Smart Growth Summit
Smart Growth Summit
In 1999, with the swearing in of the new California administration, several foundations and environmental organizations wanted to elevate land use issues to the front burner. With California’s population projected to grow by more than 30 million in the next three to four decades, policy-makers were prompted to consider and debate the best ways to make this impending growth have a positive, not negative impact on the state’s economy, environment and quality of life.
EPC planned a major summit in Sacramento attended by approximately 700 people from business, environment, housing, labor, nonprofit, agriculture and government sectors, as well as administration officials and members of all of the constitutional offices. The summit included:
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Conveying the impediments to breaking the political gridlock in land use issues.
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An opportunity to learn about the need for building sustainable communities.
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A discussion of the issues facing the new state administration in balancing rapid growth and quality of life issues.
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Two half-day sessions, “California’s Rapid Growth: How Will We Build Sustainable Communities?” and “Beyond Political Gridlock: How Will We Find Common Ground?”
The summit helped define the idea of a livable community and identified common ground between divergent views. For a while, “smart growth” was an actively discussed concept in Sacramento, and a new organization was successfully launched- the California Futures Network.
