Policies

• Target existing state funding through the state capital improvement plans, state transportation improvement plans, water infrastructure plans, and state grants and loans to communities and projects that promote smarter land use including agricultural and environmental protection

• Ensure that all new state funding rewards smarter land use by prioritizing funding for existing communities and within planned development areas

• Identify barriers to achieving smarter land use at a local, regional, and state levels and provide assistance with strategies to overcome local barriers

• Encourage regional planning across jurisdictions and agencies to provide clarity, coordinate, and prioritize areas where growth can occur and where agriculture should continue

• Encourage more public participation in local, regional, and state planning by funding public participation programs, data sharing programs, and collaborative decision-making processes

• Create an alternative form of conflict resolution over land use disputes in advance of litigation and ballot box planning

• Create rational metrics to measure the success of state growth management practices and adaptively manage practices to improve results

Case Study: Sacramento Region Blueprint

The Sacramento Region Blueprint Project was designed to create a set of viable scenarios for healthy regional growth. Because this issue is important to all of us, the alternatives were generated via a series of dozens of high-tech, interactive planning workshops held throughout the six-county Sacramento Region.

The Sacramento Region Blueprint Project involved a heavy emphasis on community participation and involvement. In the course of year, 30 neighborhood, seven county and one regional workshop meetings were conducted.

The workshops allowed local residents to envision how they would like to see their communities and the region evolve by utilizing a computer program developed by the California Department of Energy known as PLACE3S. The acronym stands for PLAnning for Community Energy, Economic and Environmental Sustainability. This planning strategy integrates focused public participation, community development and design, and computer-assisted quantification tools (GIS). With intensive public input, PLACE3S helps communities produce plans that attract jobs and development, save energy, reduce pollution and traffic congestion, and conserve open space.

Another important component of the Sacramento Blueprint effort is a Community Design Incentive Program that will provide $500 million during the next 25 years to fund building projects that incorporate one or more smart growth principle:

* Transportation Choices
* Housing Diversity
* Compact Development
* Use of Existing Assets
* Mixed Land Uses
* Quality Design
* Natural Resources Conservation

Case Study: Idaho's OnePlan

The state of Idaho began working on program concept in the 1990s to coordinate all environmental regulations for farmers and ranchers within one entity in order to cut down on costs for the agriculturalists. The plan reduces duplication and the workload for the applicant as well as the government agencies. The result is OnePlan, which was implemented in 2005.

OnePlan provides farmers and ranchers with information to develop a single conservation farm plan that can be pre-endorsed by the various agencies. Utilizing data and software provided for free by the Natural Resource Conservation Service, farmers and ranchers can create a preliminary conservation plan and learn about financial assistance programs. Tools available on the website allow the agriculturalist to select appropriate conservation practices that satisfy regulatory requirements for all agencies. Aerial photos, soil data, hydrology maps, roads, and borders on different GIS map layers are available.

Roughly 500 people have used the free interactive website that lets farmers and ranchers do their preliminary conservation planning online. The program is compatible with the data requirements for Conservation Reserve Program, Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, and Environmental Quality Incentives Program and will soon have the rotation and tillage worksheets required for Conservation Security Program completed.

The software and the website streamline and simplify the regulatory process. Idaho OnePlan is a multi-agency project to combine government regulations and current best management practices for agriculture into a single plan, integrating federal, state, and local regulations for a variety of topics including:

* Nutrient Management
* Pest Management
* Water Quality and Wetlands
* Rangeland Management
* Organic Farming
* Endangered Species

According to Wayne Newbill, the OnePlan coordinator, a multitude of MOAs and MOUs in place with agencies throughout the state help separate out duties and share the output. Several states are looking at potentially implementing a similar program such as the Conservation Planner are Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Utah, Iowa, Wyoming, and Vermont.

OnePlan has also created a Nutrient Management Planner for the state of Idaho and has two other modules in progress: Range Management Planner and an Integrated Pest Management Planner