Category Archives: Elizabeth Patterson

Benicia, Benicia City Council, Benicia Economic Development, Benicia General Plan, Elizabeth Patterson, Sustainability, Sustainable development

Elizabeth Patterson: Do you support sustainable development?

Elizabeth Patterson, Benicia Mayor 2007–2020.

By Elizabeth Patterson, first published in the Benicia Herald on May 17, 2024

What is sustainable development?

Sustainable development has become a popular planning expression used abundantly but often not understood. “Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Benicia General Plan, 1999).

Most of us get that we need to reduce greenhouse gases that drive climate change and increase climate instability; in short, stop adding carbon to the atmosphere.  The state has attempted to achieve this by adopting law to reduce vehicle miles traveled.  This makes sense because 40% of carbon is from transportation, and so far there are not enough electric vehicles to drive down the amount of carbon from transportation.

If you support sustainable development, it is helpful to ask questions about the City of Benicia’s projects and processes.  To what extent are the City’s decisions reducing greenhouse gases, or at least not increasing greenhouse gases?  Everything is connected – economics, public works, land use, recreation, culture – like bones in a skeleton – it all has to work together by connecting the dots.

The first dot is, fortunately, defined in the Benicia General Plan.  General Plans are the constitution of land-use planning.  Like the U.S. Constitution, one cannot just have an idea and expect to implement it without an assessment of its consistency with the General Plan and thus its “sustainability.”

It is not advice, it is the law.  Community development and sustainability are at the heart of the goals developed in the Benicia General Plan.  I have heard from time to time that the General Plan is old – it is – and out of date – not really.  Would a new, updated General Plan delete sustainable development?  Anything could happen I suppose – one needs to stay alert.

The second dot is that the Benicia General Plan is the principal policy document for guiding future conservation and development in the city. It reflects the community’s shared values and determination of what Benicia is and should continue to be ­– an uncommonly special place.  Just a quick read of the city-adopted Downtown Conservation Plan reveals how “uncommon” it is:

“The failure of the various attempts in the 19th century to transform Benicia into a major city has resulted in the retention of the scale and character of the historic downtown, which presents a rare view of the evolution of architecture from the mid-19th century to the 20th century in California.”

This means that one should not destroy the “evolution of architecture.”  Goals expressed by city officials at public meetings to be like American Canyon’s “hotel row” is not protecting the gem of the uncommon qualities of Benicia attracting residents, visitors, and businesses.

The third dot to connect is the public process.  You really ought to read about the public process involved developing the General Plan: start at page two here.  People were engaged, met together, received mailed surveys, and we even had help from University of California at Davis for outreach, especially to young people.

Want to know what young people wanted?  Check it out at the link. The General Plan is the outcome of a process which began with the General Plan Oversight Committee (GPOC) and the Work Program (1994–1997). It is a process in which the GPOC held more than one hundred meetings and, with public participation, identified the Goals, Policies, and Programs (GPPs) which are the heart of the General Plan.

The GPOC survey identified the following 10 issues receiving the highest level of support (69% or greater) as being important to the community:

    1. Feeling safe in residential areas at night
    2. Feeling safe Downtown at night [ed: this is before tree lights and mixed-use development in the early 2000s]
    3. Good public schools
    4. Balance growth to ensure maintaining Benicia’s quality of life
    5. Small town atmosphere
    6. Growth should maintain small-town character
    7. Citizens need a voice in growth decisions
    8. Attract businesses that sustain environmental quality
    9. Pedestrian-friendly streets in the Downtown and other commercial areas
    10. Library facilities

The fourth connecting dot is that while the City may decide to amend this plan, the primary position of the City will be to implement it as adopted. This will honor both the principle of stability and the extraordinary degree of community participation that went into the formation of the plan. In short, is the General Plan still in step with community values and conditions, to wit: sustainable development, reducing our carbon footprint for future generations’ quality of life?

The last dot to connect is the so-called Seeno project at Lake Herman Road and East Second.  If we are going to reduce vehicle-miles traveled, do we build the stuff that has been built over decades for car-centric development?  Or do we avoid business as usual and design and build projects that are walkable, clearly reducing the need for increasing vehicle miles travelled?

It is a simple question. Think of roads as bones.  The bones tell us how we move.

Remember Lucy, Australopithecus, discovery by Donald Johanson?  Lucy represents the transition from walking on four feet to walking on two feet by standing up.  Bones tell it all.

Well, the roads of development are exactly the same:  are we going to drive or walk?  The transportation  road design of any project will make that clear. Business as usual or taking the path for future generations to have a livable community and planet?

Here are three planning principles for walkability:

  1. Don’t cluster commercial development in one blob,
  2. Do integrated commercial in workplaces and near residential areas within walking distance, and
  3. Don’t build suburban sprawl.

