Coalition to Preserve LA Slams Gov. Brown’s Attack on CEQA, as a Health Disaster for Children

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Coalition to Preserve LA strongly opposes Gov. Jerry Brown’s
proposal to gut CEQA and Coastal Act environmental protections for
virtually any urban project where developers agree to add an
insignificant number of affordable housing units. We urge our
supporters, and those who believe developers are the last ones who
should decide their communities’ fates, to tweet and call Gov. Brown
immediately regarding Trailer Bill 707. Brown’s twitter is
@JerryBrownGov, and his phone is (916) 445-2841.

Brown’s wrongheaded plan tosses aside the California Environmental
Quality Act and Coastal Act, handing the wheel to developers who have
shown that without environmental oversight they won’t hesitate to place
thousands of children in harm’s way, create gridlock and destroy
neighborhood character.

The Coalition
is sponsoring the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative on the March 2017
Los Angeles ballot to end developer control over what L.A. becomes.
Contact us or donate at 2PreserveLA.org.

The Coalition this year criticized L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City
Council for encouraging developers to erect family housing near
freeways. These
developments have been dubbed Black Lung Lofts. Brown’s attempt to
detour around CEQA will hasten these dangerous housing projects.

In USC’s watershed Children’s Health Study of 3,600 children, scientists
proved that children living near freeways suffer chronic lung damage,
particularly within a block of freeways. UCLA researchers found a higher
risk for premature babies. Experts say this tainted housing cannot be
“mitigated” with air filters, trees or tighter windows — microscopic
metal and rubber particles still lodge in the lungs and brain.

In 2007, USC researchers took the unusual step of urging Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa, Eric Garcetti and the City Council to act. They were
ignored. The
city has pushed for dozens of freeway-adjacent apartment buildings and
condos. In 2010, then-Councilman Tom LaBonge told LA Weekly,
“It would be great if we could call a time-out and try to plan better,
but it’s not practical.” Like the rest of the City Council, LaBonge
pushed for more freeway-adjacent housing, insisting, “We need to save
jobs.”

The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, gathering signatures for the
March ballot, gives L.A. residents the power to “call a time-out” and
shape what L.A. becomes. We believe environmental review is crucial to
preserving public safety, fighting gridlock and ending the destruction
of neighborhood character.

Gov. Jerry Brown should heed the researchers’ warnings about the
poisonous airborne rivers in California. Instead, Brown is engaging in a
sweeping attack on CEQA that goes in precisely the opposite direction.

Under the guise of saving the environment, Brown has argued that
cramming family housing into already congested areas reduces global
warming. Now Brown claims that halting environmental review in congested
areas is the best way to create affordable housing. While the City
Council recently approved ineffective changes to address Black Lung
Lofts in L.A., Brown must do better: end his war on CEQA and the Coastal
Act and find another way to increase badly needed affordable housing
units in California.

Please visit us at neighborhoodintegrity@gmail.com
/ http://2PreserveLA.org

Contacts

The Coalition to Preserve LA
Jill Stewart, (916) 595-9033
or
Media
Contact:
John Schwada, Mobile: (310) 709-0056
john.schwada@gmail.com