Campaign for Common Ground Op-Ed Article

Published in The Record

Sunday, December 2, 2007

 

Do you ever wonder what kind of city Stockton will become in 20 or 30 years?

Will it grow into a place that's friendly, safe and prosperous?  Will Stockton finally get some respect and become a city to which people want to move?  Will there be enough good jobs, clean water, healthy air and efficient transit and roadways?  Will there be agricultural land left between Stockton and Lodi?

Now is the time to ask and answer these questions.

The city's General Plan is being updated for the first time since 1990.  We've spoken out and tried to influence the plan.  We've pressed to have smart growth principles and policies inserted.  We opposed some development projects and supported others.  We haven't had much luck convincing city staff members or planning commissioners to include our ideas and concepts.

The city's plan is based upon all future projects every developer wants to build during the next 30 years.  This plan would allow:

» Enough growth to double Stockton's population from 290,000 to almost 600,000 (2.5 percent annual growth rate over 30 years).

» Another 100,000 houses would be built.

» Almost two-thirds of the new houses to be located on greenfields on the edges of the city limits.

» No affordable housing.

» A.G.  Spanos Cos., Arnaiz Corp.  and others to pave over 6,700 acres of farm land north of Eight Mile Road and 2,000 acres south of Weston Ranch.

» Spanos to build an expansion of the shopping mall at Eight Mile Road and Interstate 5, sucking the life out of downtown and the malls on Pacific Avenue.

» Traffic levels to more than double on streets and highways.

We proposed a Citizens Alternative Plan. However, members of the Planning Commission refused to consider most of our policies.

They include:

» A 2 percent annual growth rate that's adequate to let Stockton grow from 290,000 residents to about 480,000.

» Another 70,000 houses being built.

» Three-quarters of new housing units being infill development inside existing city boundaries.

» The remaining 25 percent of housing being dense, compact villages at the city's edge.

» No housing development north of Eight Mile Road or south of Weston Ranch.

» Twenty percent of all new housing being affordable to low- and moderate-income buyers.

» Developers funding bus rapid transit on key north-south arteries.

 

It's up to us.  Can we shake our apathy and cynicism and get involved in growth issues?  Will we stop letting developers and land speculators make all the big decisions?  Or will we sit back complacently while they plant palm trees and turn Stockton into Los Angeles north?

 

Ann Johnston, Eric Parfrey, Patrick Johnston

Campaign for Common Ground, Stockton

 

 

 

 

 

 

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