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Open
Space
There appears to be general agreement that the city should preserve as much open space as possible. The questions that arise are, "What exactly is open space?" and "How should we go about preserving it?" I feel that open space is any property that will never be built on. It could be park lands, natural endangered species habitat, hiking trails, etc. We can, and have, preserved open space through a variety of methods. We’ve built 36 new parks since 1990. We have also placed conditions on large projects like Wolf Creek, Roripaugh Ranch and Harveston to leave high percentages of their land open. Additionally, I fought and won approval for, a new developer fee of $200 per new home that goes to the purchasing of additional open space anywhere in the city and also for an "Art in Public Places" program. This fee will raise several million dollars for these purposes. Finally, I have supported, and will continue to support, capping our city’s emergency reserve fund at $10 million. We have always put aside 30% of our operating budget for emergencies or economic downturn. Few cities have this luxury and we are fortunate to be strong enough economically to do that, but I believe that $10 million is enough to have put aside. Assuming we will have the ability to continue to add to this number, we should take anything over $10 million and use it for the purpose of acquiring open space. |
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