Saltworks and Beyond (10/18/11)
b'Saltworks and Beyond Peter Calthorpe, Principal Architect, Peter Calthorpe Associates David Lewis, Executive Director, Save the Bay Jack Matthews, Mayor, San Mateo The debate over Saltworks, a proposal to build 12,000 homes on former salt ponds in Redwood City, is a harbinger of coming development fights in the age of climate change. In this October 18 Climate One debate, architect Peter Calthorpe argues that the need for housing in the San Francisco Bay Area is so great that infill development alone can\\u2019t meet demand; conservationist David Lewis counters that developing one of the region\\u2019s last unprotected wetlands is not worth the cost. \\u201cThis is not a site for housing,\\u201d says Lewis, Executive Director, Save the Bay. \\u201cThis one area in Redwood City was held onto by the Cargill Salt Company because they wanted to develop it,\\u201d he says. \\u201cThey have no entitlement to develop it. The city\\u2019s general plan says it should remain as open space. It\\u2019s a priority area for acquisition by the federal wildlife refuge.\\u201d \\u201cI do have some concerns about it,\\u201d says Jack Matthews, He concedes that the development, as planned, seems isolated. Peter Calthorpe, Principal Architect, Calthorpe Associates, argues that Saltworks needs to be assessed not as a stand-alone development project but as a response to regional pressures. \\u201cThe larger context is that for a very long time we\\u2019ve been building more jobs than housing\\u2014particularly in the west side of the Bay, in Silicon Valley and the Peninsula. The jobs housing balance has been so askew that we have people commuting from outside the nine-county Bay Area. We\\u2019ve been pushing housing way to the periphery.\\u201d Citing the Association of Bay Area Governments, Calthorpe says the region will need 72,000 new housing units to keep up with expected demand. There is no way to satisfy demand by only building transit-oriented development along El Camino Real, the region\\u2019s main north-south artery, he says. Calthorpe challenges David Lewis to answer how the region can reach a jobs-housing balance without employees moving to sprawling developments in Tracy or Livermore or Gilroy, if projects such as Saltworks aren\\u2019t built. \\u201cWhen you push housing farther and farther to the periphery because you don\\u2019t want to face up to the challenge in these jobs-rich areas, the environmental footprint, carbon emissions, VMT [vehicle miles traveled], energy consumption, and land consumption\\u2014because we all know it\\u2019s lower density once it gets out there \\u2013 all of that, in many cases, is on pristine habitat or farmland.\\u201dWe do it by building on already developed land and re-configuring our cities, Lewis answers. Saltworks \\u201cshould have been dead on arrival in the beginning because it\\u2019s not the right place,\\u201d he says. This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on October 18, 2011\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'