1. Approving Sacramento County’s New General Plan
Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan, Chair
On Wednesday evening, a decade of hard work culminated with the Sacramento County
Board of Supervisors unanimously adopting a new General Plan to govern development
for the next twenty years. The plan incorporates valuable input from members of the
public, stakeholders, County staff, the Planning Commission and other hearing bodies,
and the Board of Supervisors.
Promoting economic development, while establishing high standards for new
development and environmental stewardship, is the hallmark of this new plan. For too
long, land use plans have sought to regulate poor development practices, rather than
affirmatively encouraging businesses and uses that are important to our economic
success.
This plan rethinks the historical planning model, putting job growth and business
development at its core. Unlike the plan in place since 1993, this plan devotes an entire
section to specific economic development policies. The Economic Development Element
sets the stage for work the County will be doing in the coming years to free industry of
burdensome regulations so that they can focus on delivering products to market and jobs
to our region.
While encouraging economic development necessary to future success, the adopted plan
protects existing communities. Though “infill” is certainly desirable, it can devastate
communities if executed poorly. This plan balances infill development along older
commercial corridors with protecting the unique characteristics of each neighborhood.
New “green field” development areas were not adopted in this plan. It might surprise you
to learn that this plan adds only a small infill area west of Watt Avenue in North
Highlands into the Urban Policy Area. The current market is overbuilt, and adding homes
to the marketplace would not help with the current decline in home values. However, this
plan will be in effect for several decades, and must manage growth that may occur in the
future.
In a major paradigm shift, the Board of Supervisors crafted stringent criteria that
applicants must meet prior to applying to develop new areas. Criteria include minimizing
commute distances, providing housing choice, and increased housing densities near
transit. The resulting sustainable communities will be based upon smart growth
strategies, creating complete communities with a proper balance between jobs, housing,
and retail, and “complete streets” to increase individual mobility choices.
These standards include compliance with California’s greenhouse gas emission control
laws, and were developed with input from the California Attorney General’s Office. This
approach has been heralded as novel and innovative in professional publications,
including “California Planning and Development Review.” As this County has led the

2. State in public employee pension reform, we are now leading the state in envisioning
communities for the 21st
century.
Sacramento County has a strong farming tradition. This plan protects and strengthens the
position of agribusiness in the county, ensuring preservation of agricultural lands for
future generations. The approach incorporates mitigation polices that emphasize the
importance of farming and ranching as critical components of our local economy.
The agriculture mitigation measures will require developers who propose to convert
agricultural lands to urban and suburban uses to mitigate the loss of farm lands by
preserving lands for agriculture elsewhere in the county. For every acre proposed for
conversion in a given project, an acre of farm land within the county will have to be set
aside for agricultural uses in perpetuity.
This is a General Plan that the community can look upon with pride and confidence.
While we are still anxious for our local economy to rebound, we can be sure that when it
does, we are prepared to face the future with a strong sense of where we are headed and
what we are going to achieve.