Avoiding sprawl in Colusa

Dear Editor,

I saw the ad in the Colusa County Sun Herald showing two examples of sprawl that has the new American Farmland Trust report, Paving Paradise: a new perspective on California Farmland Conversion, suggests that county supervisors avoid in the future to protect their high quality farmland.  The new report shows the conversion of this high quality farmland to urban uses from 1990 - 2004 in the Central Valley as well as the rest of the state.

The report highlights three important points if California counties want to protect their highest quality farmland: 1) Direct growth away from the highest quality farmland toward less productive land; 2) Develop land as efficiently as possible so as not to waste what we must convert; 3) Avoid rural ranchette development that fuels land speculation and drives up land costs.

Both examples of sprawl described in the ad shows how inefficient this type of growth is and how counties, like Colusa, who want to protect their best farmland must avoid these types of developments.  American Farmland Trust supports building within the current city and community spheres of influence.

As the report states, it will take a concerted and sustained effort to promote infill in existing areas of development, to increase residential development efficiencies, to reduce the amount of land devoted to roads and parking lots, and to curb the spread of ranchettes.

To learn more, you can check out the report online at www.farmland.org/california.  If you have any questions or would like a hard copy of the report, please contact my office at (530) 755-1644.

Mike Darnell 

California Policy Director

American Farmland Trust