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Early
in the Kaine administration, Parris Glendening,
former governor of Maryland and prominent advocate
of "smart growth," held a workshop in
Richmond under the auspices of the Governors
Institute on Community Design.
That
session led to informal meetings of five members of
the governor's cabinet -- the secretaries of
Transportation, Natural Resources, Finance,
Administration and Commerce & Trade -- to
discuss how to implement smart growth, a philosophy
that favors more compact, walkable and
transit-oriented development.
Then,
with little fanfare, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine moved
earlier this month to formalize that group. In
Executive Order 69, he announced the creation of a
"Sub-Cabinet on Community Investment"
tasked with the goal of promoting more economically
and environmentally sustainable communities.
Secretary of Natural Resources L. Preston Bryant,
Jr., who also leads the Governor's Commission on
Climate Change, was appointed chair of the
sub-cabinet.
Over
the summer, the Department of Planning and Budget
will comb through the state budget to identify
sources of discretionary funds that the Kaine
administration can use to reward smart growth. The
group will convene at least monthly to strategize on
how to spend those moneys to better effect.
Gov.
Kaine has done more to inject "smart
growth" thinking into the administration of
state government than any governor in Virginia
history. The conservation/ environmental community
lauded the move as a limited step in the right
direction. "The governor is on the right track
with his new sub-cabinet on community investment
tasked with promoting smart, sustainable growth by
ensuring that state funds are invested in projects
that reduce suburban sprawl," said Lisa
Guthrie, executive director of the Virginia League
of Conservation Voters in an open letter last week.
But
Guthrie added, the move was only the beginning.
While discretionary spending may measure in the tens
of millions of dollars, the transportation budget
measures in the billions of dollars. "The place
to start changing priorities," she said,
"is with the billions of dollars we spend each
year on transportation."
As
articulated in Executive Order 69, there are two
driving forces behind the governor's smart growth
initiative: One is to conserve land, the other to
address traffic congestion.
"Over
the past decade," says EO 69, "the
Commonwealth has lost over 60,000 acres per year, or
approximately 165 acres a day, to development."
With state population projected to grow 23 percent
by 2030, the pace of land consumption in Virginia
could accelerate.
The
Kaine document repeats many of the key tenets of the
smart growth philosophy. "Sprawling development
increases traffic congestion, lengthens commutes,
discourages walking and biking, and diminishes our
quality of life," it says. "Our solutions
must strive to link planning efforts in
transportation and land use more closely
together."
To
encourage a long-term approach to development in
Virginia, the order reads, state agencies must
"better coordinate their work and find ways to
provide incentives and technical assistance to
localities. They must ensure that agency investments
are directed to areas with existing infrastructure,
encourage compact and mixed-use development, create
diverse housing opportunities, and promote
innovation."
The
Sub-Cabinet on Community Investment is the vehicle
that Kaine has designated to coordinate those
activities. To guide the cabinet secretaries,
Executive Order 69 has laid out the Governor's
Principles of Sustainable Community Investment,
which include:
Invest
in business innovation. "Inspire human
ingenuity and financial capital." Encourage
natural resource-based businesses, such as energy,
agriculture, forestry, fisheries and
recreation/tourism, to pioneer sustainable
practices. Assist emerging research and industries,
and encourage existing industries to become more
sustainable.
Invest
in existing infrastructure. "Encourage
the rehabilitation and adaptive re-use of existing
infrastructure, giving preference to preservation
and reuse of historic structures, rehabilitation of
existing housing and schools, and redevelopment of
brownfields." Also, focus job-creation
initiatives on companies located near existing
infrastructure, housing, workforce and
transportation facilities.
Invest
in compact development. Create walkable,
mixed-use districts within communities. Ensure that
new state facilities and buildings contribute to
compact development and the revitalization of urban
centers.
Protect
and restore Virginia’s natural resources.
Clean up Virginia's waterways, improve air quality,
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and protect
wildlife habitat, cultural resources and working
landscapes.
Conserve
natural resources. Eliminate waste of
water, energy and materials. Use land, energy, water
and materials efficiently. Increase the supply of
renewable fuels.
Invest
in diverse housing opportunities. Encourage
the location of housing close to jobs,
transportation options and public services.
Encourage energy-efficient housing.
Invest
in transportation choices. Make available
alternatives to automobile travel such as rail,
transit, teleworking, walking, and bicycling.
Provide intermodal connections.
Take
a long-term view.
"Look beyond immediate short-term capital costs
so as to take account of future operational,
maintenance, and other value savings."
To
ensure that state agencies apply these principles,
Kaine has asked them to make quarterly reports on
"how the use of [discretionary] funds has
aligned with the principles."
By
and large, I find these principles to be sound. (The
only one I would caveat is the exhortation to invest
in transportation choices: It's a good idea, as long
as all alternatives are evaluated and prioritized on
the basis of congestion mitigated per dollar.)
My
concern is that coordinating state agencies alone
may not accomplish much. True, Virginia's economic
development programs can influence where some jobs
are located. The state's housing programs can
influence where some houses are located. The state's
building-and- construction budget can influence
where state office buildings and other amenities are
located. The state's conservation budget can
influence where open land is located. Clearly, it
would be advantageous for the cabinet secretaries
overseeing the allocation of these resources to talk
to one another.
But
it's not enough for state officials to coordinate
amongst themselves. They also need to talk to local
government officials who approve comprehensive
plans, spend local infrastructure dollars and make
rezoning decisions. And those dialogs should be
conducted in concert with the decision-making for
the allocation of transportation dollars.
Bottom
line: Coordinating state investments in
discretionary funds is a useful thing to do, but it
falls far short of the level of coordination
required to build communities with a balance of
jobs, housing and amenities and a transportation
system scaled to match. For that, we need to
reinvent the entire system of state and local
government. And Tim Kaine doesn't have enough time
left in office to do that, even if he wanted to.
--
June 23, 2008
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