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policies” which limit the ability of county leaders to approve inappropriate development in 16,600 acres of key open spaces—mostly comprised of farms, ranches, and wildlife habitat.
Together, UGBs and community separator policies protect the places in Sonoma County most likely to be targeted by sprawl developers and encourage growth to occur within urban boundaries.
These policies have been a great success but voter approval of all eight of Sonoma County’s community separator policies will sunset in 2016 and 2018.
Once this approval expires, a vote from just three of five
members of the board of supervisors can permit inappropriate
development on these lands.
With the expiration approaching, we are working to gather support and to safeguard these policies now. We are also helping to improve the policies so that they better protect Sonoma County’s landscape for years to come.
Goals
• Ensure that Sonoma County’s community separators remain in place as a key tool to protect the county’s landscapes
• Expand the existing community separators to cover a broader landscape; for example, the community separators could be extended to cover important watershed lands
• Strengthen the community separator policy to increase protection of natural and agricultural lands; for example, the sunset date could be extended to keep the community separators in effect for a longer period of time
The survey was conducted for Greenbelt Alliance by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, Inc., based in Oakland, Calif. Read the survey summary on greenbelt.og.) Teri Shore, Regional Director, Greenbelt Alliance, Office: 707-575-3661 Cell: 707-934- 7081, tshore@greenbelt.org
Google Street View of SoCo Parks
In partnership with Google, Sonoma County Regional Parks is making many of its popular trails accessible via 360-degree imagery on Street View in Google Maps. People around the world can virtually stroll the Sonoma Coast at Gualala Point, stand atop Taylor Mountain in Santa Rosa, and climb to Gunsight Rock at Hood Mountain in the Sonoma Valley.
“We are so excited to bring Sonoma County’s natural beauty to a worldwide audience,” said Regional Parks Director Caryl Hart. “Sonoma County is a spectacular destination for outdoor recreation. When people see these step-by- step trail panoramas, we’re sure they’ll want to visit the parks in person. Virtual images can’t replicate the sights, sounds, and smells of our forests and beaches, but they can highlight our landscapes and help more visitors discover Sonoma County.”
Viewers can now take self-guided tours of the following parks and get a sense of what it will be like to visit in person:
• Hood Mountain Park & Open Space Preserve in the Valley of the Moon • Taylor Mountain Regional Park & Open Space Preserve in Santa Rosa
• Sonoma Valley Regional Park in Glen Ellen
• North Sonoma Mountain Park & Open Space Preserve SE of Santa Rosa • Spring Lake Regional Park in Santa Rosa
• Shiloh Ranch Regional Park in Windsor
• Doran Regional Park on Bodega Bay
• The Pinnacle Gulch and Shorttail Gulch trails and beaches on Bodega Bay • The Sea Ranch trails , Gualala Point Regional Park
• Ragle Ranch Regional Park in Sebastopol
• The Laguna de Santa Rosa Trail near Sebastopol
• The Joe Rodota Trail between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol
• The West County Regional Trail between Sebastopol and Forestville
To find the images on the web, search for the park name in Google Maps and then click on the Street View option or the yellow pegman. To find the images on sonomacountyparks.org, go to the individual park pages and click on the Street View map links.
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