Times have been tough for a lot of California cities over the past few years, and my city of Maywood is no exception. Just a couple of years ago, in fact, we had to make some very tough choices in order to avoid bankruptcy – and we did it.

Now our focus is on rebuilding our economy, getting more of our citizens back to work, and being able to fund the public services they need and deserve. That’s why we look very closely at state regulations and policies that could put that recovery at risk. There’s one that has me as a City Council member very worried.

A new program called CalEnviroScreen being developed by the California Environmental Protection Agency could discourage expansion by existing businesses in Maywood and other cities, or even drive them out. And it could scare away investments in new businesses and property development. With unemployment here in Maywood at almost 15 percent, we just can’t afford that.

On the surface, CalEnviroScreen seems like a good idea, and some of it is. But other parts of it could have the effect of “redlining” our community and make it almost impossible to attract the businesses, jobs and economic development we so desperately need.

CalEnviroScreen is a data collection tool that would score California communities’ levels of “environmental vulnerability.” Disadvantaged communities are likely to rank poorly on the list of cities in terms of pollution levels. While this information could be useful in identifying and addressing our environmental challenges, it is likely to redline our communities as risky places to invest. It’s well known that redlining of neighborhoods by insurance companies can lead to higher premiums. Similarly, CalEnviroScreen could make it much more difficult and expensive to do business for the singled-out cities.

This could easily happen if a city’s ranking as environmentally burdened is allowed to be included in land-use decisions and the permitting of building projects, which could hold up or altogether halt economic development for years.

Harmful consequences

These harmful unintended consequences could be significantly reduced by fine-tuning the draft of this so-called screening tool to specifically exclude its usage in planning and permitting. It’s important to understand that this wouldn’t undermine the environmental integrity of proposed projects. Excluding the CalEnviroScreen from the process would not in any way weaken the many environmental laws that already protect our communities from unhealthy development.

There’s no downside to more finely targeting the uses of the tool, but there are enormous downsides to not doing it. The disadvantaged communities that would rank highest on the environmental vulnerability scale are also those with rapidly declining property values, the most strapped city budgets and the highest unemployment rates.

We need businesses to invest in our communities, not in those that don’t need them as much but have a more favorable environmental burden rating. We need the jobs and revenues those businesses will provide, and their positive impact on property values.

Hopefully, CalEPA will reshape the proposed CalEnviroScreen to provide help where it’s most needed – to identify communities most in need of resources to fight pollution – and prevent it from becoming a tool that will make it harder for disadvantaged communities to improve their economies and quality of life.

Felipe Aguirre is a Maywood City Council member.