Wheatland flexes its influence

In a county dominated by unincorporated residential areas, stretching the governance and services of an actual city is a novel idea.

But officials in Wheatland have ambitious, long-range goals for their tiny hamlet.

Tuesday, they began the first of their appeals to Yuba County supervisors to allow greater participation on the part of the municipality — population 3,000 — in the county's land-use planning efforts.

They also introduced a proposal for a new urban growth boundary — "sphere of influence," in California government parlance — for Wheatland.

"Our citizens are your citizens," Wheatland Mayor Enita Elphick told supervisors. "We should be seeking every partnership opportunity."

Regional infrastructure plans, including a new or drastically upgraded wastewater treatment plant that could serve large portions of the county, will become increasingly important to consider as time goes on, Elphick said.

If Wheatland's sphere of influence is expanded according to proposed boundaries, the land could later be annexed into the city. The proposed boundaries would create a city more than double Wheatland's current size.

The area and infrastructure plans could potentially support a future population of 150,000, according to Elphick.

"Regardless of where the sphere goes," said City Manager Steve Wright, the county's actions, "impact Wheatland mightily."

Being able to put their two-cents into the regional decision-making process, he said, is critical.

Within current sphere-of-influence boundaries, Wheatland is poised to add 60,000 new residents in a new Johnson Rancho development alone, Elphick said.

The city has created a buzz among county officials because of its insistence on up-front impact fees from developers, and demands that developers follow Wheatland's lead in community and infrastructure planning, rather than the other way around.

Wheatland is now in a position, Wright said, to lay out expectations and to say, "If you can't make that happen, maybe you don't need to be here."

Supervisor Hal Stocker said he applauded Wheatland's effort to maintain an independent identity by "having developers do what they're not used to doing."

"If you can do that, more power to you," he said.

Yuba County officials are engaged in the process of updating a General Plan.

Wheatland's General Plan, completed more than a year ago, got a new layer of detail this summer with a "visioning" document, meant to set general goals and guidelines.

Concepts in the document include inter-connected neighborhoods, pedestrian paths and community gardens.

The from-scratch, planned, self-sustaining community ideal has roots in projects that began 40 or more years ago in Maryland and Virginia. Developments designed to maximize emplo ment opportunities within the community and avoid a "bedroom community" model have since sprung up in a variety of incarnations across the country.

Wheatland recently submitted part of a multi-party proposal to lease and operate several Beale Air Force Base properties, including a water treatment plant.

Should the Beale land use proposal come to fruition, the city could potentially operate the large base plant for use by residents of Beale, as well as those of Wheatland and several nearby communities.

With upgrades, capacity at the plant could accommodate Wheatland's — and much of south Yuba County's — future growth, according to city officials.

"When we can regionalize utilities," Elphick said, "it reduces per-unit costs. And that's very important."