When are the supervisors going to learn??
By Robert Lewis
rlewis@sacbee.com
Published: Thursday, Sep. 3, 2009 - 12:00 am
Sacramento County is moving forward with a new general plan that would open 20,000 acres of land for development.
The draft general plan - essentially the framework that will govern development in the unincorporated county for the next 25 years - is expected to prompt heated debate over how much to regulate future growth.
Almost five years after the county started crafting an update to its 1993 general plan, planning commissioners now have the draft proposal before them and have begun discussing its details.
"It's a really important thing we're doing right now," said Kathilynn Carpenter, chair of the planning commission. "The proposal for the general plan update is to open up quite a bit of land."
The draft General Plan 2030, as written, would leave the county's urban growth boundary intact. The plan would, however, expand the amount of land that could be developed within the boundary, the so-called "urban policy area."
The draft plan calls for opening 8,000 acres in the Grant Line East area just east of Rancho Cordova and another 12,000 acres in the Jackson Highway Corridor in the Vineyard community between Watt and Sunrise.
The areas are primarily a mix of grassland, mining land and some agricultural and light industrial spaces. Environmentalists and the county's own planning department question the need to open so much land to new development.
The 20,000 acres proposed for development is "far more than necessary" to handle the area's projected population growth, according to an analysis by the county's Planning and Community Development Department.
That 20,000-acre expansion could accommodate "approximately 145,000 additional dwelling units, nearly double what is necessary to meet projected demand," according to planning department documents.
The county at one point estimated it would need 100,000 additional housing units by 2030.
But planners have dropped the estimated need to about 75,000 units in the wake of the recession.
Nevertheless, the Board of Supervisors, during various general plan workshops in recent years, directed the department to include all 20,000 acres for consideration.
Environmental advocates say the county should put more focus on "infill" development in existing communities. This would cut down on sprawl, said Graham Brownstein, executive director of the Environmental Council of Sacramento, or ECOS.
Developers, however, say infill is tricky. It's not so easy to project how many units can be developed in existing areas, said Dennis Rogers, senior vice president of governmental and public affairs for the North State Building Industry Association. Plus, many people don't want their neighborhoods to become higher density, he said.
"Everyone is in favor of infill as long as that empty property in their neighborhood stays empty," Rogers said. The Board of Supervisors still could decide not to open all 20,000 acres for development.
But environmentalists say the fight more likely will shift to how the county regulates development on that land once it is opened.
County planners have recommended a phased approach, essentially requiring land adjacent to established communities to be developed before more distant property.
This would cut down on "leapfrog" development, they said. Developers, however, say the free market should regulate growth.
The housing market crash means there isn't as much money to throw at building anyway, Rogers said, particularly projects that require developers to pour money into new sewers, streets and other infrastructure.
"We're not going to go out into the middle of nowhere. We just can't afford it," Rogers said.
Monday, planning commissioners began their talks on what policies should govern development for the next 25 years.
Instead of talking broadly about the new plan, the commission is discussing each individual policy proposed - there are hundreds in all - and soliciting feedback.
Environmentalists say the nitpicky process will drag out the hearings and ultimately water down the policies. "We're concerned this really ramps up the opportunity for special interests to weigh in," said Rob Burness, an ECOS board member and chairman of Habitat 2020, a coalition of Sacramento area environmental groups.
The commission waded through about a dozen policies at Monday's four-hour meeting.
At that pace it would take four years just to get the plan from the commission to the Board of Supervisors, said ECOS' Brownstein.
Regular people - those not backed by an armada of lawyers and consultants - can't be expected to follow that level of minutiae, he added.
"They've basically set up a process that's going to guarantee a landowner and developer gutting and rewriting of the plan," Brownstein said.
Carpenter, the commission chair, defended the deliberate process.
One of the criticisms of the 1993 plan was the lack of public outreach prior to adoption, she said.
"What we heard early on from many, many people was, 'Slow down. Don't just push this thing through,' " Carpenter said.
Future meetings should go more quickly, she added. The next commission meeting on the general plan update is scheduled for Sept. 21. For more information visit
www.planning.saccounty.net.
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