DeStefano's Route: Better, But ...

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DeStefano's Route: Better, But ...

October 22, 2006

Democratic gubernatorial candidate John DeStefano's "Plan for Smart Growth," released just a week after Gov. M. Jodi Rell's "Responsible Growth" executive order, has upped the ante on an issue that needed to be added to the gubernatorial campaign.

The debate over how to grow jobs and encourage growth - and at the same time combat sprawl, relieve traffic congestion and preserve community character and livability - has been joined. DeStefano's proposal is much broader and also more detailed that Rell's; it shows his longer acquaintance with the issue. It reflects his experience as mayor of New Haven as well as his chairmanship of the 2003 blue ribbon Commission on the Property Tax Burden and Smart Growth Incentives, which his proposal tracks closely.

There is little doubt of Destefano's commitment to this cause, and little doubt that he could begin to implement as soon as he is in office. Rell's plan is an insufficient, reactive response to a perceived want, DeStefano's is an urgent and comprehensive response to an understood need. Most significantly, his plan states that, "By its nature, smart growth cannot exist in isolation of other policies, such as transportation, economic development, the environment and - most importantly - the property tax."

This key part of DeStefano's plan is the essential ingredient missing from Rell's - comprehensive rebalancing of the entire portfolio of state revenues to support smart growth principles and policies. DeStefano understands that smart growth cannot be a reality without removal of the largest of the state sprawl subsidies - the too-high property tax, and he recognizes the problem of actually enforcing the link, so that the "tax shift away from property taxes is not just a hidden tax increase."
He proposes to make that link to governance policies through transparency, "real, significant savings in the cost of government," spurring development in targeted areas through land-use regulatory reform, improved planning and data collection, and streamlined permitting. One can snort at such lofty rhetoric, but in fact these are all integral techniques of the emerging technology of smart growth, and there are excellent models and pilots for all of them.

This is not to say that the skepticism shouldn't remain and the pressure be kept on to make sure these key governance pieces actually materialize. DeStefano's plan can be critiqued, particularly in its transportation proposals.

To first give full credit, DeStefano recognizes the importance of "reforming" the state Department of Transportation, and good for him that he is willing to use that word. He understands,as only a local official can, the havoc the state transportation agency can wreak on the character, livability and economic health of towns and cities, and the frustrating subordination of public transit in any form to the highway imperative that has ruled the DOT for too long.

His proposal for separate agencies and funding sources for transit and for ports is long overdue. But his plan, like Rell's, flunks the eastern Connecticut transit-oriented development test: his transportation projects for that part of the state are to extend Route 11, widen Route 6, widen the Route 2 bridge over the Thames, and widen I-95 between Branford and the Rhode Island line - projects that are immensely expensive.

They need to be re-evaluated in light of the modern understanding that new road capacity begets more traffic volume - the reality that makes highway expansion self-fulfilling and self-defeating, the reality that gave us Fairfield County gridlock, and is rapidly working its way with New Haven and Hartford. The need in eastern Connecticut as it faces the development pressure from Boston and Providence, casinos and film studios, is to deflect the supposedly "inevitable" trajectory toward gridlock.

But how?

It's much easier to do the right thing if you first stop doing the wrong thing. DeStefano surely understands the need to call a halt, not only to the eastern Connecticut sprawl-driving highway projects, but to a number of others around the state, all of which will re-congest shortly after construction and leave us with yet more infrastructure to maintain in addition to that which we can't afford to maintain now.

Commendably he includes a "fix-it first" policy for roads, but that is not enough. It is these billions of dollars of new highway projects from which dollars can and should be shifted in order to fund transit.

All the good talk about transit is meaningless unless there is an actual shift of dollars away from highways - a flexibility that is in fact available in both federal and state funds. The single biggest source of transit funds is the pot of money we already have.

But beyond halting the wrong things, and in addition to starting the right things, Connecticut needs a Big Vision - a truly statewide vision of "smart transportation," not just a collection of regional bus and rail fragments that address only the needs of our individual, way-too-small regions.

A smart transportation vision, say one using our statewide network of rail rights-of-way, can lead economic growth. It would connect the entire state into a single economic entity, and thereby benefit all regions. It would spark compact, transit-oriented development that would reinforce our traditional town centers as it promotes cleaner air, affordable housing, efficient sites for new businesses and the preservation of farms and forest.

That's a lot of good stuff. Is the Big Vision just a fantasy, or could it actually happen? I mean, really - how could the Land of Steady Habits justify such a thing? The thought of garnering the public support, not to mention finding the billions of dollars to fund it, is enough to give pause to the boldest elected leader. But as Daniel Burnham reminded us, "Make no small plans; they do not stir men's soul." Big Visions stir souls, without which nothing important can happen, and a Big Vision is almost always easier to sell than a small vision.

These two new smart growth proposals are pretty wonky. They are likely to get a big yawn from the voters, and at worst, taxpayer resistance. Rell has put smart growth into the discussion - good for her. DeStefano has offered the missing tax reform piece, a sense of urgency and more specifics - even better. But neither has offered a Big Vision for the state as a whole. I'm betting the voters are way ahead of the politicians on this one. They would follow visionary leadership if it were offered.

Toni Gold of Hartford is the president of Urban Edge Associates and a senior associate with Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit whose mission is to create and sustain public places that build communities. She is a member of the Place Board of Contributors.