From the Sac Bee:
Editorial: Careful with expansion
County must grow up more than out
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, March 9, 2007
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B10
Looking at how Sacramento County has been reviewing its growth strategy, it doesn't seem that much has changed from the long-gone day when land seemed infinite and traffic seemed a trifle. Supervisors are directing staff to eye expansions beyond what key planners have been telling the board were appropriate for the area's footprint for growth. It's not the way to lead a region that is trying to grow inward and upward more than outward. But the deeds aren't yet done, and there is time for a change in thinking.
The county is updating its blueprint for growth, its general plan. The plan has long attempted to set physical limits to the future path of growth by delineating a so-called urban services boundary. The boundary has been under attack for some time. And in this latest review, supervisors are either looking to grow right up to the line, or blow it up entirely on behalf of the region's largest and most influential developer, Angelo Tsakopoulos. In all, about 20,000 acres of undeveloped land are being eyed for future development.
Growth is a given unless regional planners are colossally off the mark. The area is poised to double its population in the next half-century. The question isn't whether our area will grow, but how. Through a landmark regional planning process known as the Blueprint, leaders who included Sacramento supervisors, embraced in concept a new way of growing. The idea was to stop relying nearly exclusively on single-family home subdivisions farther away from the urban core. Instead, the plan would make much more efficient use of land.
If the supervisors are practicing what they preach, it is hard to tell with this general plan process. Strangest of all is the desire by a new supervisor, Jimmie Yee, to review whether to urbanize land owned by Tsakopoulos that is south of Highway 50 next to El Dorado County. With no water and no roads to speak of, the land is hardly a logical increment of growth to consider now.
It's to be expected that landowners with ambitions will pressure supervisors to develop where they shouldn't. But don't supervisors have the word "no" in their vocabulary?
This planning exercise comes in the middle of the environmental review process. Final decisions lie ahead. But it feels like business as usual rather than a blueprint for a more sustainable future for Sacramento County.
Growth map.