Butte County Democrats support building (and rebuilding) healthy, livable, and sustainable communities that incorporate smart growth principles—urban planning and transportation strategies that concentrate growth in compact walkable centers to avoid sprawl. Smart growth conserves natural resources and facilitates economically prosperous and socially equitable neighborhoods and communities. Most likely, Butte County will experience rapid and possibly
unsustainable growth in the coming decade. Unsustainable growth, if left unchecked, will reduce our energy independence, exacerbate both the climate crisis and urban/suburban sprawl, and increase economic disparities.

The Butte County Democratic Party...

● Supports county and municipal general plans that prioritize development of existing
neighborhoods (i.e., infill) and downtown districts over outward growth.

● Supports the protection of the Greenline, which restricts development in certain
agricultural areas on the outskirts of Chico.

● Calls for our Congressional representative to ensure the Department of Interior reviews
and responds to the Butte Regional Conservation Plan, which balances growth with
environmental conservation, reduces time to completion, and lowers construction costs.

● Supports local growth policies that encourage the development of low-income,
supportive housing projects that include continuum-of-care services to help homeless
people reestablish themselves as self-sufficient contributors to society as our county
grows.

● Supports inclusionary housing policies and oppose in-lieu development fees that
exacerbate income gaps, encourage sprawl, and relegate poorer residents to less desirable
areas that frequently suffer from higher pollution levels and pose other health risks.

● Encourages municipalities to work with non-profit developers, build publicly owned
housing, promote co-housing, create housing trusts, and employ other innovative
measures to develop affordable housing.

● Advocates for protecting existing homeowners’ property rights by limiting eminent
domain to reasonable public uses and opposing the abuse of eminent domain to take
homes without the consent of the owner.

● Calls for the expansion of public transportation systems as well as bike and walking
paths.

● Calls for the expansion of green spaces and community gardens in all communities.

● Encourages governmental agency planning policies and practices that support the
resiliency of communities in the event of and in response to natural and human-caused
disasters.

● Encourages infill housing and ADU (Accessory Dwelling Units) construction, and
opposes urban sprawl of single family homes on large lots.

● Encourages incentives to reclaim old, abandoned buildings and brownfields, areas that
may be used for smart growth infill or urban redevelopment as appropriate.