1970s

(A) Open Space Preservation

[In 1972] residents banded together to curb development in Marin County and lobby for the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. . . .

Public parkland covers 647,407 acres in the nine- county Bay Area. . . .

Add protected farmland, wetlands and other natural habitats, conservation easements and restricted watershed lands, and you have a little more than a million acres of preserved open space in the region.

The Bay Area penchant for protecting open space doesn't stop there, either. Many cities and counties, in an effort to prevent Los Angeles-style sprawl, have created local open space districts and passed legislation establishing boundary lines that prohibit growth outside city limits.

^{Source: Fimrite, Peter. “Bay Area's open space tightrope.” The San Francisco Chronicle. June 5, 2005. A17.}

(B) Proposition 13

The positive and benign view of residential development began to change in the aftermath of Proposition 13. Enacted by initiative in 1978, Proposition 13 limited the ability of cities and counties to access their existing tax base to pay for needed services. Henceforth, the incremental costs of public services would be paid for by new development in the form of increased fees and higher assessments. With residential development considered too service-intensive (and thus too costly) compared with retail and commercial development, many jurisdictions began to actively discourage new residential development particularly family and middle-income housing.

^{Source: Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, State of California Web Site. http://www.hcd.ca.gov/hpd/hrc/rtr/chp4r.htm}