue And LA Live When the Frank Gehry-design Disney Hall opened in 2004 after two decades of management and design changes, cost overruns and fundraising, downtown finally had a swashbuckling masterpiece for what had become an arts corridor. The concert hall, the new Los Angeles Cathedral, The Colburn School of music, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Los Angeles Music Center, a Lincoln Center knockoff dating from the 1960s, all stood along a three-block stretch of Grand Avenue. The CRA thus shifted into high gear to create the "connective tissue," such as townhouses and single-story retail buildings, to tie all the buildings together. The CRA commissioned urban architect Doug Suisman to develop ideas about public space. He proposed a grassy median running down the center of the boulevard, inspired by Barcelona's ramblas, if much narrower. The development potential of Grand Avenue lay in four large land parcels on the steep slope directly east of the street; half of those lots were owned by the City of Los Angeles, the other half by Los Angeles County. The city and the county, which typically clashed over downtown development, in this case created a joint venture to develop the lots in a single super project. Part of their motivation was a longstanding ambition to grow rich by selling surplus land for commercial development. Grand Avenue, however, was an odd design problem. The construction of Bunker Hill's enormous office buildings had required the removal of nearly all the underlying soil to make room for parking structures and access roads. The hill was gone and all that remained was a street, really a bridge, spanning a freeway entrance. Ironically, the CRA, which had invented Bunker Hill in its modern form, found itself muscled aside in the Grand Avenue design competition. In the wake of the Bernardi lawsuit, the agency had no money to hand out, and, hence, little influence. The agency was forced to stand aside while a "public committee" of city and county officials, led by firebrand Supervisor Gloria Molina, reviewed the proposals. Managing both the "public process" and the expectations of the elected officials were two experienced hands, developer Jim Thomas and insurance magnate Eli Broad. The competition came down to two nationally known developers, both of whom proposed high-rise towers for apartments, condominiums and hotel rooms. Eventually, the officials chose The Related Cos. The company had just completed the well-regarded Two Columbus Circle in Manhattan, a pair of twin towers designed with three floors of retail immediately above street level. Molina, a champion of low-income housing, signed off when the developers set aside 25% of the units for that purpose. Related's proposal appeared similar, including plentiful retail, to its New York towers. But even with the prestigious Gehry as urban designer, the extremely dense high-rise scheme relegated Grand Avenue to the status of foyer for a 500,000-square-foot shopping experience. The five-tower project serves the investor demand for high-rise "product" to the near-exclusion of all other types of housing, shoehorning an East Coast project onto a Los Angeles site. Because of financing problems, development has fallen more than two years behind schedule. The third Super Project is LA Live, an entertainment and hotel extravaganza nearing completion on the southern edge of downtown, near the convention center. The city has long wanted a convention center hotel, which it considered the missing ingredient needed to book national meetings. Built around the existing Staples Center sports arena, this 17-acre project includes the Nokia Theater, nightclubs and a 53-story tower containing two separate hotels and 200 high-priced condominiums, stacked atop one another like layers in a parfait dessert. Jumbotron images animate a central courtyard. The commercial bombast of LA Live In a further show of impotence, the CRA applauded the project while allowing its long-nurtured South Park project to get steamrolled. The attainment of a convention center hotel is the fig leaf that allows the agency to pretend that at least one of its original priorities survives within this $3 billion act of usurpation. Developer Philip Anschutz was able to build this self-contained, inward-looking, anti-urban monument to his sports, theater and ticket-sales empires simply by filing an amendment to the city's general plan. So much for 30 years of planning. A billionaire developer with an alluring project will inevitably have his way with the city, in every sense. It is hard to mention planning in this context without bitter irony. The cash-poor, politically orphaned redevelopment agency – formerly the downtown agenda-setter – now must rubber stamp whatever the City Council wants. Otherwise, it is hard to imagine how an agency with an avowed mission of "quality urban design" could encourage a giant project that disregards the rest of downtown, to the extent of setting up an opaque wall on Figueroa Boulevard. The considerable flaws of Grand Avenue and LA Live, however, do nut nullify the larger achievement of downtown Los Angeles. If Tom Bradley's downtown of economic domination was never fully realized, something better arose in its stead: A pedestrian oriented urban neighborhood where the selling points are human-scaled urbanism, plus the regional attractions of a large job market, mass transit, education, culture and entertainment. Above all, downtown is convenient, especially if you leave the car at home. "We walk everywhere – to the movies, to the supermarket," said a 30-year-old woman of my acquaintance, who shares a child-free apartment with her husband. When you tire of Super Projects, you can take a walk through the restored Union Station, a masterpiece of Art Moderne dating from 1940 and downtown's finest building prior to Disney Hall. Across the street is Philippe's French Dip restaurant, where a cup of coffee costs 10 cents, just as it did 40 years ago. You can explore the produce and flower markets during the early morning, and buy a decent suit for wholesale in the Garment District. As imperfection goes, it's not bad.

