Smart Growth

By Susan Gorin

Growth that satisfies community needs and enhances the quality of citizen's lives, not development for the sake of developers.

Dense housing on tiny lots is being squeezed into whatever space is available all over the city with little understanding of what creates a neighborhood. This is not "smart growth." But this is what is being built here now.

Higher-density affordable housing is mixed with commercial services, so that people can walk or bicycle to services on inviting streets or walkways. Green space or plaza is designed for residents to gather while children play. Transit or bicycle connections can efficiently serve this kind of development to discourage cars on our roads. Where do you find that in Santa Rosa?

Sadly, our city is decades behind cities of comparable size in planning for Smart growth.

Vision

Smart Growth will happen when we have leaders who demand it--starting with our downtown. I will continue to promote mixed-use development, linking retail and commercial uses with housing for all income levels--development that benefits our city AND serves our neighborhoods. And I will always fight to make sure our growth pays its own way and protects our environmental quality of life.

Action Plan for our Future

o Update our General Plan

o Overlay Smart Growth zoning over those opportunity sites appropriate for higher-density, mixed-use development, connecting neighbors with services, schools and jobs on streets designed for transit, pedestrians and bicycles.

o Guide our future development to match infrastructure.

o Revitalize our downtown with higher-density mixed-use projects

o Reunite Courthouse Square to increase our sense of community by providing open space for our workers, shoppers and downtown residents to gather, recreate, and bring our community together for events and activities.

o Build residential units downtown for all income levels to give our community alternatives for living and create an important level of activity throughout the day and night.

o Encourage new development to include spaces appropriate for essential services, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, bakeries, child care centers, fitness centers, and professional services.

o Link downtown with our community using alternative forms of transportation, including transit, bicycle and pedestrian connections.

o Develop comprehensive parking policies and strategies to improve parking efficiency and lessen our demands for more parking space.

Plan for our infrastructure needs and develop a plan to pay for them

o Growth must pay its own way. Currently, our infrastructure significantly lags behind the growth.

o Review our infrastructure needs, including roads, parks, public safety services, community centers and maintenance issues. Prioritize them.

o Develop a financing structure to complete them.

Resolve the city/county issues in Roseland

Roseland residents need the city and county to work together to resolve the annexation issues so that services and infrastructure needs can be addressed.

Provide strong direction to preserve and protect our cultural and natural resources

I'm committed to preserving the best of our historical and cultural assets in our neighborhoods and downtown. I will also continue the work of Steve Rabinowitsh and others to restore our creeks, protect our riparian corridors and wetlands, and plan development around the preservation of our trees, wetlands, ridgetops, and hillsides.