Smart Growth wins out over anti-growth

SACRAMENTO, CA

For 50 years, Natomas Air Field and the pilots who used it had few neighbors.

The airport was built in a flood plain in the fields north of Sacramento. Then came the levee improvements, and in 1997, city officials lifted the building moratorium, letting loose a flood of shopping centers, movie theaters and homes.

Overnight, it seemed, Russ Kilmer saw Sacramento grow toward him and his 27-acre airport.

Now, in what anti-urban sprawl activists say is a perfect illustration of their concerns, Kilmer and his 40 crop dusters and private planes are being pushed off the land to make way for more houses and stores. City officials told him the airport must close by the end of the month because the surrounding area has drastically changed.

Development is coming even though the airport's land was contaminated by decades of farm chemicals from crop dusters, Kilmer said. He doesn't believe anyone would pay to clean it up for housing, but the rules are more lenient for commercial use, and commercial businesses are taking advantage.

This is just one example of what is happening all over the state. Cities are sprawling over farm land and into unsuitable areas at an alarming rate, even with the environmental hazards that could pose, said Brett Hulsey, director of the Sierra Club's anti-sprawl project.

``California has been dealing with growth issues overall, but of the 11 states that have growth-management acts, California ranks ninth,'' Hulsey said. ``That basically means the laws aren't working.''

There are state laws that require land-use plans for forest, agricultural and coastal land, but the laws don't tell counties and cities how to implement those plans, said Peter Detwiler, a consultant for the Senate Committee on Local Government.

The issue of urban sprawl surfaces for discussion every few years, then disappears, he said. This appears to be a year when legislators are willing to talk about it, especially in light of projections that the state's population is expected to grow by 12 million over 20 years.

Instead of being anti-growth, Groups such as the California Futures Network are promoting smart growth - urban building that doesn't mean long commutes.

The California Building Industry Association is advancing a ``job-centered'' housing policy that would remove obstacles to building higher-density urban housing near jobs.

Overly restrictive policies would push California into a housing crisis.

The State Department of Finance estimates 250,000 new homes should be built each year to keep up with population growth, but only about half that number are built.

A group of legislators will meet informally next week for the first time to address the issue in a caucus on responsible growth, said Assemblywoman Pat Wiggins, a Democrat from Santa Rose. The caucus will look at recommendations from a panel that studied the issue last year.