Connections, April 2009

Land Use Working Group Update

In the past few months, the Land Use Working Group has examined agricultural land use policies and programs focused on the rural-urban interface. Over the course of two workshops, the working group identified issues confronting agricultural viability at the rural-urban edge, discussed innovations that can support agricultural viability, and identified benefits and drawbacks to those innovations. These latest results were folded into the Land Use Innovations Working Paper, which is still available for comments at:
www.sacog.org/rucs/wiki.

The next phase of the Land Use Working Group will look beyond the rural-urban edge into rural open spaces more generally. We will be reviewing the current conditions of all open space uses including habitat, agriculture, floodplain and recreation. As part of this, the first geographic inventory of crops is being assembled for the region. This crop map, along with other open space resource layers, will be used to inform a review of open space innovations beyond the rural-urban edge.

The final phase of the working group will try to answer questions such as:

• What and where are current efforts to preserve and protect open space lands? For what uses? In what ways can these efforts work together or impede one another?
• What are the challenges and opportunities of different preservation efforts?
• What are ways to support economic vitality and environmental sustainability on the same rural land?

For more information, contact Kacey Lizon at (916) 340-6265 or klizon@sacog.org.