sacbee.com -- Politics -- California zeroing in on sprawl
Here is an urban planner's dream. Talk about power--maybe one board controlling all of the real estate development in the state of California? All to slay the demon named "Sprawl." (Condemning sprawl is all the rage in academia--watch for my colleague Bob Bruegmann's forthcoming book that, if I know Bob, will take that cliche apart.) And of course, California's are supposed to live the high-density, attached housing, forced-into-HOAs-against-your-will lifestyle that everybody loves so much. Actually, Senator Peralta, surveys show that Americans have an overwhelming preference for detached single family home ownership, which is why they are moving so far away to find it. The answer is not for state government to usurp local government power in order to make it impossible for people to act on those preferences...unless you think that you have a better idea of how they should live than they do.

On the opening day of the legislative session a week ago, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata talked often about the phenomenon of California homeownership. Parents are chasing that dream to cheaper, faraway towns, then wasting time in cars commuting to work, which hurts families, burdens roads and adds pollution to the air, he said. Perata, D-Alameda, put sprawl at the top of his agenda. He and Schwarzenegger administration officials are looking at a bold, "anti-dumb growth" plan aimed in part at slowing the number of Bay Area residents spilling over the mountains into San Joaquin Valley farmland in search of cheaper homes."We might have to look at something as revolutionary as having the state itself decide on land-use zones and land uses," Perata said. The general idea is to squeeze cheaper homes, apartments and condominiums closer to the urban core and nearby suburbs.There are no specifics yet. But an ambitious series of bills and constitutional amendments expected to be introduced next year will propose usurping the decision-making power of local planning boards, curbing state environmental regulations to lower housing costs, encouraging more housing on old industrial sites and offering extra state money for parks or roads to communities that participate more willingly.
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