Election 2024: Low-profile environmental measures could bring big changes to California

The marquee races in California on Tuesday are the presidential showdown and several close House contests that could decide control of Congress.

But across the state, the environment also is on the ballot. More than a dozen local measures in cities and counties would provide millions of dollars for parks and open spaces, beach restoration, increased wildfire prevention efforts, slowing development on farmland, and even turning a prominent Bay Area highway over to cyclists, hikers and roller skaters.

“You may not see television ads or mail ads for them, but these are very critical in California,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, California director for the Trust for Public Land, an environmental group.

The most high-profile environmental issue on Tuesday’s ballot is Proposition 4, a statewide $10 billion bond measure to provide funding for preventing wildfires, boosting water supplies and expanding parks. Recent polls show about 60% of voters support it.

Some of the state’s current environmental laws, such as restrictions on offshore oil drilling and phase-outs of single-use plastic bags at grocery stores, began as local measures, said Laura Deehan, executive director of the nonprofit Environment California.

“I would encourage folks to take the time to learn about these and weigh in,” she said. “They can have a really big impact on our lives.”

Among the most important:

End of the Great Highway?

Proposition K in San Francisco would turn a 2.5-mile stretch of the Great Highway, a 4-lane road on the city’s western oceanfront near Ocean Beach, into a new public park. If voters approve the measure, which was put on the ballot by Mayor London Breed and five county supervisors, by a simple majority, private vehicles would be banned permanently along the highway from Golden Gate Park to Lake Merced.

During the COVID pandemic in 2020, city officials closed the road to provide a new recreational area for walkers, bicyclists, joggers, roller skaters and others. That closure is still in place on weekends. Supporters, including U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and the Sierra Club, say the road, which is increasingly affected by drifting beach sand, will be a casualty of sea level rise. The city has a great opportunity, they contend, to permanently reclaim the area in a more people-friendly way, as it did with the Embarcadero after the 1989 earthquake, or Crissy Field, a former military airstrip next to the Golden Gate Bridge that was rebuilt into a waterfront park in 2001. Opponents, who include mayoral candidates Aaron Peskin, Daniel Lurie and Matt Farrell, along with the San Francisco Labor Council, say the change will send traffic into nearby neighborhoods, bringing more accidents, noise and gridlock.

Silicon Valley sprawl

Located just 5 miles south of Gilroy, San Benito County has less than 5% of the population of Santa Clara County. Housing is half the price. Concerned that an increasing number of Silicon Valley commuters are moving in, creating traffic and causing developers to chip away at the area’s rural character, environmental groups placed Measure A on San Benito’s ballot.

It would require voter approval before agricultural land in San Benito County could be rezoned for residential, commercial or industrial use. New housing would have to be built, for the most part, in areas already developed, such as within the city of Hollister. And it would halt plans for truck stops, restaurants and hotels at four locations along Highway 101 west of Hollister. The measure is supported by the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, Green Foothills, Save Mount Diablo and other green groups. It is opposed by the San Benito County Farm Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and some labor unions, who worry it could stifle economic growth.

Factory farms

Animal welfare activists from Berkeley and their allies stirred up a major controversy in Sonoma County when they placed Measure J on the ballot. If approved by voters, the measure would phase out “concentrated animal feeding operations” — or about a dozen large poultry and dairy farms in the area. Supporters, who include groups like Berkeley-based Direct Action Everywhere, say the operations are inhumane. Opponents, who include the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, the Sonoma Board of Supervisors, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust and Democratic congressmen Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, say the measure goes too far and would drive long-time family operations out of business. It is being watched closely around the state and nation by farm groups and animal welfare organizations and is likely to be copied if it passes.

Parks, farms and wildfires

Santa Cruz County voters will decide Measure Q, an $87 annual parcel tax to fund parks, wildfire prevention, river cleanups and beach projects. In Oakland, Measure MM would establish a $99 annual parcel tax in the Oakland Hills to reduce wildfire risk by thinning brush and trees, increasing fire patrols, and using goats to graze overgrown areas.

In the North Bay, Measure CC in Cloverdale would extend the city’s urban growth boundary for another 20 years, and Measure Y would extend Petaluma’s urban growth boundary until 2050. In Contra Costa County, Measure S would raise $77 million in bond sales for the Pleasant Hill Recreation and Park District, funded by an increase in property taxes by $19 per $100,000 of assessed value.

Berkeley

Voters in Berkeley will decide on three environmental measures: Measure HH, which would set new indoor air quality standards for city buildings; Measure Y, which would fund city trees, landscaping and parks by increasing a special tax from 22 cents to 26 cents per square foot of taxable improvements; and Measure GG, a proposed tax on natural gas use on privately owned buildings larger than 15,000 square feet.