Endangered Neoliberal Suburbanism? The Use of the Federal Endangered Species Act as a Growth Management Tool in Southern California

Abstract

In the United States, new environmental policy instruments have emerged to address some of the economic, social and environmental contradictions of neoliberal urbanism. Amongst these instruments, regional habitat conservation planning under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) is becoming de facto a suburban growth management tool widely deployed across different parts of Southern California. One reason why speculator-developers, property owners, conservationists, planners, municipalities and other suburban interests have bought into this tool is due to the growing link between the federal protection of endangered species and the availability of voter-approved funds for major road infrastructure projects. Evidence of this link is examined in the context of two regional conservation planning processes underway in Riverside County. The paper argues that inadvertently the Federal ESA has been transformed from a species protection law into a regulatory tool with which to co-ordinate private land development, public infrastructure provision and habitat conservation in suburbanising regions.