I-80 City, Solano County
and the Patwin Plains
The Patwin Plains consists in the level and rolling areas of Yolo, Solano, and Colusa counties. At present it is a region with large areas of farmland and adjacent undeveloped foothills still providing open space, food production, and wildlife habitat. It is also a region of still relatively small cities and towns, with at least 8 to 10 miles between most developed, urban areas.
In the 1940's the San Fernando Valley of southern California was very similar to the Patwin Plains of today. The "Valley" had a number of towns, such as North Hollywood, Van Nuys, Encino, San Fernando, Canoga Park, Tujunga, and so on, but these towns were still usually separated from each other by tree-studded small farms and by miles of tree-lined two-lane boulevards. One difference was that Pacific Electric interurban rail lines provided mass transit in some parts of the valley and connected its populace with Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles.
There is another similarity which needs to be noted. Los Angeles-style urban development had by the 1940's already filled up Glendale and Burbank at the eastern end of the valley, and the southern Ventura Boulevard rim of the region (from Cahuenga Pass to Studio City and beyond) had already begun to be an urban spill-over from Hollywood.
We are in the same situation in our "Plains", with San Francisco Bay Area urban sprawl spilling over into Vallejo, Benicia, and Fairfield and lapping in our midst in Vacaville. But we are also threatened from two directions, since Sacramento seems completely out-of-control on our eastern front.
Thus at the end of World War II (1945) the San Fernando Valley was threatened by two major routes of invasion, from the east end (from the gap provided by the Los Angeles River channel) and from the south (via the Cahuenga Pass). Caltrans soon guaranteed that these entry routes became flood zones by building the Golden State and Hollywood freeways. Later the replacement of Sepulveda Blvd by another freeway (the San Diego) breached the west end of the valley and opened it up to the UCLA region.
The Patwin Plains have, of course, been opened up by the I-80 freeway and, if developers have their way, a new freeway moving north via Rio Vista and Dixon will soon flood us with suburbanites fleeing the carcinogens of the Antioch-Concord zone. (This will become especially likely if a race track developes in Dixon and if UC Davis developes a research rental zone directly on I-80).
The inhabitants of the San Fernando Valley were powerless to resist the chaotic, almost overnight, destruction of their region. The City of Los Angeles had managed to annex almost the entire valley, principally using the weapon that L.A. used against other unincorporated areas and even against small cities such as Eagle Rock, i,.e,. the promise of plenty of water. In this case the water was unethically stolen from the people of the Owens Valley (far to the north).
In exchange for stolen water the people of the valley gave up political independence. Most expected the growth of small farms and small towns, probably never dreaming that one day the loss of self-determination would come home to roost with a vengeance.
Like all of the other annexed neighborhoods of Los Angeles (such as Venice, Playa del Rey, San Pedro, Eagle Rock, and Westwood), the valley did not possess enough representation on the L.A. City council or on planning bodies to slow down growth or to demand some kind of quid pro quo.
In the 1940's and 1950's, when subdivision after subdivision and commercial center after commercial center destroyed all of the open space, and when long and wide and treeless boulevards replaced the old tree-lined avenues, and when smog-producing freeways replaced the old rail lines, and when almost all of the old creeks and stream-beds were cemented in like the ill-famed Los Angeles River, the people were absolutely helpless. Local government did not exist.
But even where cities did have self-governing power, as in Glendale and Burbank, the same process of endless development occurred, cutting and chewing up the foothills after the valleys were full. Why? Because of two factors: (1) passive acceptance of the inevitability of urbanization and (2) governmental subservience to developer-investor-contractor interests.
The power of the development-urbanization philosophy was so great that government was not even compelled to set aside any significant open space or parkland, the San Fernando Valley, Burbank, and Glendale all being bereft of any park which one might compare with the parks of major European cities or of a city such as San Francisco. The Griffith Park, a largely hilly region, was the only major park in the entire Los Angeles basin until recently and it had to serve virtually all of the City of Los Angeles as well as satellite cities.
