We're of 2 minds on growth issue

A geographer studying land use sometimes strays into psychiatry.

In western Nevada County, Dr. Peter Walker looked into the area's building, development and environmental habits and found schizophrenia.

"I think people want to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to preserve the feeling of rural quality and open space, but they don't want government," he said,

Walker, a University of Oregon assistant professor, studied the western county for six years and recently published a report, "A Sierra Landscape in Transition: Land Use and Social Changes in western Nevada County, California."

He made several summertime visits, including during the height of the county's political fight over Natural Heritage 2020, the controversial land study that opponents portrayed as an environmentalists' land grab.

Walker takes no position on NH 2020 in his report, but it was "clearly on people's minds" and made them more interested in the interview questions.

He also called the acrimony a missed opportunity at public dialogue - especially given that the county's population could more than double to 233,000 if the land's available parcels are developed. He called current development the "tip of the iceberg."

"The people are going to come, and I think people have to be aware that those people are coming," Walker said.

The projected growth figure blew away Sharon Boivin, a former county planner and planning commissioner who backed NH 2020. She liked the timing because the county Board of Supervisors is working on updating its General Plan.

She was part of the 1995 General Plan process that worked with a 160,000-population project. "We always question, 'What population are we talking about here?'"

Pat Davison of the California Association of Business Property and Resource Owners said "there wasn't a whole lot I could quibble with" in Walker's study.

The 233,000 figure aside, she said some parcels are 160 acres, and developing them would leave ample open space.

"There are a lot of different pieces that have to be taken into consideration, and that's the balancing act," Davison said. "This (study) is one piece of the puzzle. It's like putting a puzzle together."

Walker's research involved several visits to the area, analysis of 358 mail-in surveys, talks with 94 land owners, 26 personal follow-up interviews from survey respondents, talks with public officials and community leaders, and comparisons to 46-year-old data.

His work was part of a University of California at Berkeley study started in 1995 that includes looks at Placer and El Dorado counties.

In 1957, a Berkeley professor began studying land use in the same three counties.

On Nevada County's map, "transects," or vertical lines, were drawn every two miles from the Yuba County line on the west to the Sierra crest on the east.

The lines bisected 414 parcels, almost all of the land being ranches and timberland.

In 1996, Walker, who was working on his doctoral dissertation at Berkeley, was assigned by his professor to see how the county had changed.

"As it turns out, I couldn't have been happier because Nevada County is such a fascinating place as far as land-use issues," he said. "Nevada County actually represents changes that are happening all over the American West."

The common denominator is economies and cultures once supported by the extraction of natural resources - mining, timber and grazing.

Now it's a hotbed for new homes.

That was reflected in Walker's follow-up to the 1957 study. By 2001, 414 parcels had grown to about 1,593 parcels, most of them rural homes.

A map of where Lake of the Pines now sits illustrates the dramatic change. Three ranches totaling 3,800 acres have since been divided into hundreds of lots.

The transition is a mixed blessing, Walker said. Growth means more infrastructure, such as power, phone and sewer services. But development has improved some areas, especially where tree foliage has replaced once-barren landscapes.

"We make an argument that not all rural residential development is bad. Some residents are good stewards of the land," Walker said.

But aerial views don't reflect what people see at ground level, which can give the impression that the county has wads of open space. The potential is invisible.

"I'm concerned they're not aware that the landscape has already been divided up into lots of different parcels that can be developed."

That gets back to NH 2020 and the complexity of balancing competing interests.

"It ended up leaving people more divided and bitter on the issues when, in fact, there's a tremendous amount of common ground on their issues," he said.

His report includes responses to the statement, "Nevada County needs strong environmental protection."

Seventy-one percent of respondents agreed.

Walker's survey wasn't random. He instead focused on private rural landowners because of their crucial roles in future development. The county's largest private landowner is Sierra Pacific Industries, with 14 percent (or 49,620 acres) of all land in the county.

While many residents welcomed Walker into their homes, some were wary, others hostile.

Take his visit to a longtime ranching family whose ancestors homesteaded in the 1850s. While interviewing a woman at her kitchen table, the son rode up to the house on a horse, a rifle at his side.

"Who the hell are you? Get off my property right now!" the son said, according to Walker. "If you have anything to say, you say it to me."

Walker obliged: "He didn't pull his gun, but it was very clear he was ready to confront me, so I got out of there."

The man also told Walker he'd better not be an environmentalist, Walker said, declining to identify the family.

Walker has been talking with people he met during his research since publishing his report. A possible book deal is in the works, and more research here is in the offing.

"I plan on working with Nevada County as long as people don't chase me out with guns," he said.

On the Net:

To read the report online go to:

http://geography.uoregon.edu/walker/sierra-report.htm