San Diego Awards $19 Million in 'Smart-Growth Incentives'

Under its pilot smart-growth incentive program to ensure better urban land use, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) unanimously awarded $19.1 million in federal transportation enhancement grants to 14 transit-oriented and pedestrian-focused improvement projects, each project selected from among 33 countywide entries through competitive scoring for inducement of smart growth, streetscape upgrades, adequate completion dates and other livability factors, with special bonus points benefitting cities whose median incomes stay below the county average.

SANDAG officials told San Diego Union-Tribune writer Jeff Ristine that in the next round of grants they will use different scoring to encourage development combining transportation with high-density housing and jobs nearby. And once they start permanent smart-growth project funding in 2008 -- with about $7 million annually coming from the TransNet sales tax, extended by county voters last November -- the scoring will focus on municipal and county applicants' progress in meeting their own targets for affordable housing.