Rohnert Park truce

Because of a lot of hard work by people who refused to allow their disagreements to keep them from focusing on their mutual concern for their community, Rohnert Park is moving toward a consensus on what the City's future should be.

It wasn't easy. As in many California cities, Rohnert Park has seen its share of bitter internal arguments and feuds. Local politics has seen its ugly moments. Name?calling and charges and counter-charges flew.

But that has changed in recent months, and after long conversations and public hearings and workshops,

Rohnert Park is coming up with a blueprint to guide the city's next 20 year when they overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that carried less restrictive growth limits.

No one should underestimate how important this agreement can be in a city so long divided, often acrimoniously, over growth issues.

Somehow, the principal players, city council members and others, have succeeded in putting aside the bitterness of the past.

If they can make it stick, this is to their lasting credit because it will mean a unified community prepared to move on to finding solutions to other problems.

RP breakthrough

Signs of a compromise growth plan for Rohnert Park could not have happened without the good will and courage of people who have fought with one another for a long time.

As outlined by staff writer James W. Sweeney, the proposed blueprint would restrict growth in the city, while recognizing the critical need for mixed housing and commercial development adjacent to Sonoma State University.

The agreement, limiting the city's population to about 50,000 people, seems very much in tune with what voters declared last

year when they overwhelmingly rejected a ballot measure that carried less restrictive growth limits.

No one should underestimate how important this agreement can be in a city so long divided, often acrimoniously, over growth issues.

Somehow, the principal players, city council members and others, have succeeded in putting aside the bitterness of the past.

If they can make it stick, this is to their lasting credit because it will mean a unified community prepared to move on to finding solutions to other problems.

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