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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

November 20, 2002

Land-use reports called unrealistic

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Two land-use reports urging Vacaville to meet future housing needs within current city boundaries received a lukewarm response on Tuesday from the Planning Commission, which called the reports unrealistic.

What began as a study session with city staff briefing the commission on the reports' content turned into a lengthy, emotional debate with several groups - including open space advocates, the reports authors, local developers and members of the community - all sharing views, either for or against, the anti-growth documents.

Both reports push alternatives to the city's proposed visioning plan, which calls for the annexation of 4,000 acres over the next two decades to meet state-mandated housing goals of 12,400 additional units.

The commission approved this visioning plan, titled "Vision 2025," in February.

The reports, city staff explained, urge Vacaville to become more compact - with jobs and housing in proximity - allowing residents to work near where they live. "The essence is build up and not out," said Ron Rowland, community development director.

Rowland's conclusion: infill alone will not meet the city's objectives for housing and employment.

That's when the debate became heated.

Natalie DuMont, a representative of the Greenbelt Alliance, a Bay Area-based conservation group, authored one of the reports, titled "Vacaville at a Crossroad: The path to smart growth or the highway to sprawl?"

DuMont urged the city to build more apartments and similar multi-story, high density housing in open plots within current limits, without developing huge tracts of surrounding open space.

Commissioner Chuck Dimmick rebutted that developers are wary of such projects in the limited small parcels scattered around the city. "No one on the panel disagrees with infill," he said. "But it's unrealistic as a strategy alone - we would effectively kill growth in Vacaville."

DuMont and those who followed her focused on the section of the city's vision statement that calls for 1,500 acres west of town along Pleasants Valley Road near I-80 to be annexed to build a golf course, corporate offices and 1,300 luxury homes. Another 1,400 acres east of the city at Leisure Town Road along I-80 would be annexed for a similar project.

Rowland argued that annexation of unincorporated lands is needed to satisfy the mandated housing burden and that more apartments have been built in the last five years than single-family homes.

Kevin Clerici can be reached at vacaville@thereporter.com.

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