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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

June 15, 2003

County eyes making parks district

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It's like the phoenix emerging from the ashes - slowly.

The last attempt to create a such a district crashed and burned in spring 2002. The county Board of Supervisors squashed the effort amid an outcry from a farming community worried about parks and trails near their farms.

"We clearly tried to do too much too fast," county Supervisor Duane Kromm said.

Steps to revive the dream are tentative. They amount to a few paragraphs in a 68-page county parks and recreation plan that looks at many other issues as well.

But the Planning Commission on June 5 approved the draft parks plan. The supervisors will discuss the parks plan at their June 24 meeting. They could make it - and the parks district recommendation - part of the county General Plan.

Last year's failed attempt contemplated having a tax to fund an open space district. A map showed not only parks, but community buffers, areas targeted for preservation and a countywide trail system.

Farmers and private property advocates saw the map and flocked to supervisors meetings to protest.

The revived, scaled-down effort focuses on parks and recreation. It would create a kind of local version of the East Bay Regional Park District that runs Tilden, Briones, Black Diamond Mines and other parks in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.

Consider the creation of a countywide regional parks district, the draft parks plan recommends. A feasibility study could cost $25,000 for county staff time or consultants costs and be completed within a year, it says.

Kromm advocates forming a district. He envisions it as initially having a governing board, but no money.

Who would sit on this governing board is among the many details that would have to be worked out. The previous, failed open space district attempt contemplated a board with five elected members, two mayors, two supervisors and two agricultural representatives.

The governing board could work on a ballot measure for a tax to pay for parks.

If the taxed passed, the dream of a huge regional park in the hills between Fairfield and Vallejo could become a reality. The Solano Land Trust owns 2,614 acres of open space there with its King Ranch and Lynch Canyon, but has no money for rangers, trails and other things needed to run a park.

Even with the baby steps, the idea of creating a parks district has drawn criticism. The Solano County Farm Bureau wrote a letter to the county saying simply that it opposes having a district.

President Paul Lum in an interview read a statement explaining the bureau's position.

"It appears to be another governing body that could tax individuals to maintain trails," Lum said. "It appears property owners would be taxed for upkeep and maintenance."

The bureau also opposes having regional parks near to farming operations, for fear that the parks would hurt agriculture.

Others are enthusiastic about the idea of a parks district.

The Greenbelt Alliance lists itself as a member of a group called Friends of Solano Regional Park District. The alliance uses the phone number of its Fairfield based office - 428-2308 - to enlist new members.

Solano is projected to be the fastest-growing Bay Area county, the Friends Web site said. Yet Solano is one of only two Bay Area counties without a parks district to meet outdoor recreation needs, it said. Napa County is the other.

The Web site lists the East Bay Regional Park District as an example of what's been done elsewhere.

There are at least three ways to create a regional parks district. They are:

-- Have citizens collect signatures on a petition calling for a ballot measure and present the petition to the Board of Supervisors.

-- Convince the Legislature to pass a law allowing Solano County supervisors to approve a ballot measure for a regional parks district without a petition. This has been done in other counties.

-- Convince the Legislature to create a Solano County regional parks district, with no ballot measure. This has been done in other counties.

Which way Solano County will proceed - if it even wants to proceed - are questions that the Board of Supervisors must answer.

Barry Eberling can be contacted at beberling@dailyrepublic.net.

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