Home > Resource Center > In the News Home > Greenbelt Alliance in the News

Greenbelt Alliance In the News

May 25, 2006

Greenbelt Alliance warns Solano open space at risk

Too much open-space land is at risk for development in the Bay Area and much of it is in Solano County, according to a report released today by the Greenbelt Alliance.

"If current development trends continue, 401,500 acres of the Bay Area's natural areas and working farms could be paved over in the next 30 years," a press release on the new report states. "The area at risk is the size of 13 San Franciscos."

The report, "At Risk: The Bay Area Greenbelt," found that one out of every 10 acres in the Bay Area is at risk of "sprawl development" and that one out of every 5 acres in Solano and Contra Costa counties faces the same risk.

"If all the lands at risk were developed ... the urbanized area in Solano, Napa and Sonoma counties would more than double," the Greenbelt Alliance press release read.

The report was based on an analysis of data collected in 2005. Land labeled "at risk" could include open areas already approved for development, land zoned or otherwise designated in a general plan for residential, commercial or industrial development, land that was previously the object of development proposals or that is the subject of ongoing legal or political conflict about development potential, land within a city limit or growth boundary, and open land adjacent to already developed property.

The report noted that the development situation has changed since 2000 when the Greenbelt Alliance found 464,100 acres in the Bay Area at risk for sprawl. "But 400,000 acres is still an enormous amount of land at risk," said Tom Steinbach, Greenbelt Alliance's executive director. "If we want to protect the landscapes that make this region special, we need to change the way we grow. We have to stop sprawling outward, and instead direct new growth into our existing cities and towns."

One of the biggest areas at risk - a so-called "sprawl hot spot" according to the report - is Solano County's Interstate 80 corridor.

"Thousands of acres in this county are subject to intense development pressure," the report states. "This pressure is exacerbated by a lack of growth management policies in the east county cities of Vacaville, Dixon and Rio Vista."

Solano County Supervisor Mike Reagan took exception to the conjecture that Solano County did not have strong growth-control tools in place. The county's restriction on suburban developments centers developments within cities, he said.

"How could they possibly infer that there is sprawl development - given the land-use controls in this county," he said. "It's unbelievable that they could come to this conclusion."

The report goes on to praise the Orderly Growth Initiative, which limits development to the cities rather than on unincorporated county lands, as the "bedrock" of the county's greenbelt protection.

"The Orderly Growth Initiative must be renewed by 2010 to prevent roughly half a million acres of Solano's greenbelt from coming under sprawl pressure," the report states.

The report praised Fairfield's successful Measure L in 2003, which established an urban growth boundary and gave voters approval power over projects outside the boundary. It also praised a similar measure approved in Benicia.

The full report and interactive maps are available online at www.greenbelt.org.

Robin Miller can be reached at citydesk@thereporter.com.

###