from Marin IJ 4/21/2013: Marin Voice: One Bay Area plan is bad planning
Posted: 04/21/2013 05:42:00 AM PDT
IN MARCH, the Citizen Marin Town Hall meeting offered our community a rare opportunity to come together to examine planning and affordable housing challenges — a key element of One Bay Area plan.
The event coincided with the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission's release of Plan Bay Area, with its focus on building high-density housing and its draft environmental impact report.
Back in May 2011, ABAG/MTC held public "hearings" that promoted pre-determined solutions to the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2035, as required by AB32/SB375. Their simplistic, one-size-fits-all "solution" is to build high-density housing along transportation corridors.
During the public workshops, it was clear that no other visions were considered, but their own.
Then, as now with the newly released plan and draft EIR, ABAG/MTC will consider five alternative scenarios, with their decision scheduled for mid-summer. The project is rapidly moving toward adoption with compliant head-nodding among elected officials, reminiscent of the Marincello project of the 1960s (housing and shopping centers for 30,000 people in the Marin Headlands).
That scheme had support from county supervisors, until it was stopped by community activists.
To comply with CEQA, the EIR must "inform members of the public as to the range of environmental impacts of the proposed plan." But since officials who will vote on the plan have not engaged the public on the scope and the changes to our local zoning, the public is not informed.
Controversy surrounds this plan, even as it is being fast-tracked through the approval process. Issues include the accuracy of the population growth and jobs projections; the proposal to weaken environmental enforcements; the impacts on public services, schools, infrastructure and water supply; rising sea level; and the irretrievable loss of local control.
While many groups promote the plan, believing it will provide much-needed affordable housing near jobs, the DEIR concludes that income needed to cover transportation and housing costs are projected to increase for low-income households, and travel time to jobs will also increase.
The first of the five alternative scenarios calls for "No Project," which honors the long-standing tradition for communities to set the framework for city planning, zoning and growth in their general plans. It is based on the belief that local problems are best solved with local solutions, in collaboration with regional planners, not heavy-handed threats of not getting state or federal transportation funds if our cities don't follow bureaucratic dictates.
However, not only did ABAG/MTC fail to analyze the "No Project" alternative, but in a peculiar circular logic, removed it as an option our representatives are allowed to choose. Marin's vote to adopt the Plan Bay Area EIR is in the hands of Supervisor Steve Kinsey, Marin's representative on MTC and Supervisor Katie Rice and Novato Mayor Pat Eklund, who represent Marin on ABAG..
Plan Bay Area is a 25-year plan that would change the face of Marin and the Bay Area forever, yet ABAG/MTC has just one last Marin public meeting, on April 29 from 6-9 p.m. at the Marin Civic Center.
So what can you do?
- Attend the public hearing.
- Submit comments on the EIR to info@onebayarea.org.
- Contact your representatives and ask how they have fulfilled the CEQA requirement to "inform the public."
- Press for their support for Alternative 1: No Project.
Democracy is not a game played from the sidelines, but ABAG/MTC is dominating the field.
It's time to get into the game and reclaim home field advantage.
Susan Kirsch of Mill Valley is co-founder of Citizen Marin
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