Watch the decisions about projects and you will learn if we are meeting the vision of sustainable development.  God help us if we are not.

Elizabeth Patterson, MA Urban and Regional Planning
Mayor (2007-2020)

Benicia, Benicia City Council, Benicia Economic Development, Benicia General Plan, Benicia's Budget Crisis, East Fifth Gateway, Elizabeth Patterson

Elizabeth Patterson: Blaming “stagnant population growth” for our budget crisis is wrong…and risky

Elizabeth Patterson, Benicia Mayor 2007–2020.

Stephen Golub submits many interesting and important writings in the BenIndy, the local newspaper, blogs and so forth.  His insights are helpful.

But I am disappointed about his statement about “stagnant population growth” as one of the reasons for the city’s budget woes.

It seems he has unintentionally been captured by the influence of “development machine” (which happens to be the title of a 25-year-old University of California book on developers and their practices).  A casual reference to “stagnant population growth” does not make population growth itself a legitimate path to economic prosperity.  For just a few examples, this EPA report titled “How Small Towns and Cities Can Use Local Assets to Rebuild Their Economies: Lessons from Successful Places” highlights what small cities can do for economic health with a stable population.

It is true that we need to provide for housing, and I like the idea of tasteful additions of duplexes, ADUs and multifamily units as infill development.  But, of course, it is the developers who build – not the cities – and developers have shown their true intentions when they have the chance to build expensive housing instead of affordable or middle-cost housing.  They go for the higher profit.  We are told they have to do this because of the fees, time to process and so forth.

But a recent incident in San Jose demonstrates that this is false.  In this case, the developers were approved with entitlements for high-density residential and mixed-use.  Perfect.  But when they learned that San Jose may have been late in approving its housing element, what did the developers do?  They resubmitted their plans under the “builders’ remedy” for high-end single family units and condos.  

Anyone read The Ox-Bow Incident?  You should.  It would teach you about what the “market can bear” the intentions of the commercial class – in this case, the railroads.  And yes, we are being railroaded into building anything, anywhere, no matter what.

So, back to Stephen’s piece.  The population growth issue is being used by the city in support of sprawl development out by Lake Herman Road.  Now back up a second and think about population growth and the need to develop outside of the city’s urban footprint.  If it were true that we must have population growth to thrive, when does it stop?  We just keep having population growth to the end of time?  Of course not.  This is a failed concept and people should stop saying that we must approve development inconsistent with the city’s General Plan due to stagnant population growth (General Plans regard the constitution of land use development and fealty to them is the law, not a choice).

To be clear, Stephen does not say he supports sprawl development.  He doesn’t.  In fact, he supports the East Fifth Gateway mixed-use plan. It’s a good plan and needs city initiatives to encourage development. But he does use the “stagnant population” theme, which is troubling.

I suggest that we dig deeper into this concept of population growth and connect the dots of congested roads, long lines at National Parks, food shortages and pollution.  There is a connection.  It is not likely that we will solve problems like these by having more people.

And lastly, population growth is projected to begin to decline near the end of the century.  This is certainly true in the US and California.  We could wind up with lots of empty residential development just like we are seeing with the over-built, retail commercial development that we were warned about years ago.

What then, is the answer?

Consider economic development with the increasing need for manufacturing that is green, more local shopping at smaller, more community-based stores, not to mention the arts and entertainment. Our aging population  will need services and housing accommodations over the next 25 years.

Thoughtful development with these needs in mind will create a place that people want to visit, shop in and work in.  This is not a pie-in-the-sky idea, but it does take hard work and we, the people, need to do our part and help with city revenues for our infrastructure.  And maybe with less stress the city council and staff can focus on the future so clearly described in the General Plan.

Elizabeth Patterson

Benicia, Benicia City Council, Benicia Measure A, Benicia Measure B, Benicia's Budget Crisis, Elizabeth Patterson

The Mayor of England’s Steel City Plans a New Industrial Revolution (+ How That Relates to Benicia’s Budget Crisis)

[Note from BenIndy Contributor Elizabeth Patterson: I appreciate and support the need for tax increases as Benicia council wrings its hands over the budget.  The long, long staff letter and follow-up postcard is all about cutting and traditional development of the 20th century.  Without a vision of hope, why would anyone have confidence that the future is bright for our historic city with treasures and character unlike any other city?  And, the Industrial Park was a brilliant idea until it wasn’t (meaning the dependence on fossil fuel refining).  Over the years some people in Benicia have offered a vision of being a green gateway into Solano County.  What has been done to realize that?  Reading this interview of a Mayor in Sheffield, England illustrates how a city with inspired leadership for the 21st century can attract new manufacturing and industrial activity that meet the needs of this century.  Investing in getting battery manufacturing established in Benicia as one of the few large industrial and manufacturing places in the Bay Area should be embraced with a little risk taking. Where is the vision for prosperity?  Why are  development decisions that increase the city’s operating and maintenance needs the only option presented by staff? Where is the citizen’s academy or blue-ribbon task force of 50 or so people who are demographically representative of the whole region, who together will help gather information to understand what trade-offs could or should look like and how we can all benefit from embracing the future. As the Sheffield Mayor said, ” I’m determined to make sure that we’re doing this with our community, not to our community.”]

Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire. | Ian Forsyth / Getty Images Europe.

To replace decaying 19th century industries, the region around Sheffield lures high-tech manufacturing from McLaren supercars to Boeing airplane parts.

Bloomberg, by Fola Akinnibi, January 7, 2024

The steel that fed England’s industrial revolution and powered its rise to a global empire came from a region in its northern hills, where iron and abundant coal deposits combined with sweeping rivers to create an ideal environment for steelmaking. That region, anchored by the city of Sheffield, is now looking to create a new industrial revolution.

Sheffield is known as “Steel City” thanks to those historical roots. It’s the largest city in a region known as South Yorkshire, but the days of industrial dominance are long gone. Today, the region is grappling with the impacts of deindustrialization that have plagued parts of developed economies around the world. Now, its 42-year-old mayor wants to revive the region’s past by attracting business and making South Yorkshire the epicenter of advanced manufacturing.

Oliver Coppard took office in 2022, becoming the second mayor of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (its first was elected in 2018), which includes the cities of Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster and Barnsley, sitting some 170 miles north of London. The authority was created with a goal of developing and growing the regional economy, while giving the cities a coordinated platform from which to lobby higher levels of government.

His goal is to leverage the region’s industrial roots and connect it with next-generation manufacturing companies, while ensuring it is not left behind again as the world shifts away from fossil fuels.

It’s already attracting investments. In March, Ultimate Battery Co., which makes batteries out of sustainable materials, announced plans to place its headquarters and 500 new jobs in the region. Then, in July, South Yorkshire was named the UK’s first investment zone for advanced manufacturing. An initial £80 million ($101 million) has been promised for skills training, infrastructure and tax relief in an attempt to attract £1.2 billion in private investment and 8,000 jobs. That announcement coincided with a commitment from Boeing Co. to conduct sustainable, lightweight aircraft research in the region. McLaren Automotive also moved some manufacturing for its carbon fiber supercars from Austria to Sheffield.

Coppard grew up in South Yorkshire during the 1980s, giving him a first-hand view of the region’s industrial decline. Just a decade earlier, in the early 1970s, nearly half of the region’s employment was in manufacturing. But by 2011, employment in manufacturing jobs had shrunk to 11%. Replacing those jobs with well-paying alternatives has been a struggle. The unemployment rate in the region is higher than the national average, while wages are £80 a week less.

Boeing’s first European factory opened in Sheffield in 2018, representing the next-era industries the region seeks to attract.Photographer: Matthew Lloyd/Bloomberg

The challenge for Coppard will be ensuring the promised investments actually materialize and provide benefits for local residents. Bloomberg CityLab spoke to Coppard about his vision for the future of South Yorkshire. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

South Yorkshire is going through a period of transition. Can you talk about the challenges facing the region?
South Yorkshire was the home of the industrial revolution. We had a huge steel industry, coal mining industry, right through until the 1980s. And then there was a huge amount of industrial decline. Since then we’ve been recovering.

It’s’s fair to say we are now on the cusp of something pretty special. We’re dealing with issues around transport, health, economy and particularly the economic growth of South Yorkshire. My job is essentially growth.

What’s that growth strategy looked like?
We’re trying to create a regional industrial strategy for South Yorkshire. That essentially means figuring out what we’re good at, and then trying to do more of it. Things like advanced manufacturing, which we are world leading at. We were the first place to mass produce steel, we were the first place to be an advanced manufacturing innovation district and now we’re the UK’s first investment zone.

The investment zone status allows us to focus on that expertise and those recent strengths. We’re trying to lead the world when it comes to advanced manufacturing to the extent that now, if you’re in the advanced manufacturing space globally, and you’re not in South Yorkshire, it’s more of a problem for you than it is for me.

How are you thinking about the future, how do you make sure South Yorkshire isn’t left behind a second time?
The transition to net zero is an opportunity to do that. We know what it’s like to go through an energy transition and when we went through the last one, we didn’t do so well.

