Debate Over How 'Smart' Waterfront Housing Plan Can Be

"The plan, by DMB Associates of Scottsdale, calls for converting vacant land owned by Cargill Salt east of Highway 101 into a community of perhaps 30,000 people.

Cargill and DMB, in partnership, say they hope to build a model "smart growth" project on the industrial salt evaporation ponds that would enable thousands of Silicon Valley workers to live closer to their jobs and avoid long commutes as the region grows."

"...Although numerous other bay-front development proposals along the Peninsula have been defeated by environmentalists, Bruno said he hopes to break ground by 2013, by which time he expects Silicon Valley's economy will have rebounded.

"These housing units are going to need to be built," he added. "If they are not built here, they will be built in the Central Valley or Livermore."

But environmental groups are preparing for a showdown."