Sierra Club supports Props 46, 50 and 51 Proposition 46 - Housing Bond Sierra Club California endorses Proposition 46, which will provide $2.1 billion for affordable housing, with a strong emphasis on infill development. Building affordable housing in existing urban centers not only provides an antidote to land-gobbling sprawl, but increases housing near job centers, reduces vehicle miles traveled, and revitalizes urban centers, all of which have social as well as environmental benefits. Proposition 46, a bond measure placed on the ballot by the Legislature, includes new “smart growth” criteria for its largest program, the Multifamily Housing Program. It favors infill projects, adaptive reuse, and projects near public transit, schools, recreational facilities and job centers. The net result is that Proposition 46 will fund the development of some of the most environmentally-friendly housing in the state. Proposition 50 - Water Bond Sierra Club California supports Prop. 50, the Clean Water and Coastal Protection Bond of 2002. This $3.44 billion bond, placed on the ballot by initiative, will allow state and local agencies to carry out a wide range of resource protection projects and water management programs Sierra Club has advocated and supported. These projects and programs will help to protect and restore the state’s natural resources and environmental quality. The projects included in Proposition 50 may be grouped into three broad categories: (1) Water supply and water quality protection - $2.110 billion. (2) Coastal resource protection - $1.050 billion. (3) Inland resource protection - $280 million. Projects funded by this bond measure will help protect our watersheds, rivers, lakes and coastal water from pollution and sewage, restoring natural resources critical for our drinking water supplies and wildlife habitat. Proposition 51 - Transportation Act Sierra Club California has endorsed Proposition 51, the Traffic Congestion Relief & Safe School Bus Act, an initiative placed on the ballot by the Planning and Conservation League and many allied groups. The measure would allocate 30 percent of the state share of the sales tax on new and used cars and trucks to a new trust fund for transportation alternatives and mitigation of transportation’s environmental impacts. Programs funded by the initiative include public transit, safe bike and pedestrian routes and facilities, clean-fuel school buses, wetlands and habitat protection, and water quality enhancements. Prop. 51 would replace over 60 school buses in Santa Cruz County and 100 buses in Monterey County that do not meet current federal safety and health standards with modern clean-fuel buses. With respect to water quality, Prop. 51 would require Caltrans to use recycled water for irrigation, allocate more than $17 million/year to mitigate water pollution impacts of transportation, and provide $500,000 for a mobile ocean discovery center to instruct children about the effects of transportation-related runoff on the ocean. [ top of page ]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]