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December 3, 2004

Lagoon Valley growth wars near truce

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That's the heart of a proposed agreement among the city, Triad Communities and the San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance. The deal could bring the long-running Lagoon Valley growth wars to a close.

Vacaville City Council members will discuss the proposed agreement when they meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in their chamber at 650 Merchant St.

"I'm glad there's been some compromise," Mayor Len Augustine said Friday.

The council received the agreement the previous night and he still needed to read the legal details, he said. He doesn't know how the entire council will feel about it, he added.

Vice Mayor Pauline Clancy voiced optimism.

"I hate to say that old cliché, but it's kind of a win-win for everybody," she said.

An exception might be the grassroots group Friends of Lagoon Valley. It formed to keep Lagoon Valley from being developed and worked with the Greenbelt Alliance toward that goal.

If the agreement becomes official, Friends of Lagoon Valley might find itself opposing Triad and Vacaville without its former ally.

"Certainly I'm not giving up and my sense of our group is that we're not giving up," said Marian Conning of Friends of Lagoon Valley.

Under the agreement, Triad agrees to decrease the number of homes it would build from 1,325 to 1,025. It would build 100 units of senior housing and 75 units of affordable housing. It would build a smaller business park. It would add 71 acres to Lagoon Valley park.

"We've scaled the project back so much, I really think it can't be scaled back any more and still be viable," said Curt Johansen of Triad.

Triad would also help the Greenbelt Alliance work on a petition to essentially put a 20-year growth boundary around Vacaville. With 10 percent of the voter's signatures, the City Council would either have to adopt the petition as law or put it on the ballot.

The petition would establish the "urban planning zone." Vacaville would be unable to rezone land outside of the zone for anything other than farming or open space without a vote of the people.

Critics say tight growth boundaries can squeeze housing supplies, leading to higher prices.

In this case, Vacaville believes it would have enough land available to avoid restricting the housing supply during the next 20 years, Community Development Director Ron Rowland said. It would also have enough room for more businesses, he said.

Some rural property owners might be upset with the idea, Johansen said. But he's heard from other rural property owners in the area who don't want to develop, he said.

If the attempt to establish this "urban planning zone" fails because of a third-party lawsuit, Triad would make $7 million available to preserve open space. Money could go to the Solano Land Trust.

If the ballot measure loses, Triad would protect 1,400 acres of farms and open space in the Vacaville area.

One way the Land Trust preserves open space and farms is with conservation easements. It finds property owners who voluntarily sell the development rights to their land, while still retaining ownership.

The Greenbelt Alliance agreed to drop a lawsuit challenging the Lagoon Valley development and to support the settlement deal.

Then there's the March 2005 ballot measure challenging the Triad development. Friends of Lagoon Valley collected enough signatures last summer to put the issue to voters.

But the referendum targets changes the City Council made to its Lagoon Valley plan in June. Triad could build the latest version of its proposed community under the city's previous, 1990 plan.

So the City Council could simply rescind the June changes. Then the referendum would be canceled.

Friends of Lagoon Valley cannot challenge the 1990 plan with a ballot measure because too much time has elapsed since the city adopted it.

The Greenbelt Alliance for years has opposed development of Lagoon Valley.

In an ideal world, the valley might have remained as open space, said Brent Schoradt of the group. But Triad had the right to develop under the 1990 Lagoon Valley plan, he said.

"We recognized we weren't going to be able to stop this project," he said.

One concern was that, after lower Lagoon Valley got built, the nearby farmlands of upper Lagoon Valley, Vaca Valley and Pleasants Valley would be developed, he said. That won't happen if the urban plan area is established, he said.

Part of the agreement calls for Triad to offer the Solano Land Trust $1 million after building 525 homes to protect land in those areas. Some of this land may be used to build city storm water ponds to stop downstream flooding.

So the Friends of Lagoon Valley will be without Greenbelt Alliance help in any future battles against Lagoon Valley development. Conning reflected on the loss of an ally.

"It may be this seems the best solution for their long-term goal," Conning said. "Our long-term goal at Friends of Lagoon Valley is to keep Lagoon Valley free of development."

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

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