“Editorial: A realistic road map for county's growth - Sacramento Bee” plus 1 more |
| Editorial: A realistic road map for county's growth - Sacramento Bee Posted: The correct path is now clearly marked for Sacramento County's long-range growth guide. If county supervisors take an unfortunate detour, it'll be obvious that they're being driven by deep-pocketed developers, not common sense or planning expertise. A consultant's final report, released late Thursday, states unequivocally that the county should not open up huge swaths of land for new development. An early draft of the county's 2030 general plan update called for adding 8,000 acres along Grant Line Road near Rancho Cordova and 12,000 acres along Jackson Road/Highway 16 to the urban growth area. But that was before the recession. Now, nowhere near that much land is needed to meet the expected demand for new housing. Indeed, the demand can be met with projects already in the pipeline, plus allowing development in a relatively small area west of Watt near McClellan Business Park. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments had originally projected that another 99,700 housing units would be required in the unincorporated county by 2030. Its official estimate has been lowered to about 74,400, and is expected to be cut even further to about 55,000 units by 2035. Design, Community & Environment, a Berkeley-based land use and planning firm hired by the county, issued an important caution as well: Expanding the urban growth area too much will make it difficult to comply with regional and state "smart growth" and climate change policies and laws, will conflict with the proposed habitat conservation plan in south Sacramento County and will create a huge and expensive challenge for the county to provide necessary infrastructure. The Building Industry Association disagrees with the DC&E report, arguing that it would amount to changing the rules at the end of the game and would be unfair to companies that have been pursuing projects under earlier projections. County supervisors will be beseeched by landowners and builders to open up more parcels for development, including possibly in North Natomas, where some landowners would prefer that the county, not the city of Sacramento, set the ground rules for growth. The consultant's report lays out a process to deal with those requests as well. They should be judged on a case-by-case basis and approved only if they follow smart-growth guidelines that encourage higher-density projects, mass transit and shorter commutes, and if they show how water and sewer lines, roads and other infrastructure would be financed. New subdivisions should be next to existing urban growth or city boundaries and near employment centers, thus avoiding the hopscotch development that invariably leads to sprawl. Steve Szalay, the county's interim executive who wisely called a timeout last fall on the general plan update and hired the consultant, is on board with the new and improved approach. County planners are expected to basically go along as well. Supervisors, who are scheduled to resume their debate on the plan next month and adopt it in May, ought to follow suit. A repeat of the housing boom and bust is the last thing we need. © Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.  This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Pike hikes will be easier with newly published map booklet - Pocono Record Posted: 'Pike Outdoors: A Public Lands Guide for Sportsmen and Outdoor Enthusiasts'contributed photo  February 13, 2011 If you are going to draw every known public hiking trail in the county, it helps to walk on some of them. Field work was the best part of drawing all new Pike County public land maps, says resource conservationist Scott Boyce of Pike County Conservation District. Boyce explored some of the seldom-seen sites in Pike, such as Stairway Lake in Westfall, accessible only on foot. He has just completed a year-long project bringing together maps of state game lands, Delaware State Forest and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. In some cases, hiking trails cross from one land to another. Trail users would have to hold two maps together and hope the trail was on both maps. "Our tourism material kind of scanned over sportsmen," Boyce said. Many people want to explore but don't know what land features and trails are beyond the forest's edge. The project, made possible by an $8,000 grant to the Pike County Planning Commission from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, is completed with the printing of the free map booklet, "Pike Outdoors: A Public Lands Guide for Sportsmen and Outdoor Enthusiasts." The map collection will be useful to hunters, anglers and geocachers because there are many landmarks, such as lookout towers, lakes and streams, that will make it easier to navigate the forest. The booklet will be distributed at the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg and will soon be available throughout Pike County. The maps are also available online at pikepa.org/Planning/PikeCounty_Public Lands.pdf. Reader Reaction We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment. New comments are only accepted for two weeks from the date of publication. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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