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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

December 4, 2004

Lagoon Valley pact is far reaching

Agreement would affect how and to what extent the city will grow through next two decades.

Late Thursday, representatives from the city of Vacaville, Seattle-based developer Triad Communities and environmental group Greenbelt Alliance came to a compromise for development in lower Lagoon Valley.

The agreement will downsize construction in the valley while setting aside approximately 71 acres of open space. The number of houses has been decreased to 1,025, including 100 homes for seniors and 75 affordable homes.

Triad has also committed funding to improve the nearby lake, construct a fire station and will pay for public safety costs.

For its part, Greenbelt Alliance will drop a lawsuit filed against the city when the City Council approved Triad's initial proposal last June to build 1,300 homes, a golf course and other amenities on 730 privately-owned acres in the valley.

Many hours were spent compromising from all sides. Greenbelt went to the table with a laundry list of concerns and ideas to decrease traffic, protect biological habitat and to protect open space, officials said Friday.

"In a perfect world we would want no development (in Lagoon Valley), but there is the agreement from 1991 and they didn't need approval to build under it. So it wasn't realistic to expect to stop development altogether," said Brent Schoradt, Greenbelt Alliance Napa-Solano field representative. "So to mitigate and protect the land, we feel this is the best solution for the people of Vacaville and all those involved."

Triad representatives went to the bargaining table with intentions to provide a development that still could be economically viable for the company while addressing "valid" issues raised by Greenbelt Alliance, according to Vice President Curt Johansen.

"Sustainable development is finding a balance," Johansen said. "It is inevitable that Vacaville would come to a point where it has some growth control. So instead of the acrimony and drawing a line in the sand, we wanted to find a compromise that was fair. And this is fair."

The biggest aspect of the agreement would affect where the city grows in the future by establishing an urban planning area, or urban limit line. Under the agreement, Greenbelt Alliance will circulate a petition to define the boundaries of growth within the city as early as February. Greenbelt Alliance could circulate the petition only after the City Council approves the revised project for Lagoon Valley.

The development is directly tied to the passage of the urban planning area. If the planning area is not approved by the voters or the council, the development would go ahead, but Triad would have to acquire and donate 1,400 acres as permanent agricultural land.

Johansen said the company has conducted polling and said residents are supportive of an urban planning area. He also said developers are becoming more aware of infill developments as available land becomes scarce.

Schoradt is also optimistic that an urban planning area would be supported by voters. Greenbelt Alliance worked with Fairfield and Benicia residents in November 2003 when residents in both cities approved urban limit lines.

"Twenty years is not forever and voters still have a say in what happens from here on out," Schoradt said. "It does not stop development in Vacaville. It draws a line where it will occur."

Not everyone is happy with the new plan.

Marian Conning of Friends of Lagoon Valley is working with other members of the group to determine what the next step will be to stop any development in the valley.

"Our issue is Lagoon Valley," she said. "It's not an urban growth boundary or sprawl as a general issue. Our issue is a narrow one, it's Lagoon Valley. Some of us, I suppose, would be pleased with an urban limit line ... but others, and I include myself in this camp, don't really get excited about urban limit lines."

Mayor Len Augustine is still studying the agreement, he said, but is happy that a compromise has been reached. Augustine said the urban planning area can only provide additional guidance to city leaders.

"Overall, I think the concept of an urban planning area gives some stability to the planning process," he said.

Urban planning areas, also known as urban limit lines, are designed to promote infill redevelopment while ensuring land is reserved as open space. Critics have said urban limit lines increase housing prices.

A proposed urban planning area already has been drawn. The map would protect 30,000 acres of the 37,000 acres Greenbelt identified as at-risk in 2002. The land in question is zoned agriculture and has not yet been identified as developable land. The city will still meet all of its housing requirements through the next 20 years under the map.

Patricia Valenzuela can be reached at vacaville@thereporter.com.

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