On-Line Land Use Forum For Sierra County

Posted by jesikah maria ross

December 19, 2006

A group up in Sierra County has started an on-line forum to galvanize community dialogue around land use issues in the Sierra Valley, north of Truckee and west of Reno. As the populations (and housing prices!) boom in both Truckee and Reno and as folks are looking to find quaint, affordable rural areas to settle in, the Sierra Valley is fast becoming a focus area for future development.

Sierra County is heading into their general plan update, which which set the tone for development in the area for years to come. And there are already disagreements over which approach to take towards development. Understandably, residents are grappling with development upsides and downsides as well as where to do it and how much should they allow.

In most rural areas, the discussion and arguments over land use play out in the local newspaper's letters to the editor and the community hearings that are held a handful of times. It looks like this new forum allows folks from different sides of the issues to share thoughts, perspectives, and engage one another in community planning. And doing it on-line allow for on-going discussion and the ability to read through archives of people's ideas and logic. Bravo!

You can join the conversation by heading to www.thesattleygroup.com.

Saving The Sierra covered land use concerns in the Sierra Valley in the first part of our rural Sierra series, which was broadcast on The California Report November 10. You can hear the story on the Radio page of our website. Click "Saving the Ranching Way of Life ."

As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts and idea