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City
of Grass Valley Grows Without Sprawl It is a great vanity to think that Nevada County is afflicted by some sort of suburban sprawl. You want to see sprawl? Go to Oxnard, where my dad lives. The nice flat lettuce fields have turned into oceans of houses. And, as you might expect, the thoroughfares leading to the subdivisions are packed with plastic-encrusted mini-malls and fast food restaurants. Fear not. Nevada County is incapable of sustaining suburban sprawl. Projected population increases are insignificant by almost any standard. Our location is marginal for excessive growth as a manufacturing center. The hilly geography is hardly ideal for rapacious building. So don’t count on condos dotting San Juan Ridge any time soon. There will be no flood of factories, followed by subdivisions, followed by Taco Bells. The City of Grass Valley plans to annex several large tracts of land (North Star, Loma Rica, and the Bear River Mill site) over the next few years. But does this create sprawl? Hardly. A city, by definition, is a relatively compact entity. It has every reason to plan for expected growth and development in its sphere of influence. Annexing land is part of the planning, and it’s not an automatic green light for "leapfrog" development. Why annex now? Because annexing incrementally doesn’t get you anything. I’d call immediate annexation a defensive measure. It’s better that the lands in question come under the control of Grass Valley sooner, rather than later, since County government isn’t known for its ability to create general plans or zoning ordinances with any great effectiveness. So, the County shouldn’t be trusted with these tracts, and they’re going to come into the City some day anyway. Besides, the City has a good General Plan, whose development was overseen by a talented and diverse steering committee: 1) Linda Stevens, Councilmember/Vice Mayor; 2) Patty Ingram, Councilmember; 3) Lisa Swarthout, Planning Commissioner; 4) Howard Levine, Planning Commissioner; 5) Paul Aguilar, Member-at-Large; 6) Sharon Boivin, Member-at-Large; 7) Mark Johnson, Member-at-Large (former Mayor); and 8) Paul Schwartz, Member-at-Large. It’s hard to believe these folks made some colossal error in charting the future of the City. Grass Valley has the tools for building a quality city: a solid downtown, water and sewer hookups for new industry, a good staff, a popular city council, and judicious policies for financing infrastructure. No, this isn’t an infomercial for Grass Valley. I just think they’re on the right track. So what’s sprawl, anyway? I’ll tell you what it’s not.
However, sprawl is very real, and must be prevented. But you don’t measure it by population or land use statistics. You don’t prevent it by limiting annexation. Sprawl is a condition spawned by design flaws and endless repetition: everything’s ugly and everything’s the same. It depresses people, and that may be a major reason why they flock here from the cities. Grass Valley’s shopping centers, strip malls, fast food joints and car dealers make us think we have sprawl. They will win no trophies for good design. Let’s resolve to do better in the future. Caution! The encroachment of big box stores and national franchises could make thing worse, as Fast-Buck Cookie-Cutter America comes to town. I’m glad the City of Grass Valley has explained to the Les Schwab and Hollywood Video people that corporate rules of design aren’t our rules. As long as there’s land, there will be concerns about land use. Let’s make sure we address those concerns sensibly. Barry Schoenborn is a technical writer, and a 12-year resident of Nevada County. His column appears the second Saturday of the month. barry@wvswrite.com is his e-mail address. The opinions of columnists are not necessarily those of The Union. |