Air pollution comes from many sources: industry, farms, trucks and more. But some say rapid urban growth is the new bad boy of smog and one of the last unregulated polluters. The Bakersfield Californian examines sprawl's impact on Kern's dirty air in this special report.

Builders: Rigid policy hinders good intentions

Developers say they're open to change, but codes discourage thinking outside box

Posted: Saturday June 14, 2003, 11:59:00 PM
Last updated: Saturday June 14, 2003, 09:21:13 PM

There's a market in Bakersfield for homes and neighborhoods that look and function differently -- and pollute less -- according to a number of local builders. We don't see more of them, they say, partly because local development codes add red tape, hassle and expense.

Building neighborhoods with narrower streets, corner stores, more density and other pedestrian-friendly features generally isn't allowed by local development codes. It can be done, but it often requires a special exemption from the rules. This usually means extra expense for the builder, a longer approval process, more permits and public hearings.

"There are ways to design neighborhoods and communities to reduce the length of (car) trips and put jobs and housing near each other," said Roger McIntosh, a Bakersfield civil engineer who has planned subdivisions and commercial projects for many local builders. "It's not always easy to make those types of projects work without being very expensive. It's always a battle trying to do something that goes against the general plan or the ordinances, because people think you're trying to get away with something when, in fact, you're trying to do something better."

McIntosh and others in the development business say the market for compact, pedestrian-friendly development is small in Bakersfield, but growing. Only the largest builders can afford to take the risk to go after this market, but that may be changing. Local leaders could help stimulate demand by loosening or rewriting the rules to make innovative projects easier to build.

"The way we've designed lots of communities in the past -- for lots of reasons, including city standards -- it has been more of an engineering model that has maximized the amount of asphalt you put down. Street standards are excessively large here," said Bruce Freeman, president of Castle & Cooke California Inc. "There are ways of planning communities in much better ways. All of them will produce less air pollution if we do them right."

Freeman's company is one of the large builders that has tried something different. Its Grand Island Place subdivision, for example, is much denser than most, but the homes and the neighborhood give up nothing in terms of quality and amenities. Many buyers want smaller homes and lots, he said, but they don't want to make sacrifices in the bargain.

Castle & Cooke is buying more than four square miles of farmland west of Buena Vista Road. The company intends to annex this land into Bakersfield as the city's new western frontier of housing development. Many would say this is just more sprawl development. Freeman disagrees. The entire project will break from the usual Bakersfield mold, he said, with narrower streets, smaller lots, more trees and parks, and a better system of paths and sidewalks for walking and biking.

"Bakersfield will have to learn to live with smaller lots. If you create a nice environment with more parkways and parks, people will accept smaller lots," said Freeman. "There isn't any choice when you really get down to it. We have to think of the air as a scarce resource and the land as a scarce resource. I don't think in Bakersfield we've really had to think about it in the past. If you want to reduce pollution, these are the things you have to do."

City and county planning officials say their rules include enough flexibility to allow innovative housing projects, though they admit this often requires additional steps. And it almost always happens for other reasons, like senior housing projects or luxury homes. Bakersfield also offers incentives for building infill or mixed-use projects in the downtown area, but again, such projects are rare.

"Bakersfield's getting of sufficient size to where I think you'll see more of that," said Marc Gauthier, principal planner in charge of advanced planning for the city.

One of the exceptions is Parkview Cottages, a 74-home infill housing project planned on a 10-acre former industrial parcel north of Central Park in downtown Bakersfield. The city redevelopment agency is donating the site, and the single-family homes will be restricted to buyers who earn less than 120 percent of median income.

Builder Greg Petrini of Petrini Construction Inc. said he had 35 inquiries from buyers, mainly young professionals looking for starter homes, even before the City Council approved the project.

"I would say this lends itself to people who could actually bike to work while living downtown," Petrini said. "Wherever we can do redevelopment and infill situations, and not break into our more virgin ground, that's a positive."

On Bakersfield's eastern frontier -- the Kern River bluffs -- a new water treatment plant is opening nearly 10,000 acres to development. Most of it will be large-lot single-family housing just like new neighborhoods in the southwest and northwest. But at least one developer plans something different: General Holdings plans to add some neighborhood commercial development to its vast housing tracts on the bluffs.

Consultant Dave Dmohowski said General Holdings must obtain a general plan amendment to add commercial to its land because current zoning doesn't allow it. He said it will be essential to home buyers there, because the nearest commercial center as planned by city officials is at least two miles away. The company envisions building corner coffee shops, day-care centers and the like.

"It's an amenity to that community because it's going to be so isolated from other retail centers," Dmohowski said.

All builders say consumer attitudes must change if growth is to occur alongside air quality improvements. Home buyers, they say, must vote with their dollars for neighborhoods that pollute less. And the public must first accept and then demand a different development pattern.

The builders of one new housing tract hope to convince buyers they can have it both ways. Stone Meadows advertises its large lots, lack of traffic and easy access to shopping and Highway 99. Trouble is, the new neighborhood sits on Bakersfield's southern border, near Taft Highway, so anyone who lives there will have a long drive to work.

That's a given for some: At least 10 percent of Stone Meadows buyers will commute to jobs in the Los Angeles area, said Bruce Fraser, broker for Mahan Homes, one of five builders in the 68-lot subdivision. Only four lots remain unsold.

"We're going with the wider lots because that's what the people really want," Fraser said. "Our subdivisions we're developing now are out in areas where there isn't any net traffic. It's further away and people kind of like to get away from all that congestion. If you're down in that area, it's just not that congested. I'm not saying it won't be, it just isn't at this time."