HOME SWEET HOME STILL A STATE DREAM
A place to call home, everyone wants it and everyone needs it.
As California experiences an unprecedented growth in population a 26 percent increase to 42.7 million by 2015 these new families, singles and seniors will need homes. But continuing to add homes to the fringes of existing communities is no answer. No one wants longer commutes, more pollution, or added stress.
And not everyone wants or needs the single-family house with 3,000 square feet far from transportation and city activities. With smart long-range planning, accommodating these families can be accomplished. Committing to smart land-use planning can improve the quality of life in California during this unprecedented time of growth, and provide a range of housing options from single-family ranch and lofts, to apartments and condos to meet the needs of the entire community.
Communities should continue to plan for an adequate land supply for housing in its general plan, allowing for phased and orderly growth.
The general plans should be comprehensive and seek to balance the full range of important state and local concerns, including affordable housing, water supply and quality, open space and parks, resource areas and wildlands, protected agricultural lands, transportation needs and impacts, and air pollution mitigation.
These long-range plans should be consistent with smart growth principles that were recently signed into law. Communities must encourage development in established areas or infill first, then growth near existing urbanized areas, while at the same time protecting resources, open space and agricultural lands.
It is easy to see that the huge housing need in our state should prompt cities and counties to encourage infill rather than gobbling up what is left of our open space and agricultural land with "greenfield" development. Infill upzoning should be encouraged to allow for greater density, while downzoning that reduces housing opportunities or develops greenfields should be discouraged.
At the same time, the state must also commit itself to California's housing needs.
The state should be part of the housing and growth solution by providing state funding and local funding mechanisms to assist local governments in providing affordable housing and the infrastructure to support all housing in the plan.
The state or regional councils of governments, as part of the housing element process, should determine important resource areas it wants protected before it determines the "proportionate share" of housing for each city and county.
And, the state should develop a strategic plan for housing that looks at the constraints and opportunities for providing housing throughout the state, with an estimate of the services, infrastructure and funding that would be necessary to accommodate the projected population, and a review of state laws that conflict with the ability to build more affordable housing.
If there is equal commitment to "smart growth" housing from state, regional and local governments, as well as developers and lenders, value can be added to, not subtracted from our quality of life. A home for the holidays will not be just a dream.
Jeri Ram is president of the California Chapter of the American Planning Association.
