This is part two of a series of comments and responses posted on www.treelink.org’s listserve, as part of a discussion regarding whether or not it is futile to try to have a viable urban forest given the ”smart growth” trends towards ultra high density cities.  Part one is entitled “Smart Growth & Housing Prices.” 

Remember the natural evolution of low
density suburbs [...]

Is it a stretch to suggest “smart growth” is encouraged by municipal bureaucracies because it causes the price of housing to rise, which in turn increases property tax revenues? Maybe, maybe not.
Our latest salvo on this topic began yesterday on a listserve we proudly belong to, and at least so far, haven’t been banished from. [...]

On Sunday February 2nd the Sacramento Bee released an editorial entitled “CEQA’s being hijacked, where are the enviros? “  In the editorial, the Bee states:
“With shameless abandon, lawyers and monied players are abusing the state’s premier environmental law – the California Environmental Quality Act,” and “Labor unions are an even larger abuser of CEQA.  In [...]

It’s been a long time since land development in California was governed solely by market forces. For decades, and especially in the last 10-15 years, myriad regulations and agencies have had a hand in land use decisions. To some extent, of course, this is appropriate. There are legitimate reasons why we empower our government to [...]

For 2008, California’s state government needs something like $14 billion more than they think they’re going to collect.  It is absurd to cut services.  It is absurd to lay off workers.  And it is especially absurd to raise taxes.  All we have to do is end the injustice of “two Californias,” where public employees have retirement benefits far [...]

To follow up on yesterday’s post, it has become more clear than ever how land use decisions are the place where every tenant of environmentalism is applied, yet the centrality of land use, like the centrality of population demographics, is rarely the focus of environmental discussions.  But if population demographics provide the primary preconditions for [...]

Much has been made of “smart growth principles” and “smart energy policy” in California.  But in reality, the assumptions which dominate and drive California’s land use and energy policies are seriously flawed.  Failure to examine the quantitative realities that ought to inform these policies, and adjust accordingly, will condemn Californians to a future much darker than many rational alternatives.
The [...]