Greenbelt Alliance In the News
May 9, 2004
Despite growth
curbs, expect tens of thousands to pour in
Subheading
By
Kiley Russell
The rules that govern how and where cities
can grow have changed
since the older, western suburbs matured, but Eastern Contra Costa
County's population boom is poised to continue well into the future.
Despite sundry land use restrictions, East County, now home to about
235,000 people, is expected to add about 80,000 new residents by
2015, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments.
"In the last few years, you've seen a variety of ballot measures
to
limit growth and county efforts to limit growth in certain areas.
There's been a much more active discussion about controlling and
shaping growth," said Paul Fassinger, the association's research
director.
Brentwood, Antioch and the county all have some kind of growth
control measure in place. Oakley has preserved 1,200 acres of prime
real estate as open space, and three countywide ballot measures that
focus on growth controls or that have growth control provisions are
expected to be headed to a vote this year.
Brentwood, Oakley, Pittsburg and the county are working on a
voluntary habitat conservation plan to preserve up to 34,800 acres of
open space. Contra Costa set aside 11,000 acres southeast of
Brentwood to be used exclusively as farmland and the city of
Brentwood has a new agricultural land trust program.
While voters are receptive to "local control" and property
rights
rhetoric, political candidates in East County are more likely to be
rewarded by the electorate when they talk about growth controls or
"smart growth" principals than they were in the past.
"In times gone past, you saw very subtle messages about growth.
Now,
people are starting to act out more about it," said Federal Glover,
a
county supervisor whose district includes Pittsburg, Antioch, Oakley
and Bethel Island.
"We know we're going to have to revisit where the (urban limit)
line
is because of housing, but we can't turn our backs on the fact that
we don't have the transportation infrastructure and other
infrastructure that can accommodate more growth," Glover said.
That is a sentiment expressed regularly by city and county officials,
yet each incorporated city has plans to annex more land or to move
the urban limit line, which is intended to keep suburban development
in check. Each city has plenty of tract home development and strip
malls planned for the next 10 to 20 years and the county has plans
for thousands of new homes west of Discovery Bay as well as between
Bethel Island and Oakley.
The pressures to build are intense, local decision makers say.
There are the state Department of Housing and Community Development's
"fair share" housing goals for each city. There is the economic
imperative of a cash-strapped state government dipping into local tax
revenues more and more, which makes developer fees more and more
attractive to cities.
There is the broadly accepted philosophical tenet that local land use
decisions should be made by local elected officials, many of whom are
responding to market and regional migration factors when they approve
new housing in their towns.
"How do you say no to development when you have all these other
things telling you that you need to build?" said Brentwood Mayor
Brian Swisher.
So while residents bitterly complain about the gridlock on Highway 4
and dangerously overcrowded Vasco Road, packed schools and the loss
of the area's rural and blue-collar roots, the growth won't end for
years to come.
That hasn't stopped environmental groups from trying to corral
suburban development in the region.
"I'm hoping the urban limit line doesn't move in that area. I'm
hoping that there's enough public support for better land use
policies in that area that actually Brentwood and Antioch adopt their
own growth boundaries," said Evelyn Stivers of Greenbelt Alliance.
Besides, "the fights are narrowing" because not much land is
left
that hasn't been developed, zoned for development or protected,
Stivers said.
Antioch's last real fight on the suburban fringe is over the 2,165
acres to its east known as Roddy Ranch and the adjacent 1,070 acres
of the Ginochio property, both of which the city would like to
develop as "exclusive," high-end residential neighborhoods.
"Other than the agricultural core, (Brentwood) has nowhere to go
so
it shouldn't be so hard for them in the next 10 years to decided not
to destroy their ag core," Stivers said. "It's no longer the
case
that everything between Mount Diablo and the cities is up for grabs."
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