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Smart Growth
Suburban sprawl--the highly dispersed development pattern
characteristic of the last several decades--has made people
increasingly dependent on automobiles, destroyed good agricultural land
and open sapce, caused the decay of city centers, and created expanses
of housing with no sense of community. According to the
Smart Growth Network, smart growth addresses these problems
and "makes it possible for communities to grow in
ways that support economic development and jobs; create strong
neighborhoods with a range of housing, commercial, and transportation
options; and achieve healthy communities that provide
families with a clean environment."
Following the principles of smarth growth (also called the "new urbanism") is the best way
for Grass Valley to grow in a way that is sustainable and meets the
needs of all its residents. Smart growth principles will ensure that growth
does not become sprawl.
Smart Growth Principles
- Mix land uses
- Take advantage of
compact building design
- Create a range of housing
opportunities and choices
- Create walkable neighborhoods
- Foster distinctive,
attractive communities
with a strong sense of place
- Preserve open space, farmland,
natural beauty, and critical
environmental areas
- Strengthen and direct
development towards existing
communities
- Provide a variety of
transportation choices
- Make development
decisions predictable,
fair and cost effective
- Encourage community and
stakeholder collaboration
in development decisions
To learn more about smart growth, download the Smart Growth Network's excellent guide,
Getting to Smarth Growth: 100 Policies for Implementation. (Requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Improving
the City's Planning Process
Grass Valley has
both long-term and short-term strategies for managing development, and both
are failing to adequately involve the public and to address the problem of rural sprawl.
The long-term strategy is the General Plan. Ideally, a city's
general plan ensures that developers give priority to the needs
and desires of the city's current residents, but Grass Valley's
General Plan does not do this. In allowing 1,700 acres to be added
to the city by 2005 and 6,800 acres by 2020, it is a plan for
explosive growth. We acknowledge that the
General Plan contains some excellent guidance, but these guidelines
are too often ignored. For example, the General Plan emphasizes the
benefits of encouraging redevelopment and new construction within
the current city limits, but the city has not clearly
identified opportunities for development within the city limits and
instead is focused on large parcels at the outskirts of town, some
of which do not have a single border that touches our city limits.
The city's short-term planning is also on a path to failure. The process
works like this: A developer
submits a plan to the city, and then an environmental impact report
is prepared. The public has at least 30 days to comment on these
documents, after which city hall responds to those comments.
This strategy will fail because it begins the
planning process with developers instead of with the public.
Developers tend to submit proposals that maximize their profits and ignore
the needs and desires of the town's citizens. Public input
is received too late, near the end of the process, when all of the
critical decisions have already been made.
Developers resist changes that reduce their profits, and
most city officials are reluctant to require developers to make
major changes.
The city of Grass Valley can make responsible, well-informed decisions
regarding land use and growth only if it incorporates public input into
all stages of the planning process. Toward this end, we advocate public workshops.
These workshops would
precede any major annexation to the city, and they would create a
holistic vision for our city's future. They would produce clear
plans that are nothing more and nothing less than the will of the
people who live here now. Developers are
busy making final preparations to add 1,700 acres to Grass Valley.
Without greater public participation, they will most likely
transform Western Nevada County into a place where many of us would
not want to live.
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Guidelines for Growth and Civic Improvement
- Concentrate development within
the current city limits. There are abundant opportunities for in-fill development.
By concentrating growth near the city center, we can minimize traffic impacts and
ensure the vitality of downtown.
- Annex and develop land closest to already-developed areas. If Grass Valley
annexes all the areas proposed for annexation, the cumulative impact will be severe.
The solution is to annex only those properties that will cause the fewest traffic
problems and the least amount of sprawl.
- Limit growth to the 100 or so new units per year by which Grass Valley has grown
historically. A more rapid pace of growth will overwhelm the ability of city
services and infrastructure to accomodate the growth.
- Improve traffic flow. The existing road system can be improved to
better handle today's increased traffic.
- Promote alternatives to cars. Growth is inevitable, but continued
reliance on automobiles is not. The only way to have growth without worsening
traffic congestion is to get people out of their cars and onto their feet, on bicycles,
and in public transit. City government can play an important role in encouraging all
these forms of alternative transportation.
- Develop more parks and public recreation facilities. Any annexations to
the city must include setting aside land for open space, hiking, walking, horseback
riding, bicycling, playgrounds, etc.
- Build more affordable housing. Our lower-income citizens
need housing they can afford to rent or buy.
- Preserve historical resources. Our Gold-Rush heritage
is an important part of our community identity, and we must do all we can
to preserve what remains of it.
Recommended City Initiatives
- Create a downtown plaza. Redevelopment of the old Gra-Neva property
and adjacent properties should be coordinated in a project that combines
public space, ground-floor commercial space, housing, and hotel.
- Take action to develop affordable housing. The experience of other
communities points to public-private partnerships as the best way to develop
quality housing that is truly affordable for those
with low and modest incomes. We call on the city to take a leading role in affordable-housing
development, and not to rely solely on private, for-profit developers.
- Open up and restore Wolf Creek. As part of the redevelopment
of the Gra-Neva property, we urge the city to approve a plan that includes
opening up Wolf Creek.
| MORE
| Why care about creeks? |
- Complete a trail along Wolf Creek. The General Plan has called for the creation
of a trail along Wolf for 35 years. We want city government to take this goal seriously.
| MORE |
- Renovate Elizabeth Daniels park. This little park on Neal St. can
be transformed into a beautiful gem. The city's general plan calls for its renovation,
and the money exists. We urge the city to move forward on this project.
- Make Grass Valley more bicycle-friendly. More people will get out of their
cars if the city promotes bicycle transportation, builds bicycle paths, widens the shoulders
of our streets, and takes bicycles into consideration in the design of intersections.
Citizen Wish List
The following is a list of ideas for improving the city submitted
by Grass Valley residents. They do not necessarily represent the views
of Grass Valley Neighbors. To submit your own ideas,
email the webmaster or post them to the Grass Valley Neighbors discussion
list (
http://www.topica.com/lists/GVD).
- "Let's open up Wolf Creek, make a plaza, and plant trees.
Someday people will look back and say,
'do you remember when downtown Grass Valley had no creek or plaza or trees?'"
(Shirley Benedick)
- Plant trees in the Safeway parking lot.
- Improve the lighting in the Safeway parking lot. "These days,
a modernized parking lot should have high
intensity cut-off lighting, good building periphery lighting, carefully
thought-out entrance lighting, up-lighting, etc." (Lynton)
- Close Mill Street to through traffic. "I would like to see the Mill
Street commercial block closed to auto traffic. A designer could arrange
outdoor sitting/eating areas with suitable shade maybe using local materials.
Make it a place to spend the day, one of the few places where a person can walk
to get everything he/she needs." (Margaret).
- Put a large multi-story parking lot on the edge of town
and limit automobile access to downtown. (Shirley Benedick)
- Commission local artists to paint a mural on the Main Street side of
the building at the corner of Mill and Main Streets. Now it is just a big blank
brick wall. (Eric Engles)
- Create a walking trail around Crown Point Circle in
Whispering Pines Business
Park so that exercising employees don't risk getting
run over. (Anonymous)
- Have CalTrans put a "next exit 5 mi" sign at the last GV exit on Hwy 20
heading west out of town, so that those who wish to remain in GV don't have
to choose between going all the way to Penn Valley and making an illegal
U-turn in 65mph traffic. (Anonymous)
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