State law requires regions to work together to lower greenhouse
gas emissions over next 25 years
Local residents will have a chance to offer input on how
regional agencies should tackle the task of lowering greenhouse gas
emissions to the level emitted in 1990 in the next 25 years.
The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, which includes
agencies in San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, has been
hosting workshops across the region to gather such input on the
2035 Regional Blueprint. Workshops in Hollister are scheduled for
June 16 and June 26.
State law requires regions to work together to lower greenhouse gas emissions over next 25 years
Local residents will have a chance to offer input on how regional agencies should tackle the task of lowering greenhouse gas emissions to the level emitted in 1990 in the next 25 years.
The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments, which includes agencies in San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, has been hosting workshops across the region to gather such input on the 2035 Regional Blueprint. Workshops in Hollister are scheduled for June 16 and June 26.
“It’s kind of envisioning how we can lower vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mary Paxton, planning manager for the City of Hollister, “with how we develop land-use patterns.”
The workshops are the first step for AMBAG in creating a Sustainable Communities Strategies for the region, a requirement of State Senate Bill 375. The bill is an attempt to help the state meets the objectives laid out in Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
“It is about how we are going to expand our housing and transportation choices,” said Randy Deshazo, a principal planner with AMBAG. “One issue we are trying to tackle is that people tend to live far away from where they work and they tend to be forced to drive alone. There are lots of other ways to live that we don’t do.”
He described living in a town where one’s job is near enough to walk.
“We don’t do enough in terms of carpooling,” he said. “The lack of doing these things contributes to our congestion.”
Paxton said the public’s input in the meetings is the key.
“We are hoping the public comes,” she said. “One of the challenges that everyone has recognized is putting together a plan for a diverse area because you can develop a plan that is sustainable or strategies that are really key on transit for Monterey and Santa Cruz, but not as meaningful for south Monterey County or Tres Pinos or Hollister.”
The plan will look at not just how people commute, but also where they shop, go to the doctor and how they travel for all sorts of errands.
“The way we live now is a lot more expensive as taxpayers and daily commuters, and how much we spend on travel as compared to the alternative we want to look at,” Deshazo said.
At the workshops, residents will have an opportunity to take an interactive poll and then to be part of a discussion group.
“Once we have the information, we will take it back to elected officials and see how we can expand housing and transportation options that are consistent with legislation to reduce greenhouse gases,” he said.
Deshazo said the regional planning approach is a departure from the way planning is normally done.
“Everyone tends to plan for their community, but they put blinders on to what is going on in the community right next door,” he said. “People get in the car and go to work. Most of the time they are leaving their town and going somewhere else. It has an impact not just on your town, but everybody else’s. It’s almost a new approach to an old problem.”
Lowering the greenhouse gases has its challenges. Growth projections suggest that there will be a larger population that is older on average, and more residential growth will occur inland along the 101 corridor than on the coast, according to a press release on the workshops. The projections also suggest that the coastal population will be significantly older than the inland population, and the average distance commuters will have to drive to work will be longer than the distance today.
The goal of the regional blueprint is to give local jurisdictions the resources to change the travel patterns.
“It’s mostly about the long term,” Deshazo said. “A lot of things we want to change happen really slowly. None of it happens overnight.”
Deshazo said one of the major challenges is getting funding together to help local jurisdictions make the changes needed to lower greenhouse gases.
“You need economic development as well so the plan obviously doesn’t make job growth happen, but it does consider how you can put those things closer to people,” he said. “It is going to help us when we do start to recover. It’s important. When (cities) try to attract employers, they are looking for a high quality of life.”
One other thing the plan does is change the housing element cycle for local cities and counties.
Paxton said it remains to see how the plan will effect housing element requirements, but she said she is hoping the state will take the mandate to lower greenhouse gases into consideration when it assigns housing requirements to San Benito and Hollister. In the past, the city and county have struggled to meet the state mandates.
“If the real objective is to reduce vehicle miles traveled, maybe there will be a more thoughtful, better correlation to the jobs,” Paxton said. “The City of Hollister is not opposed (to housing growth), but sometimes those mandates overwhelm everything else.”
With the input from the workshops, AMBAG staff will go to local jurisdictions “and finalize our concept of what our strategy should be for the next 25 years,” Deshazo said. “What will happen eventually it will start getting included in (general) plan updates and also in transportation plans.”
Upcoming workshops:
The 2035 Regional Blueprint workshops
June 16, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Veterans Memorial Building, Rm. 218, in Hollister
June 26, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the Veterans Memorial Building, Rm. 218, in Hollister
For more information, visit www.ambag.org or call 883-3750.
