Protecting Greenbelts in Sonoma

The need to renew and enhance the protection of greenbelts between towns and cities, the areas in which no major development can take place, will be presented to the Sonoma Valley Citizens Advisory Commission on Wednesday, August 26, by Greenbelt Alliance.

“Community separators protect greenbelts between cities, towns and communities and preserve rural character and prevent sprawl,” said Teri Shore of Greenbelt Alliance, a Sonoma Valley resident.

The County’s eight community separators cover 17,000 acres of natural and farm lands. In Sonoma Valley, 1,400 acres of lands between Glen Ellen and Agua Caliente are designated as a community separator.

For more than 20 years, community separator policies have prevented housing tracts and shopping malls from sprawling into greenbelts,” Shore said.

Next year, the voter-backed measures that keep the community separators in place expire. They passed in 1996 with more than 70 percent of the countywide vote.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will decide in September whether to simply renew the existing community separators or to consider updating the policies and boundaries to reflect current science and community interest.

“We need to start now to build support for a ballot measure in next year’s general election that will renew, strengthen and add priority greenbelt lands to community separator designations,” said Shore. “Otherwise we risk opening the door to new development with a simple majority vote of the board of supervisors.”

The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at the City Council chambers 177 First Street West.