It was a little-noticed aspect of the final California budget deal, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made California Environmental Quality Act history when he signed the long-delayed 2008-09 budget in February. Schwarzenegger asked for and got something no governor had ever gotten through the budget process before: an exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act for certain state construction projects based on economic hardship, rather than on natural disaster. The governor also got a CEQA exemption for as-is sale of state surplus property, which is possibly not something of much value in a down economy but a significant concession nevertheless. It's not uncommon for CEQA to be the fall guy in a recession, especially one where real estate development has taken a nosedive. But the charge – often unsuccessful – is usually led by homebuilders and developers, who typically argue that CEQA is one of the causes of the slowdown. It's not uncommon for the governor to ask for a CEQA exemption when natural disaster strikes – floods, fires, mudslides, earthquakes, the usual range of California nightmares. But a governor asking for and getting a CEQA exemption because the economy is slow? That's never happened before. It's a reminder of just how tough times are, and also a reminder that even after nearly 40 years and endless court rulings, CEQA is merely a law that can be changed or even repealed if the governor and the Legislature want to do so. Meanwhile, the builders – perhaps mired in the endless stalemate with local governments and environmentalists in Sacramento – haven't pushed the "blame CEQA" idea the way they usually do. Instead of pursuing aggressive CEQA streamlining in response to the economic climate, the builders focused most of their effort in the last legislative session on getting a minor and complicated CEQA exemption put into SB 375. Schwarzenegger's CEQA exemptions are contained in AB 8x2 (or AB 8xx), a bill carried by Republican Assemblyman Brian Nestande of Palm Desert, whose father, Bruce Nestande, was Mr. Transportation in Orange County for many years as a county supervisor, a legislator, and a state transportation commissioner. The most highly publicized part of the bill was the provision that delayed implementation of a new state air pollution rule requiring retrofitting of off-road diesel construction equipment. That provision was openly criticized by Schwarzenegger's own top air quality regulator, Mary Nichols, who told the Los Angeles Times , ""There are people who will die because of this delay." But the CEQA provisions are also important. They include both CEQA exemptions and a streamlined environmental review process for an overlapping set of transportation projects. The eight projects listed in the bill for CEQA exemptions are: (1) A Highway 101 interchange modification, adding a southbound auxiliary lane and a southbound mixed-flow lane, from Interstate 280 to Yerba Buena Road, in Santa Clara County. (2) Northbound and southbound high-occupancy vehicle lanes on I-805 from I-5 to Carroll Canyon Road, including construction of north-facing direct access ramps, in San Diego County. (3) Rehabilitation and traffic calming on State Route 99 through Los Molinas, from Orange Street to Tehama Vina Road, in Tehama County. (4) A State Route 99 Island Park widening project that adds one mixed-flow lane in each direction, from Ashlan Avenue to Grantlund Avenue, in Fresno County. (5) State Route 99 median widening and the addition of one mixed-flow lane in each direction, from State Route 120 west to 0.4 miles north of Arch Road, in Manteca in San Joaquin County. (6) State Route 12 pavement rehabilitation and shoulder widening in San Joaquin County on Bouldin Island. (7) State Route 91 widening, adding one mixed-flow lane in each direction, from State Route 55 to Weir Canyon Road, in Orange County. (8) U.S. Highway 101 pavement rehabilitation and shoulder widening in San Luis Obispo County. The list of projects that qualify for streamlined CEQA review – essentially an internal Caltrans environmental review process that is not done under CEQA – included some of these same projects but also four others, including three in Orange County. These are: (1) Palm Avenue grade separation in San Bernardino County. (2) State Route 57 northbound widening, from Katella Avenue to Lincoln