Home > Resource Center > In the News Home > Greenbelt Alliance in the News

Greenbelt Alliance In the News

July 13, 2008

Once-in-a-generation opportunity being wasted

Solano County is revising its general plan, and that presents an opportunity. The general plan is the blueprint for our county's future: how growth and development will occur in the coming decades, to shape the place we call home. The general plan is also a chance to respond to current pressures, such as the housing market, gas prices and climate change.
Unfortunately, the Board of Supervisors is missing this opportunity.

As it stands, the plan will reduce our quality of life. Instead of taking this chance to grow in a way that is better for farms, for the community and for the climate, this general plan will allow more sprawling development, resulting in more cars on the road and more greenhouse gases. And when the Orderly Growth Initiative expires in the next couple of years, we will see even more development than what is currently allowed in this plan.

The Board of Supervisors is racing to finish this flawed plan so the changes can go on the November ballot. The process is being rushed at the expense of the community, and we deserve better.

I look at this general plan from three perspectives. I served on the Citizens' Advisory Committee for the Solano General Plan. I'm the local field representative for Greenbelt Alliance. And I'm a new mother.

Any way I look at it, this plan is bad.

As a member of the Citizens' Advisory Committee, I served on the agricultural subcommittee to ensure that the new plan supported farming. Unfortunately, although there are many improvements for agriculture, we now have a plan that makes it much easier to develop rural lands. Paving over farmland is not going to help local agriculture.

The plan should support Solano agriculture and direct growth into cities by renewing the Orderly Growth Initiative. Because the Orderly Growth Initiative requires a vote of the people before development can occur on farmland and open space, this would ensure the community still has a voice in deciding how growth occurs. Without renewing the initiative, this plan will be the first step toward sprawling, Los Angeles-style development. Who wants that?

As Greenbelt Alliance's local field representative, I reviewed the 775-page draft environmental impact report, which informs the public about the plan's impacts.

Those impacts are staggering. If this general plan is adopted, we will face:

• Losing thousands of acres of farmland to development. As food and gas prices rise, we should be conserving our local farmland, not paving it.

• Traffic that will go from bad to worse. That means more time wasted in the car, instead of spent with our friends and families.

• Worse air quality. We already have the worst asthma rates in the state.

• Water shortages. In a time when the state is in a drought and we're all being asked to be careful with our water consumption, this is the last thing we need.

And that's not all: There are more than 20 more negative impacts identified in the report. This is unacceptable.

As a mother, I am alarmed that I will raise my son (now 9 months old) in a county whose leaders think we can live with these impacts. The general plan will affect my son for his entire youth; when it expires, he will be college-age. It will shape the place that shapes him - and will have a profound effect on all of us who live here.

I love living in Solano County. I have great neighbors. I live within walking distance of a good school. I can buy fresh food from local farmers, and I enjoy the open spaces near my home.

I want our county to get better, not worse. And I expect more leadership from our Board of Supervisors to make that happen. The general plan should be a visionary document to guide the county and provide leadership to the cities.

Fellow citizens of Solano County, call on our leaders to improve the plan - and our future. This is our opportunity. The Board of Supervisors should renew the Orderly Growth Initiative as part of the plan. This will go a long way toward keeping new development within existing cities and lessening the effects on our traffic and air quality.

And if that means the plan will not be finished at the end of this month, I'd say the delay is for a worthy cause. After all, it is our future for the next 20 years.

###