For years, home builders in Sacramento have fought for more money to expand roads. And for years, they've been doggedly opposed by environmentalists favoring funds for buses, trains and bike lanes.
Unusual times, it seems, call for unusual coalitions.
Now, agreeing that Sacramento can't grow in a healthy way with longer car commutes, builders have joined with environmentalists on a campaign to bolster the region's skeletal and poorly financed bus and rail system.
The North State Building Industry Association and the Environmental Council of Sacramento have discovered common ground.
To meet pollution-reduction mandates, they say, Sacramento needs denser housing developments closer to jobs. But that only works if the area is served by a bus and light-rail system that's really usable.
"The timing was right for collaboration," said David Mogavero of the Environmental Council of Sacramento. Mogavero, an architect, specializes in urban infill projects. "There has to be a transit system that is much more robust than it is. Otherwise the community won't function."
Developer Michael Winn, chairman of the Building Industry Association board, called Mogavero earlier this year to talk about mutual interests. Mogavero said he, in turn, suggested transportation should be topic one.
Winn said developers and builders have to let go of the old belief that transportation funds should be focused almost solely on cars and roads.
"We're in a new realm," Winn said. "The (community building) model that worked in the past is broken. Even new suburban areas around fringes are going to have to be served by alternative transportation."
Winn and Mogavero said their goal is to come up with a list of funding ideas and to work with transit agencies to implement them.
Winn said his group, however, also wants to hear from Sacramento Regional Transit about how it might run its bus and light-rail trains more efficiently.
The surprise coalition got an enthusiastic endorsement from RT officials.
"I think it's phenomenal," RT General Manager Mike Wiley said. "The timing is outstanding."
RT has been hit with two years of budget cuts.
At the same time, high gas prices have driven transit ridership to record highs this year.
RT officials and other transportation planners are considering asking voters in 2010 for more money for transit, possibly through a sales tax increase.
Regional transportation planner Mike McKeever of the Sacramento Area Council of Governments said a coalition of builders and environmentalists has cross-spectrum political clout that could help open up new revenue sources.
Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.
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