Developing Neighborhoods, not Subdivisions

By Susan Gorin

Santa Rosa has only a limited amount of vacant land in the urban growth boundary. It is important that we approve development, which will maintain the growth and prosperity of our community, and at the same time protect its livability by providing workforce housing, services and jobs close to housing, and roads designed for bicycles and pedestrians, as well as automobiles.

Santa Rosa residents are angry about the impacts of our rapid residential and commercial growth. Like so many, I am frustrated about traffic congestion, unenforced policies banning ridgeline development and tree preservation, and inadequate infrastructure to provide for that growth.

By encouraging higher-density, mixed use development in the downtown, around transit hubs and along arterial roads, we can encourage people to ride a bus or train, bicycle or walk to services or work. We should also rethink proposals for industrial parks, which contain no housing, restaurants or services.

Our City approves growth, but they don't include our schools into the land use planning process. As a result, schools can only site facilities on the edge of the developed area where they can find parcels of land large enough to accommodate a school campus. This makes it very expensive for the schools and the City to build roads, bicycle lanes and sidewalks for the students to get to school.

My experience in building school facilities will help me to forge collaborations with City, County and Schools to site adjacent schools, parks and other recreational uses. That will help to efficiently utilize expensive infrastructure, use recycled wastewater for irrigation, and construct safe routes for our childen to walk and bicycle.

Our City needs to take a leadership role in implementing traffic calming strategies on neighborhood streets. People are in a hurry to get to their destinations, but they don't realize the impact their travel has on their neighbors. Lining the trees with large trees, constructing bicycle lanes and incorporating traffic roundabouts encourages people to slow down their speeds, give their neighbors some respite, and still move smoothly to their destination. And it helps all of us travel more safely along our streets and through neighborhoods.

My leadership on the Bicycle Advisory Committee and Tree Ordinance Committee demonstrates that I care about the livability of our community and will continue to work to protect our neighborhoods and families.