renewable funding harbors the entrepreneurial thinking that asks how california’s local government can engage with property owners so that they save energy and money.

there are generally two types of infill opportunities in california: 1) infill in high-demand markets, like san francisco, santa monica, and berkeley, that requires virtually no public subsidies and 2) infill in blighted neighborhoods, like hollywood or old town pasadena in the 1990s or downtown oakland today, that need major public investment to attract sufficient private capital.

building in the high-value areas is often restricted by wealthy and organized neighbors. the classic example is the area around the rockridge bart station in the bay area, where berkeley neighbors have stymied development that could concentrate new growth around the multi-billion dollar rail line running through the neighborhood. as a result, many infill developers have had to look to low-income or industrial neighborhoods to build projects. these neighborhoods often lack neighbors entirely (such as much of downtown los angeles before the recent boom) or the existing residents are unorganized and unable to fight proposed projects. building in these spots typically requires major investments in infrastructure, schools, and public safety. redevelopment is key to financing many of these investments.

with cities and counties struggling to emerge from the down economy, clean energy development has been an economic and environmental bright spot. as berkeley law and ucla law discuss in the 2009 report “in our backyard,” california possesses numerous opportunities to deploy solar and wind energy facilities in existing urbanized areas, such as along highways and on large commercial rooftops. governor jerry brown is working with berkeley law to develop policies to achieve 12,000 megawatts of such deployment, underscoring the state’s commitment to this issue.

stuart cohen, the executive director of transform, a california-based organization devoted to improving public transit, discusses local options for improving transit, such as developing bus rapid transit lines that give lane and signal priority to buses.