Lifestyle Bills Start Legislative Makeover

Democrats in the Legislature on Wednesday unveiled a package of proposals designed to help curtail urban sprawl, mushrooming housing prices and ever-expanding commuting times.

The proposals are the centerpiece of Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata’s strategy of addressing quality of life issues for middle-class voters and presenting the Legislature as a pragmatic body to an electorate that dislikes it.

“Right now, nearly one in five Californians can’t afford a home,” the Alameda lawmaker said at a news conference. “People are now spending more time commuting to and from work than they are spending with their own families. People are finding it’s getting harder and harder to maintain the middle-class lifestyle.”

The measures are intended to encourage the construction of affordable, high-density housing in urban areas near transportation hubs and in already developed areas of cities.

The approach hinges on tax incentives and less regulation to make such projects easier to build, while discouraging local governments from challenging such projects because of community opposition.

The Democratic approach risks annoying local leaders who have resented efforts by Sacramento to dictate zoning rules. It also offers an urban lifestyle model to which not all Californians may subscribe.

“They think if you build all these high-density houses, people are going to flock to them,” said Senate GOP Leader Dick Ackerman of Irvine. “Most people do not want to live in downtown San Francisco or downtown L.A.”

Perata is trying to improve the Legislature’s public image at a time when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has launched broad proposals that would reduce the body’s power to set state spending and determine the districts where lawmakers run for election. Schwarzenegger has threatened to put both topics before voters in a special election this year if lawmakers do not go along with his proposals.

“I think the governor is well served by picking a fight with us

A survey released Wednesday by the Field Poll found that only 36% of Californians approve of the Legislature. Though dismal, that rating was a substantial improvement over the esteem lawmakers were held in just before the recall that elected Schwarzenegger. In July 2003, the Legislature’s public approval rating was 19%.

But Schwarzenegger’s popularity has been declining. The Field Poll found that the governor’s approval rating had dropped 10 percentage points since September, to 55%.

Perata and other Democrats believe that the Legislature can continue to close the popularity gap if lawmakers can show the public that they are not obstructionists, and that their concerns are broader than the party’s traditional focus on social services and such topics as driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants.

The measures offered Wednesday would:

* Exempt some housing projects in urban areas from the environmental impact reports required by the California Environmental Quality Act. In cities with at least 200,000 residents, SB 832, sponsored by Perata, would allow cities to exempt housing projects on sites of up to 10 acres with up to 300 residential units.

* Strengthen the state’s anti-NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) laws to make it harder for foes of affordable-housing projects to block them. SB 575 by Sen. Tom Torlakson of Antioch would tighten the circumstances under which a local government could deny an affordable-housing development, and would make it easier for developers to win monetary damages if they were wrongly rejected.

* Allow redevelopment agencies to offer special financing for high-density projects around or near transit stations (SB 521 by Torlakson).

* Require local governments to address air pollution and incorporate solutions to bad air into general development plans. The approach has been in place in the Central Valley for two years. SB 44 by Sen. Christine Kehoe of San Diego would expand the approach statewide.

Democrats devised their proposals in consultation with transportation, housing, environmental and local government groups, many of which offered positive assessments of the effort.

But they also raised questions about the costs to the state, which the Democrats did not even try to estimate.

“It’s very encouraging,” said Megan Taylor, communications director of the League of California Cities. “From the city perspective, one of the things that’s terribly important is that there be some means of paying for the additional services that would be required as you bring in more people.”

Bill Magavern, a lobbyist for Sierra Club California, said Perata’s approach is “a very important part of a smart-growth strategy.” But he predicted that developers would press hard to reduce environmental regulations for housing outside urban areas.

The governor has expressed concern about housing costs and long commutes. “We need roads and we need affordable housing,” he said in his State of the State address last month. “The median price of a home in California is $460,000. That is too much. A home of your own is part of the American Dream. I believe in such dreams, so I will propose legislation that eliminates regulatory and legal hurdles that delay construction and increase the costs of new housing.”

He has not yet introduced the specifics of such legislation. Schwarzenegger’s secretary of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, Sunne Wright McPeak, plans to devise them after consulting with developers, housing advocates and others.

The governor’s office said aides had not yet reviewed the Democratic bills and could not assess them.