THE SONOMA SUBREGIONAL PLANNING
PILOT PROJECT
This document, the "Sonoma County
Subregional Issues and Policies Paper", is the result of a challenging
experiment in collaborative planning undertaken by the County of Sonoma and the
nine incorporated cities within the County. These ten local governments were
motivated by the belief that, while each has a unique identity and needs, they
also share certain interests and concerns. Recognizing these things they have
in common, the ten jurisdictions embarked on an attempt to identify how they
might work together to address issues that each recognizes as important to its
residents.
In pursuing this collaborative process,
the local governments within the County found an ally in the Association of Bay
Area Governments (ABAG). ABAG was developing a pilot program to support
subregional planning activities along the lines of what was being attempted in
Sonoma County.
The Sonoma County jurisdictions sought
funding for activities and were selected as one of two subregional pilot
projects to be funded by ABAG. The Sonoma Subregional Planning Pilot Project
reflects an emerging trend toward subregional planning and coordination. The
challenge is to address planning issues in ways that recognize and respect both
the individual and shared interests and characteristics of the localities
within the County, relying on incentives not mandates for implementation. The
Subregional planning strategy then, becomes a crucial building block in
addressing the shared concerns of the larger region - the nine-county Bay
Area.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBREGION
The Sonoma Subregional Planning Pilot
Project addresses an area defined by the boundaries of Sonoma County (the
"Subregion"). The Subregion is roughly 1,600 square miles and
includes nine incorporated cities (Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Petaluma,
Rohnert Park, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma and Winsor.) These nine cities and
the County of Sonoma (collectively, the "Jurisdictions") collaborated
in developing this Subregional Issues and Policies Paper.
THE
SUBREGIONAL ISSUES AND POLICIES PAPER
This document identifies a series of "Subregional Issues" - critical
issues that the Jurisdictions have determined may be most effectively addressed
collaboratively. Issues were identified as "subregional" if:
- they involve matters where local
activities or decision-making has effects which cross over jurisdictional
boundaries (for example, issues affecting traffic housing, and air quality)
potentially affecting the subregion or region; and/or
- they can most effectively be
addressed through some type of inter-jurisdictional cooperation (for example,
by the Jurisdictions working together to establish and implement a plan or
program).
The Subregional Issues are presented
under five headings: Location and Intensity of Urban Development, Housing,
Mobility, Natural Resources and Economic Vitality.
This paper then identifies a series of
policies (the "Subregional Policies") to address the Subregional
Issues. The Subregional Policies are intended to provide guidance to the
Jurisdictions in their planning processes, in establishing cooperative
enterprises, etc. Their adoption and implementation by the various
Jurisdictions is not mandatory and is subject to local discretion and
applicable legal and logistical limitations.
Some of the Subregional Policies would be
implemented through strictly local actions; these include the phrase,
"Each Jurisdiction should.." and an icon of one civic building. For
other Subregional policies, coordinated actions among Jurisdictions are called
for (some involving all of the Jurisdictions and some a smaller group), or it
has not been determined whether there is a need for such cooperation. These
Subregional Policies include the phrase, "The Jurisdictions
should…" and an icon of people around a table, indicating
collaboration.
CONCENSUS
PROCESS
This document reflects the combined
efforts of the planning directors of the cities and the county of Sonoma
County, a Sonoma State University professor serving as a consultant, a senior
staff member from the Association of Bay Are Governments (ABAG) and the Mayors'
and Councilmembers' Working Group. The issues and policies included in this
report are addressed because they were felt to be important considerations for
the combined focus of all the Jurisdictions in the subregion. They seek to
reflect the subregion's common goals and mutual interests, recognizing each
Jurisdiction's independence and interdependence.
The project began with a review of
general plans of the nine cities and the county to identify policies relating
to issues of subregional concern. These existing policies were augmented by
additional policies proposed for consideration. The result was a Working Draft
Issues and Policies paper prepared by the subregion's Planning Directors, with
assistance from the consultant and ABAG staff.
The Working Draft Issues and Policies
report was then presented to the Mayors' and Councilmembers' Working Group,
which circulated it among all elected officials; check-off response boxes
provided an opportunity for widespread input on the relative agreement on
issues and policies. The Working Group then used a consensus process to amend
and refine the document. This document was presented to the full Mayors' and
Councilmembers' Association on November 9, 1995. The Association unanimously
accepted the document with the following motion:
"The Mayors' and Councilmembers'
Association of Sonoma County here by accepts the draft of Sonoma County
Subregion Issues and Policies, as presented by the Working Group on November 9,
1995, as a non-binding discussion document for Sonoma County; and in
recognition of the high level of participation and consensus in the development
of the document would urge that it be referred to each city council and the
board of supervisors for further review, discussion and consideration of
implementation priorities."
NEXT STEPS
As indicated in the above motion of the Mayors' and Councilmembers;
Association, it is anticipated that individual Jurisdictions will now bring
this document back to their full councils or board, respectively, and after
local review and consideration, each Jurisdiction will develop:
- general feedback regarding this
subregional Issues and Policies document;
- a prioritization of the issues to
serve as an action agenda; and
- recommendations regarding appropriate
collaborative follow-on work and implementation.
In addition, the Mayors' and
Councilmembers' Association and its Working Group encourages each Jurisdiction
review the following policy recommendations that are identified for strictly
local action, and to the extend deemed locally desirable and appropriate,
implement those policies.
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