Avenue, in Orange County. (3) The addition of an auxiliary westbound lane to State Route 91, from Interstate 5 to State Route 57, in Orange County. (4) State Route 91 widening that adds one mixed-flow lane in each direction, from State Route 55 to Weir Canyon Road, in Orange County. A Highway 50 carpool lane project had already been in CEQA litigation, which was settled in January. In exchange for dropping the lawsuit, environmentalists got Caltrans to promise to pay Sacramento Regional Transit $8 million toward a second light-rail track from Sacramento to Folsom along the Highway 50 corridor. It remains to be seen whether the budget-deal exemptions will actually move projects along faster. Schwarzenegger may be trying to make these projects "shovel-ready" to qualify for the Obama stimulus money, though nobody has yet asked the question of whether projects funded with stimulus money must go through the environmental review process at the federal level under CEQA's equivalent, the National Environmental Policy Act. Perhaps most important, we'll see whether California's homebuilders catch on to the idea that CEQA might be a bigger target in the current slowdown than they thought. Inside the Sacramento beltway, it's easy to get caught up in the idea that only incremental changes are possible – and that builders have limited leverage on CEQA against the environmentalists. But Schwarzenegger may have proven that the combination of the economic downturn and ongoing budget problems make it possible to think about weakening CEQA in a much broader way over the next couple of years.

When the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved the first of what could be several phases of development at Santa Margarita Ranch, located 10 miles northeast of San Luis Obispo, they did so on a 3-2 vote – at a special meeting two days before Christmas with two lame-duck supervisors providing the deciding votes. The five-hour meeting on December 23 was not full of holiday cheer. Project opponents complained bitterly to the Board of Supervisors about what they saw as a rush to approve a questionable project. County staff members were obviously uncomfortable with being told to comply with the developer's wishes. Supervisors jabbed each other with pointed statements. Representatives of landowners Rob Rossi, Doug Filipponi and Karl Wittstrom contended the project had been delayed unnecessarily. After the vote, Supervisor Katcho Achadjian, a project supporter, told the San Luis Obispo Tribune it was "a lose-lose situation." If the board failed to approve the project, the landowners would sue. If the board approved the project, opponents would sue. He was right. Opponents filed a lawsuit in late January, arguing the Board of Supervisors violated the California Environmental Quality Act, state planning and zoning law, the Subdivision Map Act, and the county's general plan and land use ordinance. The local opponents were joined by a potentially formidable ally – the Endangered Habitats League, an advocacy group with a long track record of battling over and negotiating development and conservation in metropolitan Southern California. The league has never taken its advocacy this far up the coast, but it decided to participate in here because the proposed development "would set a precedent for other ranch and farmlands in the iconic Central Coast," according to a written statement by EHL attorney Michael Fitts. A former Mexican land grant, Santa Margarita Ranch covers 13,800 acres of the Salinas River Valley near Santa Margarita, an unincorporated community of about 1,100 people just east of Highway 101. Cattle have grazed on the ranch since the 18th Century, but large-scale development has been under consideration since at least the 1980s. For a brief period, Stanford University owned the property, which is now under the control of Santa Margarita Ranch LLC. In the 1990s, the landowners sued the county in a dispute over the number of legal parcels on the ranch. The county settled the litigation in 1997 with a development agreement that outlined overall uses for the property: 1,800 acres for 550 housing units, a golf course, a lodge and other visitor facilities; 8,400 acres protected as permanent open space, and 3,600 acres of agricultural land. Local residents sued over the settlement, arguing the county had unconstitutionally given away its police