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Home Resource Center In the News Home Greenbelt Alliance in the News |
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Greenbelt Alliance In the News February 12, 2008 Signers like growth zone Jennifer Gentile Five weeks of work have paid off for proponents of a growth boundary around Vacaville, who on Monday submitted 10,500 signatures to the city clerk. The number of signatures collected is about three times the 3,600 names required to qualify the proposal, said Tom Koch, a consultant to Citizens for the Future of Vacaville. Since Jan. 5, the group has been hitting the local streets and adding signatures to its petition. The signature tally is particularly impressive, Koch said, given the inclement weather collectors have faced. The petition calls for an urban growth boundary around the city, defining where new growth should be permitted for the next 20 years. Koch said the initiative protects agricultural areas from growth pressure and preserves open space around the city. In a written statement, Greenbelt Alliance Field Director Amanda Brown-Stevenssaid, "This is a great day for Vacaville. This will preserve the city's quality of life by protecting the natural areas and working farms around it." The initiative is the result of a 2005 agreement between the Greenbelt Alliance and the city over the controversial Lagoon Valley project. The parties agreed to a scaling back of the project, which now calls for slightly more than 1,000 homes, a golf course and other amenities, in exchange for circulation of a growth boundary petition. " When (residents) see groups that haven't always seen eye-to-eye come together for a compromise," Koch said, "they are favorably impressed by it." Exhibit A of the initiative contains a map indicating the growth boundary would not include some areas now within current city limits, largely to the east and west. It is not a no-growth initiative, supporters have said, but rather a tool for "good planning." When people are asked whether they are pro-growth or anti-growth, Koch said, most people are neither and fall somewhere in-between. " They're looking for something, I think, that has balance," he said, "which is what this measure is." One outspoken supporter is Chamber of Commerce President Gary Tatum, who is also chairman of the Citizens for the Future of Vacaville Committee. In a written statement, Tatum said, "We have been overwhelmed by the support our proposal has received." " More than 10,000 signatures in a little more than a month tells us how broad the support is for balanced growth in Vacaville," the chairman added. According to Koch, the signatures now must be verified by city and county officials. He said at this point, it is not likely to make the June ballot, but it could appear on the November ballot. ### |
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