Mary Phelps writes a "Your Turn" letter in today’s Contra Costa Times entitled "Stop scary transit-village bill". I’d point to it – but the Time’s website and RSS feed are currently making it unavailable. It’s on page A21 of the print edition.
Mary expresses very legitimate concerns about the Supreme Court’s recent "Kelo" decision on eminent domain and Senator Tom Torlakson’s Senate Bill 521 to create redevelopment-like zones around transit stations. In her view both are the work of developers – regarding SB 521 she writes:
"This bill looks like the developers are, once again, in control of our lives."
"Looks" is the key word in that sentence. As we all know looks can be deceiving.
The Kelo case, in my understanding, was driven by public officials looking for additional tax dollars. Whether you agree or disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision – it was about clarifying local government’s authority over land-use. Blame the developers for what? Asking the question?
Torlakson’s SB 521 – transit village bill is more a product of zealous environmentalists and transit advocates than developers. The enviros want everyone to live in higher-density housing near transit to protect "open space" and prevent urban sprawl. The transit advocates know that people who live in close proximity to transit are more likely to use it. They want the ridership numbers to improve because there are growing questions about costs per rider and transit spending/usage in overall transportation funding discussions. If the bill is approved and ever implemented – yes, developers may build it because that’s what they do. But they’re not to blame.
Finally – if Mary is concerned about SB 521 she should also be interest to learn that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has just adopted a policy requiring jurisdictions to plan for higher densities at transit stations before it will allocate any transportation dollars it controls for those facilities. I believe developers took no direct position on that policy other than to question its fairness to the Bay Area’s suburbs. But it passed anyway – so blame the developers?
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