Thus the San Fernando Valley in a few short years passed from small farms, agriculture, and regional centers of urbanization to a completely urbanized wasteland with large areas resembling the eastern side of Sacramento today and especially those areas subdivided by the County of Sacramento east of I-80 and north of I-50. These areas, as the reader will note, are places where long, wide, treeless boulevards are lined with automobile dealerships and fast food outlets, where dispersed shopping centers require the use of an automobile, where pedestrians feel like they are totally unwelcome, and where the use of bicycles would be down right dangerous. The resemblance between that part of the Sacramento area and the greater Los Angeles area even extends to the cementing up of all secondary creeks and sloughs. One would find it utterly impossible to walk along or horseback-ride along any of these fenced-off and uglified streams (of course, the American River serves more affluent sections somewhat better since it, has been protected).
Unfortunately, we in the Patwin Plains are now facing the same kind of assault as the San Fernando Valley faced in the 1940's and 1950's. And we are, by and large, totally unprepared to deal with the intensity of pressure for unrestrained growth and with the ways in which our governments, both county and city, will buckle under (or are already caving in) to the urbanization process.
The people of the San Fernando Valley had few tools with which to deal with the growth process. They had no valley-wide regional government responsible to the voters. They were either inadequately represented on the L.A. City Council or were blocked by pro-developer cliques controlling small, real estate-oriented city governments. (It should be noted that many cities and counties elect their governing bodies by holding elections on dates when only a small minority of the electorate vote - maybe as low as 20 to 30% of those registered. Thus it is often possible for incumbents and local cliques or small, but well-organized, interest groups to dominate local government).
We in the Patwin Plains are equally vulnerable. We do not possess any regional elected government and thus lack protection from over-development in one jurisdiction which impinges upon a neighboring area. But more significantly, we possess many cities and counties which have become essentially developer-controlled or pro-growth. In Yolo County we also possess the problem that the county government is facing budget short falls which may encourage supervisors to seek after ill-conceived development projects in order to secure one-time fee or subsequent sales tax revenues.
The once-beautiful San Fernando Valley is now cursed by traffic gridlock, smog, over-crowdedness, and a general lack of amenities. Most art galleries, parks, museums, and other cultural features are located far off in the downtown or Wilshire sections of Los Angeles, shrouded in even thicker veils of smog. The Valley now also is afflicted with rapidly deteriorating and expanding slum housing in many areas, due to the poor quality of post-World War II housing tracts and the poor design of communities. The Valley now has all of the social problems of Los Angeles proper, although not perhaps to the same degree (but that may come before very long).
In the Patwin Plains we face the prospect of the same kind of haphazard, poorly designed development. For example, rapid sub-urbanization is already taking place in Fairfield, Benicia, Vallejo, Vacaville, Davis, and Woodland without (so far as I can tell) a thought about setting aside right of ways for rail rapid transit. If that state continues the taxpayers will have to pay vast sums to acquire easements, tear down houses, demolish bridges, and alter streets or we will have to settle for rail lines which go around our cities following less desirable routes of travel.
It is very bad planning not to anticipate the future in as comprehensive a manner as possible. But cities which have fallen under the sway of "the growth lobby" cannot anticipate the future adequately because of the usual desire for quick profits on the part of the key actors.
But the cities, in the end, are usually much preferable to the counties when it comes to development and planning. Notice, for example, the bad development practices in the area east of I-80 in Sacramento where the County of Sacramento has developed the equivalent of a large city without a core, without rapid transit, without consideration for bicycles or pedestrians, and very often without even so much as sidewalks or a safe place to walk at the side of the street.
In the County of Yolo also we have several examples of poorly planned subdivisions or developments including ones without adequate (or any) attention to flood zones, to wildlife habitat, or to potential sewage contamination. Currently the County of Yolo is considering a major commercial-industrial development at the former Winter's Flight Strip (renamed Yolo County Airport) as well as commercial development along I-80 just west of the Yolo by-pass and east of Davis.
Ironically, it was the County of Yolo which allowed farms surrounding the defunct Winter's Flight Strip to be divided into parcels of about 1 to 5 or 10 acres each. Many of these parcels are subject to serious flooding and, moreover, their development has destroyed unique types of vegetation growing only in little hollows left behind by ancient sloughs which formerly meandered in the flood-plain.
