Maintaining Our Small Town Character while Facilitating Economic Development

By Pat Eklund

We need to protect our environment especially our hillsides and ridgelines while facilitating smart and slow growth

I want to see projects that are good for our community. I have voted in favor of and against projects depending on whether they were compatible with the neighborhood and the environment. In 2009, we embarked on another update of our General Plan. We formed a General Plan Steering Committee that is meeting to discuss various issues that will be brought before the City Council toward the end of the year.

In addition, the City Council, under my initiation, supported the passage of an Urban Growth Boundary (Measure G passed by the voters in 1997), which restricts growth within the city limits for the next 20 years.

Setting a UGB at the city limits allows the voters to control the city's development for the next 20 years and to focus that development where infrastructure already exists. Having a UGB has spurred the revitalization of our downtown, and renewed the community's efforts to redevelop the areas that need it. A UGB has helped to maintain Novato's small town character and preserve our community separators by preventing sprawl.