power. In a precedent-setting decision, the Court of Appeal in 2000 upheld the development agreement as "a legitimate exercise of governmental police power in the public interest." ( SMART v. County of San Luis Obispo , 84 Cal.App.4th 221; see CP&DR Legal Digest , December 2000 .) In 2004, the landowners submitted an application for a tentative tract map and a conditional use permit for a "major agricultural cluster subdivision" on the south edge of Santa Margarita. The proposal sought to create 111 single-family lots of 1 to 2.5 acres apiece, five open space lots of 190 to 1,000 acres apiece, and a 2,400-acre remainder lot. The landowners also laid out their vision for the property's full development with an additional 400 houses, a golf course, various ranches, retreats and lodges, nine wineries, space for galleries, shops and restaurants, and a livestock auction yard. The proposal underwent a lengthy environmental review process. Local, state and federal agencies raised questions about the project's impact on protected plant and animal species such as the San Luis Obispo Mariposa lily, the California tiger salamander and the red-legged frog, as well as impacts on oak woodlands, water quality, air quality, traffic and archaeological sites. County planners urged consideration of alternative project layouts. The project made it to the county Planning Commission in July 2008. The Commission conducted several contentious meetings at which county planners and the Commission recommended a smaller, tightly clustered residential subdivision closer to the existing town. The landowners refused to modify the project and insisted the Commission vote on the proposal as-is. In October 2008, the Commission denied the tract map and conditional use permit because of conflicts with the county's land use policies. The Commission also refused to certify the environmental impact report. The landowners appealed to the Board of Supervisors, which was about to undergo a change. In June 2008, voters replaced Supervisors Jerry Lenthall and Harry Ovitt with Adam Hill and Frank Mecham, respectively. Hill and Mecham were expected to bring a more environmentally sensitive perspective to the board, but they were not scheduled to take office until the first meeting in January 2009. Project opponents asked the board to postpone the appeal until the new supervisors were seated, but Achadjian and the lame ducks insisted the project had languished in the county's bureaucracy long enough. The board conducted five sessions on the appeal and ultimately approved the proposed project at the December 23 special session. At that meeting, county Planning Director Vic Holanda made clear his dissatisfaction with board majority's handling of the project. "I'm really concerned that you are putting our department, our professional staff, in a very tenuous situation," Holanda bluntly told the board. "In over 30 years of my career, I have never been subjected to this type of proceeding. I'm not saying it's illegal. It's highly unusual to have the applicant … dictate to the staff how to write conditions and findings for a very important project." "For the record," Holanda continued, "I'm objecting to this type of proceeding. I believe we should have a continuance to work with the applicant so that we can develop a reasonable project, not only for the community of Santa Margarita, but for this county. I'm very concerned with where we are going with this." Nonetheless, three supervisors voted to approve the project and an EIR that contained overriding considerations because of numerous unmitigated impacts, including a finding that the project does not have an assured long-term water supply. Susan Harvey, president of North County Watch, which filed the suit over the project's approval, said she would like to see a fresh planning process for Santa Margarita Ranch that includes all stakeholders. A better project would place development close to the town, while protecting prime agricultural soils, the headwaters of the Salinas River, endangered species habitat and valuable archaeological sites, she said. Resources: San Luis Obispo County staff reports: http://slocounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=601&meta_id=122055 http://slocounty.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=574&meta_id=116335 North County Watch: www.northcountywatch.org