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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

May 25, 2006

Group sees Solano sprawl potential

About 31,900 acres are at "high risk" and 61,400 acres are at "medium risk" for development, the Greenbelt Alliance said in its new "At Risk: The Bay Area Greenbelt" report. Much of this land is along Interstate 80 in the Vacaville and Dixon areas.

The amount of Solano County land in the group's "at risk" category has decreased slightly since the 2000 edition of the report.

San Francisco has virtually no land at risk for development - because most of the land is either already developed or protected, said Nicole Arnold, a local alliance representative. But Solano County has the opportunity to decide how it is going to grow, she said.

"I think that's one of the exciting things about Solano County," Arnold said.

The Greenbelt Alliance is a San Francisco-based group that promotes preserving open space and building compact, infill development. Its report looks at nine Bay Area counties, taking into account such things as city growth plans, past growth proposals and land speculation when gauging development risks.

The Bay Area has 4.5 million acres, of which 761,400 are developed. About 401,500 acres could be developed during the next 30 years, the size of 13 San Franciscos, the report said.

Solano County is listed as a "sprawler," along with Sonoma, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties. About 85 percent of the land considered at risk for development by the Greenbelt Alliance is in these four counties, the report said.

The Greenbelt Alliance supports having voter-approved growth boundaries around cities, as has been done in Benicia and Fairfield. The group would like Vacaville, Dixon and Rio Vista to follow suit. Vallejo and Suisun City have their growth constrained by such factors as geography.

Vacaville, Triad Communities and the Greenbelt Alliance in 2004 signed an agreement that could lead to voter-approved growth boundaries in Vacaville. As part of the deal, the Greenbelt Alliance agreed it wouldn't oppose Triad's proposed Lagoon Valley development.

This effort for a growth boundary is on hold because of a lawsuit by Friends of Lagoon Valley, Arnold said. Friends is a Vacaville group that has sued the city and Triad to stop the Lagoon Valley development.

Rio Vista Mayor Eddie Woodruff knows of no efforts in his city to enact voter-approved growth boundaries. But he doesn't see Rio Vista as a threat for sprawl.

The city is building new subdivisions along Highway 12. This is land annexed by the city years ago, Woodruff said. He foresees no new, large annexations anytime soon.

"There's a fairly strong desire among the community to keep it a small town with small-town values and not become a large, sprawl city," Woodruff said.

The Greenbelt Alliance also endorses the county's orderly growth law, which says most rural land can be developed only if annexed by a city. The voter-approved law expires in 2010 and supporters are trying to extend it.

Solano County could grow by more than 180,000 people during the next 25 years, the Association of Bay Area Governments predicts. The Greenbelt Alliance supports building compact, transit-orientated communities, with an emphasis on infill.

A 2002 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found about half the state's residents are open to compact, infill growth to preserve open space. But it also found most people want to live in a single-family, detached home in the suburbs and drive their cars.

The Greenbelt Alliance report is the group's latest effort to influence the region's ongoing growth debate. The alliance's Web site is www.greenbelt.org.

Reach Barry Eberling at 425-4646 Ext. 232 or at beberling@dailyrepublic.net.

Greenbelt Alliance view of Solano County lands

- High development risk, 31,900 acres.

- Medium development risk, 61,400 acres.

- Low development risk, 315,900 acres.

- Urban, 55,400 acres.

- Protected, 66,000 acres.

- Total land, 530,600 acres.

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