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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

October 11, 2005

What is open space?

But how much open space is there? That's up for debate.

The Bay Area Open Space Council keeps track of protected open space in the region. Its figures show that 12 percent of Solano County is protected, the lowest amount among the nine Bay Area counties. In contrast, Marin County has about 50 percent, San Mateo County 32 percent and Contra Costa County 26 percent.

Supervisor Mike Reagan takes a different approach to tabulating. He did his own calculations for Solano County open space after the question arose at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting.

"I very rapidly got to at least 26 percent of the land area in the county as being protected," Reagan said.

The San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance also tracks the region's open space. Its 2000 report "At Risk: The Bay Area Greenbelt" listed 19 percent of Solano County as secure greenbelt. Add the several thousand acres that have been protected since then and the figure is closer to 20 percent.

Thirteen percent versus 20 percent versus 26 percent. Night and day. And yet everyone is looking at the same county.

What is open space?

Getting at Solano County's open space numbers is somewhat subjective. In a broad sense, open space can be everything that's free of roads, houses and business parks. Solano has plenty of the great outdoors.

About 9.5 percent of the county is city, the Department of Conservation reports. That leaves about 90 percent of the county - about 800 square miles - as open space, albeit open space with pockets of rural housing.

But open space and protected open space are two different things. Today's grazing land next to Fairfield or Vacaville can quickly turn into tomorrow's subdivisions.

One way to look at secure open space is to count only government-owned preserves. This is land that is, as much as possible, under lock and key from development.

Perhaps it is a state park, such as the wetlands of Benicia State Recreation Area along Southampton Bay. Or maybe it is the state's Grizzly Island Wildlife Area in Suisun Marsh, where tule elk roam and waterfowl flock.

Using this approach, only about 6 percent of Solano County is protected.

But Reagan, the Bay Area Open Space Council and the Greenbelt Alliance all use a broader definition of preserved open space. They include property owned by a land trust or protected by conservation easements.

Perhaps a farmer, working with the Solano Land Trust, gives up development rights to his property while still retaining ownership. That happened with 4,000 acres of sheep grazing land in the rolling hills near Rio Vista. This preservation method is called a conservation easement.

What is Suisun Marsh?

The key disagreement in the Solano County open space debate is over how to treat Suisun Marsh, the largest contiguous estuarine wetlands in the continental United States.

Suisun Marsh and its uplands buffer zone covers about 115,000 acres, about a fifth of the county. State law passed in the late 1970s protects the marsh from development, even though more than two-thirds of the marsh is privately owned by duck clubs and farmers.

Reagan and the Greenbelt Alliance both consider this secure open space. The Bay Area Open Space Council includes only Grizzly Island State Wildlife Area, Joice Island and other parts of the marsh that are owned by the state or Solano Land Trust.

Some say the fight to protect the private marshlands continues, despite the state protections.

The wetlands areas of Suisun Marsh are the most secure from development, said Steve Chappell, executive director of the Suisun Resource Conservation District. In addition to marsh protection laws, there are also endangered species and wetlands protection laws, he said.

He sees the 27,000 acres of adjacent grasslands and hills in the buffer zone as being more at risk. The state Legislature in 1982 set a precedent that this land can be developed. It removed 322 acres for Suisun City's Lawler Ranch subdivision.

Chappell is concerned about proposals to expand Potrero Hills Landfill in the marsh hills and to build an expressway through the marsh. Both areas are within the marsh protection areas.

"The way the county is growing immediately adjacent to the secondary marsh, I think we will be facing continued pressures," Chappell said.

Despite these pressures, Reagan counts Suisun Marsh as secure open space - or, at least, as secure as things get.

"Under the way the laws are written now, you can change the law," Reagan said. "There's nothing permanent. Anyone who thinks there's something permanent is naive."

Open, not available

Reagan thinks Solano County will continue to have plenty of open space, even if the county grows rapidly in coming decades. For example, nobody wants to get rid of the open spaces that separate cities, he said.

"That's part of good design," Reagan said. "That's part of what everybody wants. There's going to be protected habitat areas. There's going to be those things. Everybody agrees on that."

He counts the hills between Vacaville and Fairfield as open space, even though much of it is private property and has no permanent protections.

"There's a handshake between the communities of Fairfield and Vacaville that they're going to keep that as an urban separator," he said.

The Greenbelt Alliance, in contrast, doesn't include this land in its "secure open space" category. Instead, it labels it as being at medium and high risk for development.

Brent Schoradt of the Greenbelt Alliance doesn't see open space as a settled issue in Solano County.

"I think Solano County is definitely at the crossroads in terms of all the growth pressures going at it over the next 20 to 30 years," he said.

County law says most development must take place in cities, not rural areas. This law expires in 2010. If it isn't renewed, much of the county's farmland immediately is at risk for development, Schoradt said.

"Especially when there's people who want to widen Highway 113, which is surrounded by some of the best farmland in the country," Schoradt said.

People can look at open space in still another way - as land where they can go for recreation.

Most of Solano County's open space falls outside of this category. People can't hike through a Suisun Marsh duck club. Nor can they hike on the Wilcox Ranch vernal pool preserve near Travis Air Force Base.

About 3 percent to 4 percent of the county is open to the public. Some of these areas are open only when a docent is present.

Hiking areas include Cold Canyon near Lake Berryessa, Rush Ranch and Grizzly Island Wildlife Area in Suisun Marsh, Lagoon Valley in Vacaville and Benicia State Park along Southhampton Bay.

So 4 percent, 13 percent, 20 percent or 26 percent - it all depends on how you define open space.

Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646 Ext. 232 or at beberling@dailyrepublic.net.

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