Smart growth: the water factor
Guest opinion as published in the San Jose Mercury News, May 22, 2002

By Stanley M. Williams

Like it or not, more and more people will discover why so many others have migrated to Silicon Valley. With continuing population growth will come more development. Whether that's a good thing or not depends largely on how we grow.

There is no South Bay regional authority to decide how to accommodate new growth while protecting open space, shortening commutes and creating enough affordable housing. Instead, each county and each city inside each county is responsible for deciding how land is used.

The system worked fine in the past, but as the South Bay has morphed into Silicon Valley, there has been a lack of collaboration among the agencies, often leaving gaps between decisions and services.

However, two coalitions of government and private interests -- the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Development -- are attempting to draw up land-use plans that foster ``smart growth.''

Smart growth can be defined as sustainable development that fosters a prosperous economy, a high-quality environment and social equity through community design.

Not surprisingly, workshops held by both groups have identified traffic congestion and the lack of affordable housing as the region's two most pressing issues. Preserving open space is also emerging as a key concern to the community. But there are other issues that are just as important, and one of those is water.

There are two elements of water planning that must be addressed. First, there is only so much water available in California. Most of it is transported many miles from the state's wettest areas to some of its driest locales, which also happen to be California's most populous regions.

While smart growth can present opportunities to achieve more efficient water use, new development will require more water to serve more people. How, then, can we continue to ensure that there will be enough water to serve a larger population?

The second challenge lies in the costs to the community of maintaining, repairing and replacing dams, aqueducts, pipelines, pumping stations and treatment plants, as well as funding construction of new infrastructure to keep semi-arid regions, such as Silicon Valley, alive.

The right smart growth strategies could maximize the use of existing water facilities, but we will need to increase the investment we make to maintain our aging network of pipes and reservoirs.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors has invited other elected officials, civic and business leaders, representatives from the development community, environmental advocates and others to the second annual Land Use and Water Summit on Thursday in San Jose.

At last year's summit, we enjoyed a breakthrough of sorts when we all recognized that protecting Santa Clara County's waterways, restoring riparian habitats, and creating more open space and trails are key elements in planning that will enhance our quality of life.

We have an opportunity to take the next step with smart growth planning that recognizes development will require more water and a greater investment in existing infrastructure and in new facilities to treat and transport water without jeopardizing our commitment to preserve open spaces, protect waterways and restore sensitive riparian habitats.

We know the South Bay will continue to grow. Let's make sure we do it in a manner that is wise about water.