Hearing Focuses on Creating Coherent Growth Strategy

California Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) hosted a legislative hearing in Los Angeles on Friday to explore the state’s role in promoting smart growth: how to curb sprawl and wisely develop neglected and often polluted urban pockets from downtown to South-Central.

The hearing was thin on legislators--most were stuck in Sacramento grappling with the energy crisis--but it launched a dialogue among economists, developers, housing advocates and others on an issue that all say is critical to the state’s future.

California--and particularly Los Angeles--has lagged behind the country in crafting a coherent strategy on transportation, housing, environment and community development. Meanwhile, “we simply have run out of land and run out of resources to keep on growing the way we have,” Michael Dear, director of the Southern California Studies Center, said.

For example, L.A. County has a housing deficit of 300,000 units and built only 16,000 last year, said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Industrial space is scarce, and the region needs parks, transportation and other infrastructure. Complicating matters, relationships among the county’s 88 city governments are “spectacularly dysfunctional,” he said.

The challenges make smart growth--which calls for efficient land use through higher housing density as well as mixed residential and commercial zoning in urban areas--essential, panelists said. But key to smart growth strategy is focused public policy, and that has been lacking.

Among the speakers were California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, who has pushed urban-investment initiatives; former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis; and SunAmerica Inc. Chairman Eli Broad.