All Eyes On Air District's Sprawl Fee Litigation

"The (construction) fees, which went into effect in March in eight counties in this fast-growing valley, are the most far-reaching in the country in their effort to link development and air pollution. A legal campaign to have them thrown out is being watched closely in other parts of the state, including Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, where officials say they hope to impose similar fees."

"It's on the docket for examination next year," said Aaron Richardson, a spokesman for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, one of 35 regional air quality agencies in the state. "We're definitely interested in land use, smart growth and mitigating traffic emissions."

"Interest in the new rule is high, regulators say, as much to see if it improves air quality as to weigh how developers adjust to it. The next generation of urban sprawl in California is under construction across the Central Valley.

Kathryn Phillips, an air quality expert for Environmental Defense, a nonprofit advocacy group, said the San Joaquin rule would be watched closely by almost every state air district."

"I wasn't surprised, but I was disappointed when they sued," Ms. Phillips said of a lawsuit filed to overturn the rule. "The building industry was the one large industry in the valley that had not stepped up to the plate or done its fair share."

"This rule fails miserably," said Tim Coyle, senior vice president and spokesman for the California Building Industry Association, among the groups involved in the lawsuit. "They haven’t even established that there is a science to support the notion that new housing contributes to poor air quality."