Lessons Learned from Decades of California Planning

Bill Fulton is in a position to consider California's progress, after an extraordinarily prominent career as a mainstay of the state's city planning and civic community—from mayor of Ventura to director of San Diego’s Planning Department. Recently chosen to lead Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research in Houston, Fulton reflects as he prepares to leave the state. 

In an interview with TPR, he characterizes planning in San Diego, then goes on to discusses the dissolution of community redevelopment agencies: "I was critical of redevelopment before, because I thought it was abused too much and used too widely. I think it will come back in a more targeted form around transit stations eventually. I would welcome that. In the meantime, it’s been very difficult to put the pieces together."

Fulton also comments on the evolution of "smart growth": "Now that I have been deeply embroiled in the day-to-day dealings over CEQA in San Diego, for me 'smart growth' has come to mean making sure that people have access to the things they want and need on a daily basis in their neighborhood. That’s not how we analyze plans and projects under CEQA. We try to figure out whether we will need another left-turn lane in 30 years. I like that 'smart growth' encompasses a variety of ideas about proximity, convenience, and location...I think in our society there’s a much greater taste for urban, or at least village-style, or at least walkable living than there was 20 years ago."