California TOD Law Gives NIMBYs a new Weapon Against Bus Lanes

California residents who oppose new transit lines in their neighborhoods are using a new state law as a reason to fight new trains and buses: the potential for increased density.

As Ben Christopher explains in CalMatters, a state law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom this summer allows apartment buildings within half a mile of major transit stations, including bus rapid transit (BRT) lines — and including planned lines not yet built. For residents of a Burbank neighborhood who oppose a planned BRT project, the law is renewing their efforts to stop the bus line from being built.

“The North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit project is slated to carve a bus-only corridor linking the eastern edge of the San Fernando Valley to the western extent of the San Gabriel Valley while connecting two of LA County’s most well-trafficked rail lines.” Now, neighbors who have long opposed the project say the North Hollywood to Pasadena line would “destroy the single family neighborhoods on either side” of the proposed route. 

This illustrates a growing problem: when cities or states incentivize transit-oriented development, says UC Davis researcher Amy Lee, “logically, a response is to just say, ‘okay, we’ll just reduce the transit.’” With massive plans for new transit in the works in Los Angeles, “the extra-heated politics of Burbank’s new bus may be a preview of what’s to come.”