General Plan Update

Editor: Last Wednesday night the Windsor Council decided on the 2040 General Plan Preferred Alternative.  Where did the process go wrong? Or did it?
This Preferred Alternative was created with the Council voting on each of 10 different focus areas comprising about 80 percent of the Town’s footprint. Each focus area had between two and eight different alternatives for zoning which described housing densities, commercial and both light and heavy industrial areas, as well as sites for possible parks, open spaces and schools. Public input was noted with the public rating each focus area from most to least desirable. Council majority voted for the preferred alternative in each focus area and in turn these alternatives then made up the overall “Preferred Alternative.”
I questioned the focus area process from its very inception. I couldn’t then and cannot now understand how decisions on a Preferred Alternative can be made without looking at the consequences of the choices in terms of number of people we are planning for, traffic and congestion issues and basic concepts that the Town of Windsor desires to keep a small town character and not become the City of Windsor. While the legal term city and town have no real distinction, I have heard from you that there is a strong desire to manage the amount of growth in conjunction with preserving open space and promoting agriculture.
The Council agreed in Focus Area #1, that area north of Arata Lane and east of Hwy. 101 which includes the Vineyard of Faith church, could accommodate new housing as well as some commercial mixed-use and a possible school site. A positive for determining this as part of the Preferred Alternative included better traffic circulation than other areas in Town with the Los Amigos Road realignment and north bound 101 on ramp currently in our future plans.
Next, the Council majority voted to approve for housing the existing agricultural lands in Focus Areas #2 North of Jensen, #3 South of Jensen and #4 South of Pleasant. Currently these lands are mostly vineyard and all on our eastern border with the majority of land within the Urban Growth Boundary but not incorporated into the Town as yet. Results of all the community outreach including the 2015 telephone survey and the three focus area workshops held in March of this year, stated that those who took the time to weigh in felt the best use of these areas was to continue the agriculture uses. You voted to have these areas remain the same for now and for the duration of the new General Plan to 2040. In contrast, the Council majority voted for housing developments.
So very similar is what is happening today to that which happened 20 years ago in our first General Plan process. That first Town Council looked at Windsor’s sphere of influence as an opportunity for growth while others living here desired to preserve open space and stop urban sprawl. It took the 1994 Council election, the replacement of the original consultants with a new and more forward thinking group and a new Town Manager to complete that first General Plan process and set the stage for some of what we see today.
There is no need for these lands on our eastern border to become tracts of houses. The roads are not there. The folks who live there don’t seem to want it. The sewer and water are not there. But what is there is valuable agricultural land currently in production. There are better areas within the Town and there is more than enough land to accommodate our needs for growth. Do we believe in stopping sprawl, preserving open space and supporting agriculture? How much do we have to grow after all and at what price? Let your thoughts be known. Come to a Council meeting the first or third Wednesday of each month. Whether you agree with me or with the Council majority, share your feelings at the public comment time at the beginning of the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. or go to windsor2040.com. Don’t you think weighing in on the future of our Town is your obligation in return for living in this, a chosen spot on earth, as stated by none other than Luther Burbank?
Sam Salmon
Windsor