TAKE ACTION - Contact the California Air Resources Board

Click here to submit your public comments to the CA Air Resources Board (see SAMPLE LETTER below for talking points)

Contact the California Air Resources Board: Tell Them to Prioritize Home Affordability in Greenhouse Gas Recommendations

( Special thanks to Zack Olmstead and Housing California for compiling and monitoring this legislative update)

While a few measures advancing the political priorities of affordable housing advocates made it to the governor's desk, the real action on land use came in an administrative forum, the Regional Targets Advisory Committee (RTAC). SB 375 (Steinberg, 2008) charged the RTAC with recommending a method of setting state and regional targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars through coordinated land-use and transportation-system planning. The California Air Resources Board will set the final targets by September 30, 2010.

The targets are significant for housing development; the higher the target, the greater the pressure on regional governments to develop land-use plans with high residential densities near job centers and neighborhood retail. Although regional governments do not have zoning authority, they can cajole those who do - local electeds - by allocating regional transportation funding to projects that are consistent with the regional land-use plan.

RTAC issued its final report on September 30, 2009, with a significant emphasis on improving home affordability (rents and mortgages) near job centers as a means to reduce driving. A whole section on housing and social equity highlights the potential link between greenhouse gas reductions and a better jobs-housing "fit" (the extent to which the rents and mortgages in a community are affordable to the people working there or who will fill anticipated jobs).

Specific key recommendations include:

1) The Air Resources Board (ARB) should make the targets "ambitious but achievable."
2) Regional governments should be required to update their data collection and forecasting to measure social equity factors, including housing and transportation affordability, gentrification, and jobs-housing fit.
3) Performance measures for the regional plans should include the jobs-housing fit and five other housing-related measures.

Next, the ARB will consider the recommendations at its November 19, 2009, meeting. California affordable home advocates and our Climate Plan allies will be there to urge adoption of the full report and hopefully, begin working with regional governmental agencies and ARB members and staff to implement the report.

TAKE ACTION! Write to the Ca. Air Resources Board via their online comment webpage and tell them about the important role of home affordability in the greenhouse gas equation.

click on this SAMPLE LETTER (cut and paste) for comments to include in your public comments

DEADLINE: Please send your letter to the ARB by November 4, 2009. For information, contact Zack Olmstead at zolmstead@housingca.org