Posted on 06/24/2010 6:45:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
New development in California needs to be designed from the start to conserve electricity and water, decrease driving time, improve air quality and promote a sustainable lifestyle, according to a landmark study of the state's future growth.
Vision California, the state's first major planning document in almost 30 years, was released Wednesday.
Growth should focus not on increasing suburban sprawl but instead on creating compact development in already established cities, the report says. Bringing commuters closer to their jobs, its authors argue, can help Californians drive 3.7 trillion fewer miles and save 140 billion gallons of gasoline by 2050.
"The days when people could afford to drive until they find an affordable quality home maybe are gone," said Peter Calthorpe, head of Calthorpe Associates, the Berkeley firm that wrote the plan.
There are few surprises in the document, which focuses on a theme Californians have heard for decades: We need to conserve increasingly scarce resources.
The $2.5 million effort was overseen by the Strategic Growth Committee, a Cabinet-level group that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told to develop a state blueprint for growth.
"California is leading the nation in tackling smart and comprehensive land-use planning," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "By working together at all levels of government, we can help create a brighter, more sustainable future for generations of Californians to enjoy."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Pure unadulterated BS!
It's about as "new" as communism, central planning, totalitarianism and historical and social cluelessness.
Identical innovations were the miracle solution to our our urban planning problems and "sprawl" 50 years ago. The proponents have either died or retired, so the new controlling twits think they have reinvented the wheel.
And it's all about social control over others and behavior modification. The Land of the Free? Good luck with that.
These clowns can't think out of the box. Big cities are cesspools which have outlived their usefulness.
They are now the leeches of human and material wealth. Before Fiberoptic, GPS, satellites, and the internet there was zero chance of changing the template of centralized employment centers. Why must the employees come to the one big building? Why can't the big building be "distributed" to the population suburbs and connected together with the technolgical wonders of the last 30 years?
The big cities can just die and wither away. This is not the end of the 19th century, except for the controlling twits : planners, politicians and rent-seeking activists.
Gasoline use could be cut by 50% for work commutes, and we would no longer be slaves to a cartel which would be illegal in our own country.
New?
Hardly!
Stupid? Definitely.
Except for the bureaucrats, politicians and welfare recipients. They like their slaves in one place, subject to whims of public transportation employee unions; welfare by another name.
Happy reading. If you live in California, you might want to read this before it gets totally distorted by the MSM and the "green" wingnuts.
That population is only increasing because of illegal immigration. I recall a couple studies that showed the population having a net out-migration if only legal residents were included.
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