In any event, once the new people began to build homes around the airport (with the county's assent) then county officials decided to try to transform the defunct Flight Strip into a busy, commercial aviation and industrial center. Understandably the residents of the area have resisted and will continue to protest.
The desire for revenue has now also led the County of Yolo to contemplate encouraging the proposed Ramos subdivision east of Davis and the proposed commercialization of the I-80 freeway between El Macero and the Yolo By-Pass. Neither of these projects are sound since, as regards the Ramos development, the county is not equipped to provide for sewers, water, flood-control, schools, parks, et cetera, nor for planning for a social service structure to meet the needs of a new community (including planning for differential income housing).
It would be utterly irresponsible for the County of Yolo to authorize an urban type of development and especially one located near to an existing incorporated city. I believe that we should enact legislation making it illegal for any county-approved urban subdivisions within five to ten miles of any existing incorporated city or officially-recognized town.
From a traffic-congestion and aesthetic point of view it is also crucial that we prevent the commercialization of every off-ramp on I-80. Specifically we need to be sure that existing open-space between West Sacramento and Davis, Davis and Dixon, Dixon and Vacaville, Vacaville and Fairfield, and Fairfield and Benicia/Vallejo are preserved.
Does anyone seriously want a solid wall of filling stations, motels, fast-food restaurants, and other commercial eye-sores all the way from the Bay Area to Sacramento? Don't we need to preserve open space and habitats between our urban developments?
Some how we must organize to prevent speculators or corporations from buying up land along I-80 and particularly land near existing or planned off-ramps. We must also prevent our county officials from forcing us to look at a forest of Wendy's, Carl's Jr., MacDonalds, and Taco Bell signs all the way from the mountains to the sea. For sanity we need a glimpse of trees and green fields between cities. (Have you noticed the beautiful orchard now being bulldozed down just east of Dixon?)
A key element in planning for the Patwin Plains as a whole must be legislation which will force cities to stop their growth at a certain point so as to allow for the preservation of farmland and oak-chaparral hills between our cities. But legislation to preserve open space by itself will not do the trick without provision for rapid transit between cities - Why? Because the reliance on the automobile traveling on freeways or roads tends to favor the solid inundation of one community after another. Thus the expansion of Sacramento will impact Davis first, then Winters, and so on.
The San Fernando Valley was inundated by wave after wave of new subdivisions, each a little farther to the north and west. By the time the Valley was almost totally covered development began to inundate the nearby Simi Valley and Conejo Valley regions, in a similar pattern. Each region seems utterly unable to stabilize growth and growth in turn acts like a "fire-storm," creating the explosion of new growth.
It is this "growth-storm" which we must seek to avoid in our region by doing two things at the same time one: (1) limiting growth in any given city or community so as to preserve open space between cities and towns; but (2) making housing available at a variety of prices by providing rapid light rail (and shuttle bus) service to a great variety of separate urban locations. For example, U.C. Davis employees should be able eventually to get quickly to Dixon, Rio Vista, Vacaville, Benicia, Winters, Sacramento, Woodland, Madison, Esparto, Knights Landing, and Yuba City-Marysville, while Sacramento workers should also have quick access to Elk Grove-Lodi-Stockton, Rio Linda, Marysville, Roseville, and Placerville, all by rail rapid transit or, in the interim, by express bus service.
It should be noted, however, that bus service never seems to satisfy the commuter. Only fast, comfortable, fume-less rail service seems to persuade people to leave their autos at home in sufficient numbers.
Do we want another San Fernando Valley in the north? The east side of Sacramento already is a northern imitation of Los Angeles, so we know that it can happen here. Do we want the sickening smog which gives people headaches, shortness of breath, and more serious health conditions? Do we want the alienation, crime, and social violence associated with mindless urbanization?
If we want to save our valley environments we must get off our duffs now and get into battle-gear. The enemy is already here, in our midst. The enemy, all too often, is us.
Jack D. Forbes.
(written in c. 1990, but even more apt now, except that the chance to acquire right-of-ways for rail rapid transit between Vallejo and Sacramento has virtually disappeared due to poor planning by the county and cities of Solano County).