Page 13 - Sonoma County Gazette - June 2018

GENERAL PLAN cont’d from page 12
County Supervisors were presented with seven alternatives for future growth, with projected populations ranging from 380,000 to 630,000 by the year 2000. Each alternative was described in terms of its impact on public services, public safety, transportation, preservation of agricultural, recreational and scenic areas, housing, the economy, air quality, and conservation of open space.
Supervisors opted for slow growth and aimed for 430,000
population by the year 2000. The 2000 census reported the
actual number as 458,600.
“I’m not aware of any other county that did such a comprehensive analysis,” Retecki said. “The State required nine general plan elements, we did 15. We had a vision of the county before us, and a natural landscape that was diverse & unique.”
The policies established in the first General Plan led directly to a series of ballot measures:
• The Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District --Approved by
voters in 1990, and renewed in 2006, the District was created to permanently protect greenbelts, scenic viewsheds, farms, ranches and natural areas, and is funded by a one-quarter cent sales tax.
• Urban growth boundaries – In 1996, Sonoma County voters became the first in the nation to establish boundary lines around cities to limit sprawl. The boundaries were renewed by voters in 2016 for another 20 years.
• Community separators – Voters in 1996 approved community separators, a ballot measure requiring the county to designate greenbelts of open space around each city. It was renewed in 2016 for another 20 years.
• Cityhood for Windsor – The 1992 creation of the Town of Windsor allowed housing and development otherwise limited by urban growth boundaries of other cities.
• The Sonoma Land Trust –The non-profit was formed in 1976 to purchase or obtain easements for habitat preservation and restoration. It became instrumental in leveraging the efforts of the Open Space District and their partners. Together, they have permanently protected more than 100,000 acres. In 1978, Regional Parks consisted of 10 parks totaling 2,613 acres. Today, there are 52 parks and more than 12,000 acres of parkland.
There have been revisions through the years, but the first General Plan still shapes Sonoma County and the lives of those who live here.
“Was it a success? Yes. It was transformational,” Kieser said. “It was a group of very young idealists and the leadership of a few visionaries. We did something quite remarkable, and we changed the course of County history.”
LAND USE PRINCIPLES
The land use principles created in the first General Plan have shaped the county from its adoption in 1978 to the present day. “People have held and enhanced the values all these years,” said Richard Retecki, one of the planners on the first General Plan.
The first General Plan principles were:
1. Promote compact urban growth
2. Promote community centered growth
3. Accommodate a diversity of lifestyle opportunities, urban and
rural.
4. Preserve agricultural land and encourage agricultural diversity 5. Utilize environmental criteria to locate rural growth and guide
urban growth
6. Accommodate growth in a rationally based manner (in planning
public services, for example)
7. Develop an ongoing open-space program around and within cities 8. Create a funding mechanism to conserve and preserve
environmental values and public access
More than two dozen people worked for more than seven years to create Sonoma County’s first General Plan. Their names are not well- known, but together they created a document that established polices and a balance between urban and open space areas that made the county what it is today.
NEXT TASK - Updating the General Plan for future generations - GENERAL PLAN 2030
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