letter of agreement and support

The San Joaquin Valley is in a Federal Non-Attainment zone because of its poor air quality.

To obtain clean air, one has to consider why we have poor air quality and what it will take to again have healthy air. With the San Joaquin Valley being a unique place that traps its own air, Fresno must become a world leader of environmental responsibility to have clean air. Environmental justice doesn’t seem fair, with the Bay Area sending bad air into the San Joaquin Valley as well as Los Angeles filtering off its bad air into the South Valley. The San Joaquin Valley produces direct source air pollutants that are being reduced but, the mobile sources which includes heavy truck traffic driving through the Valley accounts for the Valley’s reduction target.

Being environmentally responsible to become the world’s environmental leader, careful urban land-use planning is essential. Fresno and the Valley can use this tool to gain control of its surroundings and become a sustainable community.

Urban land-use planning is very simple to understand. It is merely where roads go, how big the roads are and where the houses will go along those roadways as the cities and towns continue to grow. Environmental responsibility comes with the forethought of what kind of transportation system will be used to get people from place to place.

Individually, the automobile is very useful and an important part of our car culture; as a whole, the automobile is the worst environmental pollutant there is. The automobile is wholly unsustainable; and basing future urban growth to continue with this unsustainable component is totally irresponsible and condemns everyone in the San Joaquin Valley to serious health endangerment. This type of harmful planning must stop immediately.

Throughout the United States, a requirement for any area to receive a federal allotment of transportation funds distribution, that area must have a transportation plan on where those dollars are going to be spent. The government agencies that organize these transportation plans are called Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO). Fresno’s Metropolitan Planning Organization is known as the Fresno County Council of Governments (COG). The Fresno COG has just released its 2011 Regional Transportation Plan

In containing the health damages done from breathing the polluted air of cars’ exhaust pipes, land-use can be improved with infill redevelopment. Infill redevelopment means that urban growth is directed towards building high density development in existing transportation corridors. This generally requires the building of a light-rail type of transit system; with higher density multi-use real estate at the station sites.

In the Valley’s urban land use planning for its sustainable future, it is also imperative to reduce vehicle miles traveled of standard automobiles. By utilizing the existing road infrastructure, high density at convenient light-rail stations relives the pressure off of the need to expand land use sprawl to consume open acreage farm land. The building of high density real estate redevelopment allows the current housing trends for large individual residential parcels to continue. The high density surrounding a light-rail transit station provides a practical living environment in neighborhoods for those that choose to live near convenient transit and commerce centers.

From a Fresno bee article April 14, 2006:
"Fresno’s first step toward a modern mass transit system may be in jeopardy because state and local budgets have been crippled by the recession.
The city is close to winning a $40 million federal grant to create a “bus rapid transit” line that would link River Park, downtown and the planned Fancher Creek project in southeast Fresno.
Described as “light rail on tires,” the system is expected to feature larger buses running in dedicated lanes between fixed stations at speeds 20% to 30% faster than traditional buses.
But the federal grant would require a $10 million local match. And two likely sources — a state transportation bond fund and the Measure C sales tax — have been hard hit by the downturn.
The state’s Proposition 1B bond fund, a $19.9 billion program approved by voters 2006, has been hurt by the state budget crisis. For a time last year, no bonds were sold because of the state’s problems and weak credit markets. "

In considering the State’s fiscal condition, it is apparent that the traditional methodology in funding public transit projects will not allow an environmental solution. The latest news regarding Fresno’s BRT is that considering all local and state budget cuts, FAX doesn’t have the needed matching funds to initiate its plan. Eventually, Fresno will have to resign itself to work with private companies to build a privatized new technology light-rail type transit system, except that the term eventually is becoming very soon.

To continue; the focus on a higher quality of life for San Joaquin Valley residents, it is necessary to clean the area’s air quality to at least meet the Federal Air Quality standards. How is this possible? With new land use adaptations to accommodate environmentally viable modes of mobility needs for a modern culture, many alternatives are possible.