Sonoma’s City Council recently confirmed its goals for 2025, and among them they endorsed implementing Greenlinks Infrastructure planning, an approach that places the creation of healthy and public-serving spaces at the center of development.
With all that’s going on right now – the uncertainty emanating out of Washington D.C. about tariffs, trade wars, peace negotiations, federal department employee cuts, the economy, and so forth – two facts remain intact. People are going to continue to live here, and our climate is changing. We need to plan accordingly. Greenlinks takes both facts into consideration.
The Greenlinks concept is quite simple: as development occurs it should include and incorporate safe, attractive and interesting passage for people. This can include paths for walking and biking, off-road shortcuts and pathways through developments, setting aside land adjacent to creeks and streams – an overall approach about designing everyday movement in a way that invites people in, making the city itself an experience. Plus, there’s a major public health benefit to well-designed outdoor spaces.
Greenlinks will be incorporated into the City of Sonoma’s new General Plan, and its impact will be long-lasting and far-reaching. The existing walking and biking paths will be linked to other pathways throughout the city, gradually forming a connected, accessible mobility network, without automobiles.
This approach is not only environmentally sound, but also in line with the direction the State of California is going. The payoff includes more trees and landscaping, lower carbon emissions, fewer heat “islands,” more recreational opportunities, and even financial benefits.
The City of Sonoma is already a very popular, world-class tourist destination, and our local economy is dependent upon it. But a changing climate is already impacting the wine industry and grape production, and alongside changing consumer tastes, wine may not continue to be the magnet it’s been. That means developing other reasons for people to come visit Sonoma and for businesses to locate here.
If we become well-known as a beautiful place to walk, bike, jog, and hike, we can continue to attract tourists and business dollars. Greenlinks planning is the way to do that. Diversifying our economy is not just about attracting new types of businesses but about attracting new types of visitors. Enjoying a reputation for being a safe, comfortable, and beautiful place to visit, and making improvements accordingly is probably a safer path forward than others.
Investing effort into creating new brick and mortar retail is not safe; consumer buying habits have changed too much. So too, large office-based businesses; working remotely is here to stay. Even creating new hotels is no guarantee; the popularity of AirBnB proves that. For better or worse, it’s tourism that pays the bills, and eco-tourism is the healthiest way to promote it.
We already enjoy some wonderful Greenlinks infrastructure: The Montini and Overlook Trails, the bike path between Maxwell Park and Lovall Valley Road, the Fryer Creek path off Third Street West that runs to Leveroni Road, the trail alongside Sonoma Creek that begins near Staples, for example. Now imagine all these connected to each other through a safe network of passages and paths shaded by trees, all easily viewable on a map. That’s the Greenlinks idea.
We commend the City Council and the dedicated community members who worked long and hard to bring this vision to life. Kudos!
Be First to Comment