Thursday June 24, 1999

By Ronna Abramson
STAFF WRITER

OAKLAND -- Forecasting a traffic nightmare in the Bay Area's future, a coalition of 50 organizations launched a campaign Wednesday for regional "smart growth" that more closely links transportation and housing decisions.

In a report they released, the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition -- which includes Urban Ecology, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Greenbelt Alliance, Save the Bay and BOSS (Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency) -- argued that without a new approach to land use and transportation planning, the region faces a loss of 200,000 acres of open space and a 249 percent rise in traffic congestion the next two decades.

"We can't continue down the same path of more sprawl, more gridlock and dying transportation systems," said Stuart Cohen, co-chairman of the coalition and author of the report, Area's Collision Course with Sprawl and How Smart Growth Can Help."

The coalition contends smart growth planning can reverse the growing gridlock and sprawl. Smart growth means that when a local city council considers a housing development, it also should consider the project's impact on transportation, said Rachel Peterson, the coalition's other co-chairperson and executive director of Urban Ecology.

And whenever the Metropolitan Transportation Commission -- the region's transportation funding agency -- considers a project such as freeway expansion, it needs to assess whether that project encourages more automobile dependency, she said.

The coalition's next step, Peterson said, is to help MTC win a $500,00 grant for a proposed $1 million "Partnership for Smart Growth" project, in which regional agencies and local elected officials would work together to develop incentives to encourage smart growth strategies.

The Department of Transportation turned down the commission's grant application this year, but MTC is planning to reapply as early as next week, said Steve Heminger, the commission's deputy executive director.

"There is a lot of common ground" among the commission and coalition, Heminger said after the coalition's news conference in an Oakland park near MTC's headquarters. He noted the commission recently started a $9 million "Transportation for Livable Communities" program that is helping fund transit-oriented development projects.

The coalition's campaign also was applauded by a handful of elected officials and the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.

"I believe the leaders follow the movement, and you've created the movement," Alameda County Supervisor Mary King told approximately 40 people at the news conference. But King urged them to be willing to compromise and "coalesce with mainstream politicians."

Through an aide, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, agreed with the coalition's argument that current planning "is too often done piecemeal" and said the challenge now is to turn the coalition's vision into a reality.

Oakland City Councilman Nate Miley (Eastmont-Seminary) highlighted the importance of the most fundamental form of transportation -- walking -- and a "Safe Routes to School" bill now in the Legislature that would help ensure that children enjoy a safer walk or bicycle ride to school.