As reported to the Northern California Environmental Grassroots Fund, which gererously provided a grant to the Rural Quality Foundation in 2006-2007.
Open space preservation within major growth/annexation areas of Grass Valley. Achieved major reduction in proposed housing units of 3 of the 4 major development/annexation areas surrounding Grass Valley to very closely match the General Plan. This was our goal and resulted in reduction of housing unit proposals from 2,750 to 650 units. The fourth project has been reduced substantially (1,200 units to 700), but we are working on seeing further reductions in this proposal, again to mirror the General Plan. The revisions of the first three projects also resulted in an increase of public open space of 480 acres. We expect to come close to our original goal of retaining 1,500 acres of open space on all four properties – perhaps 900 to 1,000 acres.
Reduction of Deer Creek Park 2 subdivision in rural Nevada City and major open space preservation. Through our educational efforts, influenced preservation of another 300 acres of open space and a major trail via project reduction of 70%, from 192 units to 62 units.
Retention of 150,000 population cap in Nevada County General Plan. We have been able to keep any discussion of revising this cap off the table through continued public education on its importance.
Yuba Highlands sprawl, technical expertise. Our Land Use Projects Director has been able to provide technical expertise to another organization which is educating the public about problems associated with the potential approval of this project (5,100 homes-15,000 population) in neighboring Yuba County. This project has received regional press interest in the past year because of its sprawling nature with potential global warming impacts due to its distance from area jobs and shopping.
Agricultural land preservation. We have been active in providing technical expertise to the Nevada County Agricultural Advisory Board on how to better implement the General Plan’s agriculture protection policies.
Countywide Open Space District/ Expansion of Empire Mine State Park. We are continuing to educate the public and decision makers on this proposal and hope to apply for funds to prepare a fiscal study and move forward on it in 2008. We continue to work on acquisition of a 200 acre expansion area to the Empire Mine State Park.