Land use planning can save the world
October 4th, 2007 by Jim JustAt their annual conference, California’s land use planners are obsessed with global warming and have clearly gotten the green religion. They think land use planning can save the world. Every session — every conversation in the hallway — seems to touch on global warming.
The big question for California Chapter, American Planning Association attendees is how the need to address global climate change will affect their day-to-day practice vis-a-vis general plans, CEQA conformance and project review. What policies will emerge from implementation of AB 32 (the greenhouse gas law)? Will local governments be required to quantify emissions from new development projects? How do you compare emissions from different development scenarios?
The governor’s Climate Action Team will likely focus on three things:
• Using better planning tools
• Shifting money around to promote green goals
• Requiring mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from new projects.
All of this really comes down to increased air pollution regulation, which means more pressure to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from every project. Clearly, this is all headed toward a far greater emphasis on infill development, mixed-use. public transit and anything else that will decrease vehicle miles traveled.