Here's information about our forum:

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Designs for a Green Future:

The Transportation-Land Use Connection

Thursday evening, May 22 7:00 to 9:00 pm, at the Live Oak Grange, 1900 17th Avenue (Just north of Capitola Road)

Forum panelists:

Amanda Eaken is a land use policy analyist with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and is working to see that SB 375 (Steinberg) is enacted in the California State Legislature. SB 375 is designed to implement AB 32, California's Global Warming Solutions Act.

SB 375 aims to address traffic congestion and to improve air quality by reducing vehicle miles traveled. A key feature of this bill is that it focuses on the connection between land-use planning and transportation. Senator Darrell Steinberg is the bill's author; he represents the greater Sacramento area.

SB 375 was passed by the State Senate on June 7, 2007 by a vote of 21 to 15, and is currently before the State Assembly Appropriations Committee. Senator Joe Simitian (who represents most of northern Santa Cruz County) voted in favor of SB 375, while Senator Abel Maldonado (who represents Scotts Valley and much of southern Santa Cruz County) voted against the bill. If you click here, you can watch a video of Senator Steinberg speaking on the Senate floor in support of SB 375.

Information regarding the current status of SB 375 may be found here.

Christopher Pizzi is an Associate at WRT/Solomon E.T.C., a San Francisco based design firm. Their work includes large-scale urban planning, neighborhood redevelopment, and regulatory controls. Christopher's work includes transit-oriented development in Northern California, suburbs of Washington D.C. and London. Here is a link to a website describing him.

Lois Fisher, of Fisher Town Design, designs walkable neighborhoods and towns in Northern California and throughout the country. Lois directed the team that designed the Central Petaluma Specific Plan. She also played a lead role in developing Smart Code (a set of rules for cities and developers that want an alternative to suburban sprawl's conventional car- and use-based planning codes)—the first to be adopted in the U.S. Here is a link to the site that describes her work.

The moderator will be Mark Deming, our County's Assistant Planning Director.

Attendance is free, and all are invited. If you'd like more information, contact Paul at (831) 688-2304, or send us an email by clicking on this link. Can you post a flyer like the above image? Just download the pdf by clicking here, print it out and post it!

Note: Earlier we had arranged for Elizabeth Deakin to be one of our panelists, but she has had to decline owing to a death in her family.