LOS ANGELES — The San Diego Association of Governments approved a $204 billion long-range transportation plan despite environmental advocates’ concerns that it doesn’t go far enough to reduce air pollution.
The 35-year transportation plan approved by members of the metropolitan planning organization’s board last week includes highway, light rail, skyway gondola, bicycle and pedestrian projects.
Environmental advocates say the plan emphasizes freeway expansion over mass transit and other alternatives and that the plan will not meet state mandates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“The update is the same plan presented in 2011,” said Jack Shu, president of the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, a San Diego environmental group. “There are some minor changes, but it’s the same Freeways First plan as before.”
The 21-member board voted unanimously in favor of the plan after a contentious two-hour meeting Friday culminating two years of public hearings.
San Diego Councilmember Todd Gloria, who represents San Diego on the board with Mayor Kevin Faulconer, said in a statement the plan invests $2.3 billion in mass transit by 2020, which means 75% of the money spent in the first five years is for mass transit, up from 50% in the 2011 proposal.
Shu countered that the majority of funding included in the early years is for managed lanes on highways. Even if buses share those lanes, it really is just a freeway expansion, he said.
“It is frontloaded toward freeway projects with transit projects pushed to the latter years,” said Debbie Hecht, chair of the Sierra Club’s San Diego Steering Committee.
A 2011 version of the plan, which has to be updated every four years, is currently being challenged in the state Supreme Court for failing to comply with state-mandated climate goals.
The state Supreme Court agreed in March to review an appellate court’s decision that would require SANDAG to alter its long-range transportation plans to better comply with the state’s revised emission guidelines.
Both sides have filed briefs, but the high court isn’t expected to hear the case until March or April, Shu said.
“The appellate court said five times that SANDAG misled and misinformed the public four years ago,” Shu said. “So, I think we have to be suspicious of anything SANDAG says with the plan.”
Shu said the issue isn’t just about freeways versus mass transit, but a government agency that put out an environmental impact report that misled the public.
“The droughts and fires are just the tip of the iceberg if we don’t address climate change issues,” Shu said.
SANDAG can pass a plan even as the environmental documents attached to the previous version are being challenged in court, because “good, bad or ugly, we are required to do these every four years,” said Gary Gallegos, SANDAG’s executive director.
“We are the only state of 50 that does an environmental document for a long-range plan that goes out 20 years,” Gallegos said.
A bone of contention between environmental advocates and SANDAG is that the plan doesn’t estimate emissions out to 2050.
Gallegos and the board members say the new plan is substantially different from the last one. He said one change from the previous plan is that they considered the thresholds set by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gov. Jerry Brown in environmental mandates advocating emission reductions.
The California Air Resources Board mandates a 7% reduction by 2020, but Gallegos said the plan puts the region at 15% by then. SANDAG hopes to achieve 14% reduction by 2035, which is 2% more than required.
Just 15% of total spending would pay to add 160 miles of managed lanes to existing freeways for the specific purpose of allowing transit, carpools and vanpools, according to SANDAG.
SANDAG would spend $100 billion to construct 32 new rapid bus lines and five new trolley lines to increase frequency, Gloria said. It also spends $588 million on 275 miles of bikeways and invests $4.9 billion in biking and pedestrian improvements like upgrades to freeway overpasses. The proposal would also add capacity to existing rail lines by double tracking between Los Angeles and San Diego and replacing bridges that have exceeded their design life.
“The changes mean we will be able to run a significantly greater number of trains – and Coaster, Amtrak, Metrolink and the [San Diego] trolley will be able to run on those lines,” he said.
Projects that are anticipated in the later years are phased in, because SANDAG needs additional revenue resources from voters and to be able to leverage future dollars to construct them, he said.
“Some projects are proposed in a future decade, because that is when we think it is reasonable to get it done,” Gallegos said. “We are proud that we move 100 million people a year on mass transit, but it requires a subsidy.”
Fares only cover 40% of the cost, he said, adding that before the planning agency builds new lines, it has to find the money to fund construction and operations.
Supporters of more environmentally friendly transportation need to encourage other cities to pass climate plans and advocate for state and federal funding to support transportation projects, Gloria said.
Gallegos said he doesn’t know at this point how much of the transportation program will require bond funding. The plan identifies 32 revenue sources on the local, state and federal levels. SANDAG also receives funding from TransNet, a half-cent sales tax that was extended 40 years by voters in 2004. The sales tax is forecast to bring in $250 million a year, he said.
SANDAG will be issuing bonds in six months to a year to fund a $2 billion, 11-mile light rail extension from the heart of San Diego to the University of California, San Diego campus and the affluent La Jolla community, Gallegos said.
Over half of the $204 billion program will be spent to maintain the existing system, Gallegos said.
