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HOLIDAY CALENDAR Craft Fairs ~ Festivities ~ Lights ~ Concerts ~ Nutcrackers! ~ 68-71
Impacts of Marijuana Growing ~ 12
How Much Drinking is TOO MUCH? ~ 23
Saving Livestock in Emergency Situations ~ 29
Depressed Seniors get Help ~ 58
Coastal Land Use
Improving
Policies for Open Space
people living in the nine county San Francisco Bay Area, leading to a premium value being placed on open space and its charming, calming allure. Sonoma County has avoided the contiguous sprawl land use pattern that has dominated other Bay Area counties, preserving the Santa Rosa plain filled with wetlands, farms, and fields, as well as framing numerous viewsheds along the rural if potholed roads we love so dearly. Voters have consistently stood up for the scenic beauty of Sonoma County by approving ballot measures that preserve the agrarian and natural backdrop while protecting farms, parklands and water supply.
OPEN SPACE cont’d on page 9
By Eric Koenigshofer
On January 12, 2016, the Board of
Supervisors will make an important decision regarding coastal land use policy.
By Dennis Rosatti
There are approximately 7 million
In November, 1972, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 20, the Coastal Initiative. By a margin of 55% to 45% Californians laid down the law regarding protection of the coast and access to the shore. Four years later the State Legislature enacted the 1976 Coastal Act permanently protecting our magnificent 1,000 mile coastline.
The Coastal Zone, the geographic area subject to the Coastal Act, is very specific. Within this zone local land use policy is required to conform to the larger statewide policy interests expressed in the 1976 Coastal Act. In other words, land use and development decisions in the Coastal Zone must meet certain statewide policy objectives on matters such as environmental protection, public recreation and access to the beach.
Voters overwhelmingly approved an open space protection measure placed on the ballot by County Supervisors in 1996 called the Community Separator policy. The policies have prevented sprawl into the greenbelts between our cities and communities. Community Separators have been effective in preventing agriculturally important
Sonoma County accounts for 60 miles of the California coast. And the type of land use which can and cannot take place within that 60 miles of coastline
COASTAL LAND USE cont’d on page 8
The EVERYTHING to DO Calendar: pgs 52 - 71
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