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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
April 15, 2007
The growth myth
The signs of
urban sprawl are everywhere -- our freeways, our neighborhoods, our
city borders. But in 5 years, Sonoma County's population has stood
still
Martin Espinoza
The signs of Sonoma County growth assault us,
from Highway 101 gridlock to new houses pressing against fields to sprouting
condominiums, feeding the notion that we are being inundated with people.
But the recent truth is quite the opposite. Over the past five years, Sonoma
County has seen little population growth.
The county grew by a minuscule 1,000 people from 2001 through 2006, according
to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. A more robust estimate of 12,767 new
residents during that period comes from the state, but that's still a growth
rate of less than half a percent a year for a county that has reached a population
of 480,805.
In contrast, the state as a whole has grown twice as fast during that span.
Sonoma County's rate of population growth has been steadily declining since the
explosive expansion of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. This decade, hit early on
by a high-tech collapse and significant job losses, has seen growth bottom out.
Now, some economists and local officials wonder why anyone would think there's
a continuing growth problem.
"We don't have runaway growth; we've actually grown very little in the last
few years," said Bob Jehn, a Cloverdale council member and chairman of
the Sonoma County Transportation Authority.
Jehn said people react emotionally to what they experience. They say "this
traffic is worse; it's worse than it was last week, worse than it was last
year, so people must still be moving here."
"The biggest thing is the traffic," he said. "People don't think
about the fact that we haven't widened 101 since it was built in the 1950s."
Jehn said that changing commute patterns also have added to traffic congestion,
with cities north of Santa Rosa having grown at a faster pace than the core population
area.
"Now we're in a situation where we're doing pretty much infill, we're built
out," he said.
Nobody should be surprised at the stagnant population numbers, said Keith Woods,
CEO of the North Coast Builders Exchange.
"The days of rapid growth ended in the '70s and '80s," Woods said. "We
live in a bumper-sticker-mentality world where it's too easy to say we're becoming
another San Jose."
While births and newly arriving foreign immigrants, both legal and illegal, have
added people to the county over the past five years, there has been a steady
loss from people moving out. More residents left -- almost 4,000 -- than came
in from other parts of California and the country, according to statistics from
the California Department of Finance.
In the 1970s, when rapid growth was occurring throughout the Bay Area -- and
Sonoma County's population was growing at nearly 9 percent a year -- there were
few growth controls in place.
The growth decline started in the late 1980s when San Francisco lost its role
as a booming jobs center. That reduced the influx of commuters into Sonoma County
seeking cheaper housing.
The slowdown continued into the 1990s at the same time that political pressure
to limit city expansion intensified.
"The public has said we want slow growth around here and now they've got
it," Woods said.
Chuck Regalia, Santa Rosa's director of community development, said much of the
recent development has been city-centered.
He said people are reacting to what they see, which may mean "that a lot
that's been vacant all these years is getting a development."
The focus on infill is welcome news to environmentalists who were instrumental
in winning slow-growth policies across the county.
Daisy Pistey-Lyhne, Sonoma-Marin field representative for the Greenbelt Alliance,
said city-centered growth revitalizes communities where people can easily walk
or ride a bicycle or public transit to work or school
"We're creating better, more interesting communities in Sonoma County as
we grow," she said.
Many of the new developments people are seeing now were started during the housing
boom that has tanked over the last year, said Ben Stone, executive director of
the Sonoma County Economic Development Board.
In Santa Rosa, with the exception of 2005 when housing prices peaked, the number
of permits for new residential units has been consistently fewer than 900 since
2001, when 1,600 units were permitted.
Countywide, 16,207 residential building permits were issued from 2000 through
2006, an addition of about 1 percent a year to the housing stock.
The ongoing construction of new homes, combined with slow sales because of the
sluggish real estate market, has contributed to a doubling of the home vacancy
rate. From 2000 to 2005, the rate has risen to 1.7 percent, according to Census
estimates. The rental vacancy rate rose to 5 percent.
Growth restrictions, urban growth boundaries in each of the county's nine cities
except Cloverdale, and limits on the number of homes built each year are forcing
developers to focus on city-centered building.
"We're already beginning to see the future in terms of more density, more
infill and more mixed use," Stone said. "You see it with mixed use
projects in Windsor and Petaluma's theater district. It's a much more efficient
use of land."
The pattern has forced some builders to look elsewhere for business opportunities.
Santa Rosa-based Schellinger Homes started aggressively pursuing projects outside
the county in 2000.
"We've built in Woodland, we've built in Winters," Joe Ripple, a spokesman
for Schellinger, said. "The majority of companies here that have local
roots are having to look elsewhere if they're going to remain a viable home-building
company."
Ripple said growth restrictions have helped drive up home prices and have made
Sonoma County a more exclusive community.
Cobblestone Homes ventured into the Central Valley as a response to local building
restrictions.
But because the housing market there also has softened, the company has come
back to the county and is focusing on high-density housing within urban growth
boundaries.
Maurice Lockwood, company vice president, said Sonoma County will continue
to grow, but with more "foresight" than in the past.
"We're growing more intelligently," he said. "(It) used to be
that urban sprawl would eat up more land. Now we're doing it with more finesse
and better design."
Library researchers Teresa Meikle and Michele Van Hoeck contributed to this
report. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com
Traffic
It seems like congestion on Highway 101 is like a newly clogged artery. Actually,
gridlock reflects changing commute patterns within Sonoma County and increasing
traffic from cities north of Santa Rosa. The freeway is only now getting
its first widening through Santa Rosa -- and eventually farther north --
since it was built in the 1950s.
Boundaries
Every city in Sonoma County, with the exception of Cloverdale, has adopted
urban growth boundaries that dictate where growth stops and agricultural
fields and unspoiled hillsides begin. The lines drawn on city planning
maps have been instrumental in halting urban sprawl and restricting growth
patterns.
At the same time, a countywide tax is being used to buy and preserve land
for open space.
Urban infill
Condos built atop businesses in Windsor and Petaluma; planned high-rise condominums
rising from downtown Santa Rosa -- they represent the trend to city-centered
growth. The idea, now policy across much of the county, is to concentrate
housing and commercial development within city limits. The goal is a town
where people can walk, ride a bicycle or take public transit to work or school.;
Every city in Sonoma County, with the exception of Cloverdale, has adopted
urban growth boundaries that dictate where growth stops and agricultural fields
and unspoiled hillsides begin. The lines drawn on city planning maps have been
instrumental in halting urban sprawl and restricting growth patterns. At the
same time, a countywide tax is being used to buy and preserve land for open
space.
