Novato Mayor Michael Di Giorgio
Adamant About Ferry Service for Port Sonoma
Mayor Discusses Allaying Environmental Concerns
via Government Takeover of Site from Controversial Developer, Higher
Gas Taxes, and Better Regional Planning
|
Novato
Mayor Michael DiGiorgio, redoubtable advocate for Port
Sonoma ferry service |
Folks want to know: When is ferry
service going to come to the North Bay?
Port Sonoma, we feel, is a great
location for ferry service. When that's going to happen, I really
can't tell you. We were allocated over $1 million in the new
proposal that's going to the legislature to study Port Sonoma. I'm
sure the environmental impact report is going to take about a year,
and further study of Port Sonoma may take even longer than that.
Environmentalists are afraid that development may pop up around the
Port and they also worry about the wetlands. So I think the Sonoma
County Board of Supervisors has to allay fears of that by zoning it
so that development cannot happen.
The location is ideal because we
can put the dock for the ferry out in the Petulama River, which is
federally dredged. That reduces cost and environmental impact. Also,
the ridership studies done by the WTA show that the majority of
people riding that particular boat would be coming from Novato,
which would also relieve congestion on the 101 corridor.
Environmentalists believe ferry
service to Port Sonoma would extend sprawl while dislocating
existing Sonoma residents to make way for wealthy "Montgomery
Streeters." They are also concerned about the current
developer. What's your take on all that?
We also feel that there should not
be development around that port. At most, there should be a medium-
to small-sized parking lot. There are wetlands there and we
definitely don't want to interfere with them. Also, an old rail line
goes right through there. It makes sense to use it to increase
public transit.
As for the developer, I don't know
how this is going to shake out over the long run or who is going to
own the property for a ferry terminal. You know, we do have the
power basically to make that into a public piece of land vs. a
private piece of land if it is necessary. So if the developer feels
that he wants to develop beyond what the supervisors in Sonoma
County think is best, there are ways of not only mitigating it but
also a way of changing the ownership of the portion that we would
need for a ferry port.
As for sprawl, Marin County
citizens don't like it either. But we have a situation in Marin
County where we need our firemen, our policemen, our school
teachers, people that work in Costco, people that work in Home
Depot, and if you shut them out of the county, then they are going
to have to get there from another place and that creates more
traffic than would be the case if you just built the housing in the
county.
We all know that the root problem
is an over-dependence on cars. As a guy that has to get elected,
would you ever publicly call for the real solution, which is a $5 a
gallon tax on gasoline?
I lived in Europe before and I've
seen situations where expensive gasoline increases the use of
smaller automobiles and definitely causes transit systems to be
used. Furthermore, if there is a high enough tax on gasoline, it can
be used to fund transportation systems. I have always believed that
the gasoline prices in America are far too low. I think higher gas
taxes are imperative.
Why did the half cent tax increase
for communal Sonoma-Marin transportation projects including reviving
the North Bay railroad fail?
I was part of putting that
together. Unfortunately, the problem with any tax issue in the State
of California is the two-thirds majority requirement. You always
have 20 percent of the people who will vote against any kind of tax.
People have to realize that lack
of growth and the lack of building houses is causing traffic. The
environmental groups have a legitimate complaint about sprawl and
ruining the environment for us as well as ruining the environment
for various animals and species that are endangered. I respect that
and I thank God we don't have a society like in Russia where they
totally ignored it and destroyed the environment. However, the main
problem with the environmental degradation in the United States has
been the fact that there are too many people. People are causing
this environmental degradation and there is not an environmental
group in Marin or Sonoma County or even nationwide that wants to
take on that issue.
Realistically, when is the soonest
you think we might see ferry service to Port Sonoma?
Optimistically, I think we're
talking about 2007. We have asked our EIR people and our rail
engineers to study the possibility of two links to ferry service,
one is San Quentin and the other Port Sonoma. We are presently doing
the aerial photography and the route analysis to those two points.
Everybody is aware of course that
the State is waffling on whether or not to keep open or close San
Quentin. We believe that there may be the possibility of putting a
ferry port out there without closing San Quentin. It would also do a
lot of environmental good because, as you know, the Larkspur Ferry
has to restrict itself to 10 mph as it pulls out of the channel
there because of wake damage. If you go out of Port San Quentin,
however, that goes away. So it would make the ferry commute quicker
and help the environment, too.
Michael Di Giorgio serves as
Mayor of Novato and also sits on the Marin County Congestion
Management Agency, the Sonoma/Marin Narrows (formerly Novato
Narrows) Policy Advisory Group, the Citizens' Advisory Committee to
the Water Transit Authority, and Smart (Sonoma Marin Area Rail
Transit Authority) and Smart II, the rail authority for the North
Bay.