So we’re running a citizens’ assembly in South Yorkshire, which is essentially 100 people who are demographically representative of the whole region, who will now work with us to understand what trade-offs could or should look like and how we can all benefit from that transition. I’m determined to make sure that we’re doing this with our community, not to our community.

Has there been opposition to these changes?
The UK is in the middle of quite a difficult political climate. The UK government has been saying for a while that they’re going to level up our country, which meant they were going to put investment into the north of the country just as much as the south (where London is). I don’t think we’ve necessarily come to fruition. That’s a real problem.

We are determined to make sure that we get just as much in investment and support, but some of that we’re going to have to do ourselves. We’re going to make sure that we push forward with our economic growth, with our plans, with our projects in South Yorkshire, with or without the support of the UK government.

Any lessons you’ve taken from other cities or regions?
The work we’re doing with St. Louis — they’re building their advanced manufacturing innovation center on the model that South Yorkshire developed. We’ll work with anybody globally to make sure they’re learning the lessons we have to share, particularly our friends in the United States.

We’ll also listen to the people who are doing things in a different way from us to see if there are lessons there too. This has to be a collaboration, it has to be a sector where we’re learning from people as much as we’re sharing our learning with others too. I’m determined we’ll be global leaders, but global leaders also have to listen.

This story is part of a Bloomberg CityLab series of conversations with mayors about how they’re making their cities more livable.
Read the previous stories here  about ending traffic deaths in Hoboken, New Jersey, and butterfly conservation in Columbia Heights, Minnesota.

Visit BelieveInBenicia.org to learn more about Benicia’s Resiliency Plan, sign up for updates from Benicia City Manager Mario Giuliani, and join the effort to help shape Benicia’s future. Add your voice.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Community Survey
January 15-26 – link coming soon
In Person Workshops
January 18 • 6pm-8pm
City of Benicia Public Library
January 25 • 6pm-8pm
City of Benicia Community Center
Virtual Workshops via Zoom (links coming soon)
January 17 • 6pm
January 24 • 6pm
[BenIndy will post links to these meetings when they become available. Meanwhile, save the dates!]
Benicia CA, California Forever Inc., Elizabeth Patterson, Flannery Associates, Solano County Board of Supervisors, Solano County CA, Solano County Water Agency

Where Solano’s Habitat Conservation Plan & Flannery’s New City Collide

  • [Note from BenIndy: Respected environmental consulting firm LSA has generated a fascinating but lengthy memorandum regarding California Forever’s proposed new city’s impact on conservation and mitigation in the Solano Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). While the whole memorandum offers a clear case for concern as well as an excellent blueprint of the various federal and state hurdles California Forever will have to overcome, those who don’t have time to dive into a 23-page document will certainly benefit from former Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson’s excellent summary of the document, available below.]
Former Benicia mayor Elizabeth Patterson.

By Elizabeth Patterson, November 8, 2023

 The Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is a federal program that allows projects that impact ecosystems (generally species-specific) to mitigate the impacts by acquiring habitat and conserving it in perpetuity. In this case the Solano County Water Agency (SCWA) is a contractor with the federal government for the operation and management of the Monticello dam and Putah South Canal (that is the canal that conveys Benicia’s water) and other components to the dam system. As part of the contract renewal twenty-odd years ago, SCWA has been required to mitigate the impacts associated with this project. The water agency has worked with Solano County and cities to identify habitat conservation areas that meet the requirements. The cities would benefit by being able to have the developer buy into the conservation areas. In other words, cities designated as the places to grow urban development would be able to have the developer pay their fair share for habitat conservation. Generally, such arrangements are hard to do one project at a time, and thus the overall plan of the HCP makes these mitigation plans more efficient and effective.

This HCP also allows contiguous conservation areas targeting specific species and ecosystems. When the large grassland areas are broken up, the result is a kind of a ‘museum’ of separate habitat areas lacking connectivity, and thus they do not represent not a sustainable habitat. After all, we can’t and don’t know all there is about habitats and how they work. The best we can do is to preserve these areas with corridors for migrating species and diversity of plants and other considerations. The viability of HCPs are based on these factors.
According to LSA’s memorandum, what the Flannery group’s proposed new city will do is impact, extirpate and lead to extinction of flora and fauna due to the land-use conversion from grasslands and riparian habitats. Because the price paid for the land is 200% greater than what the market had been, the Solano County Water Agency can’t easily buy land for habitat conservation plan, which is part of their responsibility as a federal water project operator. The HCP is also needed for projects already entitled or within the planning future for the cities. They were relying on the HCP to mitigate their projects.
The maps in the document clearly demonstrate the massive impact of a new city (or any creeping into habitat by existing cities). The SCWA and future urban developers in existing cities will be stuck with a very high and costly mitigation for meeting the HCP.
And the grasslands habitat will be wrecked.