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Cloverdale Urban Growth Boundary

With slightly over 7,000 residents, Cloverdale is still a bucolic community, bordered to the north by Mendocino County redwood forests and to the south by the breathtaking Alexander Valley. This may change in the coming years though. With land prices that are relatively low compared to the rest of Sonoma County, and a lack of growth management policies, sprawl development threatens to destroy the rural character of the Cloverdale area. Cloverdale is the only City in Sonoma County that does not have an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) that clearly states where development should and should not go.

In May 2009, the City updated its General Plan, which acts as the blueprint for growth for the next 20 years. The City is now considering adopting a UGB ordinance as a General Plan Amendment. This update presents a critical opportunity for the City's leaders to adopt a policy that will protect the community's rural character and surrounding hillsides from sprawl development. Greenbelt Alliance is working actively with residents to urge their elected officials to adopt a UGB.

The proposed UGB line still needs to be tightened, as it stretches two miles south to Asti, despite a petition signed by more than one hundred local residents asking for a tighter line. The Asti exception area includes prime farmlands, some of which are under Williamson Act.

What You Can Do

• Cloverdale residents can write letters to the City Council to encourage them to support the adoption of an urban growth boundary as a general plan amendment and request that the UGB does not include the Asti exception area. Address your letters to:
  

  City Council
  City of Cloverdale
  P.O. Box 217
  Cloverdale, CA 95425

• To get involved with our campaign to protect Cloverdale's open space and community character, contact Amanda Bornstein at (707) 575-3661 or by e-mail.