EDITORIAL: Placer’s Big Choice: Can Supervisors Sketch Growth Boundaries?
By The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Jan. 22–Rocky Rockholm, a new supervisor in Placer County, comes to office with a name that implies strength. On Tuesday, Rockholm will have to live up to his billing. That’s when he will face a vote that may prove to be one of the toughest of his career. It’s an early-career challenge worthy of Rocky Balboa.
On its face, this is a key decision about growth in Placer County and how to plan for it over the next half-century. But the backdrop swirls with nasty local politics and rivalries.
The cast includes mega-developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, whose family failed to oust Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt in last June’s election in one of the baldest power plays in recent memory. Weygandt is in the thick of things now as well. He has been backing a pattern of growth that would exclude some Tsakopoulos land near Roseville. With the decision on that and other contentious questions on the agenda Tuesday, Rockholm may be the swing vote.
The stakes are enormous. Weygandt is trying to convince two other board members to support a unique planning deal with numerous state and federal wildlife agencies. Normally, these agencies review big development projects one at a time. The process can take years. So can the lawsuits.
The deal Weygant is backing (known officially as the Placer Conservation Plan) would do away with this piecemeal approach. The agencies would give a green light to development if they knew what lands (particularly those containing vernal pools) weren’t in the path of growth. This requires Placer to come up with a map that shows the lands for growth and the lands in reserve. These “reserve” lands aren’t automatically open space in perpetuity. Some flexibility would exist.
The map would revolutionize the planning process. Development inside the growth zone would largely be pre-approved in terms of complying with environmental laws. It would give the builders the kind of faster, saner approval process they say they have always wanted. And open space advocates would have a much clearer sense of where the growth would finally stop.
This could be a proverbial win-win. But it all hinges on a map. No map, no deal.
The city of Lincoln has to approve this deal as well. It wants to grow big enough to attract retail outlets to generate sales taxes that flow to the city. So if Lincoln gets to grow, that means other lands have to be on the reserve/open space side of a map. Some land in the reserve zone may include acreage owned by Tsakopoulos, under a map (officially known as Number 14) backed by Weygandt and some Lincoln leaders.
Obviously, not everyone is going to be happy with the outcome of the decisions by Placer supervisors. Frankly, we don’t care whether any given landowner is happy with the outcome or not.
What’s important is that the supervisors adopt a map that makes sense in terms of urban planning, habitat protection and open space enjoyment for hundreds of thousands of Placer residents craving to maintain their quality of life. Placer County will be grateful for generations to come if this board finds a solution.
It all hinges on Tuesday. That is when supervisors must select a tentative map so that the rigorous environmental review process can begin. Weygandt seems ready to endorse a tentative map. So does Supervisor Jim Holmes. Fellow Supervisor Bruce Kranz, who lives on the far right fringe of politics, seems a sure “no” vote. New Supervisor Kirk Uhler is a long shot. So by process of elimination, that leaves Rockholm. Lucky him.
Rockholm is a retired cop with a thick skin. He is also a longtime advocate of sound planning. But he has never had to help draw a map like this or faced this kind of vote.
This showdown is sadly inevitable. But planning with a map is the only sane way for Placer to keep growing. Rockholm has the key hand in shaping the future. Here is to another Rocky saga with a happy ending.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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