Air Quality Planners Weigh Commuter Fees : Environment: Proposals represent a sharp shift in strategy. Gaining the public’s backing will be a challenge.

In an important shift in strategy, Southern California environmental policy-makers are revising the region’s federally mandated air quality plan to include a broad array of commuter fees--from freeway tolls to higher auto emission charges and new parking assessments.

Adoption of the fees would represent a shift in the outlook Southern California historically has held toward driving--the notion that freeway travel is a birthright rather than a privilege that can be taxed.

The proposed fees could go into effect during this decade. But enabling state and federal legislation would be required before many of the fees could be put in place.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is ultimately responsible for the region’s air quality plan, is to begin considering the proposed changes today. An AQMD official said Thursday that the agency’s staff so far has found nothing objectionable.

If adopted by the AQMD, the fees would become the latest in a series of regulations that will alter life in Southern California over the next two decades in order to bring the region’s unhealthy atmosphere into compliance with federal clean air standards. The commuter fees would be part of a long list of pollution controls affecting everything from back-yard barbecues to dry cleaners and oil refineries.

Proponents of the fees acknowledge that they will have their work cut out for them in persuading the public to go along with at least some of the proposed charges. A public opinion survey conducted by the Southern California Assn. of Governments, which is proposing the fees, found that only 17% of people polled would support a toll on commuters who drive alone at rush hour.

On the other hand, the poll, which questioned 1,534 people in six Southern California counties, found that 65% would be willing to see their annual auto registration fees raised by $4 if the money is used to reduce air pollution and congestion.

In recommending the commuter fees, officials of the Assn. of Governments de-emphasized an earlier strategy that called for a realignment of housing and jobs in the region to cut down on commuting.

That strategy, known as the jobs/housing balance, was an integral part of the original Air Quality Management Plan in 1989, but was widely criticized as a form of social engineering that ultimately would not keep people off the roads.

On Thursday, members of a task force created by SCAG insisted they were not bowing to political pressures against enforcing jobs/housing quotas, but were responding to studies that showed that the jobs/housing balance is not the congestion cure-all it was cracked up to be.

“We could have communities in perfect balance and still have an enormous amount of commuting,” said Jon Mikels, a San Bernardino County supervisor and the chairman of SCAG’s growth management and transportation task force.

“If we can reduce vehicle miles traveled, maybe we won’t have to mess with moving people or jobs around the region,” said Christine E. Reed, president of SCAG and a Santa Monica City Council member.

Mikels said SCAG’s executive committee voted Thursday to amend the 1989 air quality plan so that commuter fees take precedence over but do not eliminate efforts to achieve a jobs/housing balance.

Tom Eichhorn, media liaison officer for the Air Quality Management District, said he did not foresee any serious differences between SCAG and the AQMD over the recommendations.

SCAG is composed of representatives of governments throughout the region to advise on transportation and land-use planning.

Eichhorn said: “We have generally accepted SCAG’s recommendations. Our board members are pretty SCAG-oriented.”

The AQMD’s approval most likely would lead to the creation of a variety of demonstration projects to determine which of the fee proposals work best. On the table are everything from rush-hour freeway tolls to a recommendation that private firms end subsidized parking for their employees. SCAG officials said Thursday that similar demonstration projects are under way in other parts of the state, including one in Coronado in which San Diego commuters driving alone to work are charged a dollar while those who share rides are not charged.

Another proposal is to charge Orange County commuters who drive alone at rush hour on the new San Joaquin Hills toll road, which could open by the mid-1990s to connect the Costa Mesa Freeway to San Juan Capistrano. But car-poolers would be permitted on the tollway free of charge.

Despite poll results showing a chilly public reaction to the proposed fees, officials at SCAG believe the fees can be presented in ways that will make them acceptable.

“If you were asked would you be willing to pay if you were going to get a faster commute as a result, you might be more inclined to pay,” Mikels said.

Another approach to limiting peak-hour freeway driving would be to issue certificates to commuters for a limited amount of rush-hour driving. “These certificates could then be traded,” SCAG suggests in a report on its proposed fees. “Those who wanted or needed more peak-period driving certificates could buy them, not from the government but from other people.”

If employers stopped subsidizing employee parking, they could soften the blow, SCAG officials suggested, by paying employees the amount it costs to park. Workers could choose whether to spend the money on parking, on public transit or on car-pooling expenses.

The proposed fee system would avoid penalizing the poor by using some of the revenue raised to defray the costs of transportation for low-income commuters, according to the SCAG report.

“For example,” the report says, “the revenues raised by a smog fee can be used to offset the costs of low-income drivers through a tax credit or direct financial assistance to bring their vehicles up to code.”

Officials at SCAG insist that they are not recommending that all efforts to achieve a jobs/housing balance in the region be abandoned.

Those efforts were aimed at changing a growing discrepancy in the region where most new employment has been in the western portion and most new homes in the east. Goals were set to increase the number of jobs in the east by 9% and the number of new homes in the west by 5%.

But communities have balked at the notion of fulfilling job and housing quotas set by an outside authority.

“Cities don’t want regional government telling them how to do land planning,” Eichhorn said.

Last January, AQMD planners notified Los Angeles officials that the Porter Ranch project, the largest and most controversial development under way in the city, would throw the San Fernando Valley’s balance of jobs and housing out of alignment and jam nearby freeways, aggravating pollution.

But after blistering criticism from Dan Garcia, a lawyer for Porter Ranch and confidante of Mayor Tom Bradley, the AQMD adopted a more tolerant view of the project.

Now, officials at SCAG and the AQMD say they have come to question the presumption that building homes close to offices will substantially reduce auto trips.

“We’ve got Orange County in balance, and we still have a massive amount of commuting,” Mikels said.

PROPOSED COMMUTER FEES

Here are some of the commuter fees proposed by the Southern California Assn. of Governments to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality:

Peak-period charges: Drivers alone in their cars during rush hours would pay.

Elimination of parking subsidies: Public and private employers could no longer subsidize employee parking costs. One proposal calls for employers to pay employees the cash equivalent of annual parking costs and let employees decide how they want to use the money--to pay for parking, to pay for public transit or to share the costs of car pooling.

Emission charges: Raising car and truck registration fees by $5 to $10 annually with the proceeds used to help reduce air polllution caused by vehicle emissions.