COMMUNITY SEPARATOR GREENBELTS

Talking Points for 1st District Public Workshop

4:00 PM - 6:00 PPM, Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Kenwood Fire Department, 9045 Highway 12, Kenwood, CA 95452

Renew and Strengthen Community Separators

Speak up for the farms and greenbelt lands around your community!

Preserve what we have – current protections expire after 20 years in 2016!

Renew Community Separatorswith November 2016 Ballot Measure

  • Renew voter protections for the existing Glen Ellen-Agua Caliente Community Separator and community separators countywidein a ballot measure in November2016.
  • Extend voter protections for all community separator for 30 years or more.
  • Strengthen policies within community separators to protect natural resources and agricultural lands and prevent commercialization.

Build on our Success!

Support Sonoma County’s plan to implement long overdue community separators as to keep agriculture and open space intact for future generations through a General Plan Amendment in 2016:

  • Designate unprotected priority greenbelts identified by the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District in Sonoma Valley and across Sonoma County.
  • Designate community separators around Penngrove and Cloverdale, per county General Plan.

Add to Sonoma County’s Open Space and Agricultural Legacy!

  • Designate natural lands around the Sonoma Developmental Center and Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor as community separators and consider adding other undeveloped lands in Sonoma Valley.
  • Prioritize Community Separator Lands with important natural resource values:
  • Groundwater recharge areas, waterways, important farm and grazing lands, natural habitat

General Points

  • Community separators:
  • Prevent sprawl between our towns and cities.
  • Maintain community identity and rural character.
  • Protect farm land, open space, waterways, forests and wildlife.
  • Preserve what we have by protecting open lands from commercial development.
  • Allow agricultural operations.
  • Allow all existing zoning and land uses at current densities.
  • Benefit our economy, human health, environment and quality of life.
  • Sonoma County voters approved community separator protections by more than 70 percent in a countywide election in 1996 for 20 years, expiring in 2016.
  • A poll commissioned by Greenbelt Alliance found that more than 75 percent of voters surveyed would vote yes on a measure today to renew voter protections and strengthen community separators.
  • Community separators and the greenbelts they protect are more important than ever as our county grows and development pressures increase.
  • We don’t need to build in our greenbelts to provide housing and jobs. We can accommodate growth within the boundaries of our cities, towns and priority development areas.
  • In Sonoma County more than 10,000 units of housing have been approved but never built, due to a number of market factors – not because of greenbelt protection.
  • Sprawl is more expensive than city-centered growth and has more costs than benefits in terms of city budgets, human health, and the environment.

Contact Teri Shore, Greenbelt Alliance, 707-575-3661

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