Balancing Environment, Sprawl

In this column series about the future of the San Diego region, Richard Louv highlights the work of Duncan McFetridge, founder of Save Our Forest and Ranchlands. Concentrating on curbing urban sprawl before it consumes the remaining open space in the county, McFetridge sought to update the general plan with urban growth limits by pushing for the Rural Heritage and Watershed Initiative, which was rejected byvoters in 1998. Since then, Save Our Forest and Ranchlands has asked for an unlikely countywide moratorium on development. While creating urban growth boundaries is one method of slowing sprawl, growth must be channeled somewhere as population increases, Louv asserts, and it must be channeled into urban areas in such a way that will be attractive to San Diego residents.

Thanks to California 2000 Project