On March 1 and 2, 1996, 200 residents of Northeast Santa Cruz County gathered to discuss the future of their community. With help from the Sonoran Institute, they organized the Sonoita Crossroads Community Forum to create a citizen-led plan for sensible growth. Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws were recorded in September 1996.
After two years of general discussion about potential developments in May 1998, the Forum's Board of Directors decided to get on paper statements of local values, expectations of future growth, and guidelines for development. On February 27, 1999, the Welcome Aboard event fed well over 100 people and provided opportunity to learn more about the community from displays by the Border Patrol, the Cow Belles, the Forest Service, a proposed National Conservation Area, and other organizations. The planning process was designed by interested citizens at a meeting on March 13, 1999, at which ground rules for meetings were agreed upon and a schedule of events set. Funds provided by generous local donations as well as funding from the Sonoran Institute supported a resident planning consultant, who lived among us for 18 months.
Four informative sessions filled the Spring of 1999. The first addressed public land issues, the second focused on the landscape, the third discussed the dimensions of growth in Northeast Santa Cruz County, and in the fourth session participants learned about a performance approach to land use decisions. Using what they had learned in the four sessions, the people of the Crossroads began to develop policies and implementation strategies which would form a comprehensive plan for the community. An Open Space Working Groups met every other week from Mid-August to December to consider the rural portions of this part of the County. A Commercial Working Group together with the Chamber of Commerce met four times, focusing on the Crossroads area.
By April 2000 the draft of A Comprehensive Plan for Northeast Santa Cruz County was released for public study and commentary. Over the next 18 months at annual meetings of the Forum and in the monthly Board meetings, the draft plan was improved by reflecting criticisms and comments. At the same time the Board kept itself abreast of County plans to meet the state-mandated revision of the existing County comprehensive plan.
In 2002 A Comprehensive Plan for Northeast Santa Cruz County, in a final form which public meetings in February and March had finished, was presented to the County Supervisors at their June meeting.
After that the Sonoita Crossroads Community Forum sent representatives to frequent meetings in Nogales of the Planning and Zoning Commission, in which the County comprehensive plan was being developed. In these meetings the Forum's plan, admired for its content as well as the process of its formation, was influential. The Santa Cruz County Comprehensive Plan 2004 was adopted unanimously by the Commission and by the Supervisors in June.
Since June 2004 the work of the Forum has had two concentrations: first, to move our Implementation Strategies into County code revisions, and, second, to respond to pending plans for development at the Crossroads and in rural areas and to changing commercial ambitions for the community.
Presently SCCF is engaging planners in conversation with the community, stressing the values, policies, and strategies established in A Comprehensive Plan for Northeast Santa Cruz County. Committees of SCCF are also exploring the possibility of gaining for Northeast Santa Cruz County designation as a Rural Heritage Area, which would expect growth to conserve the land and its culture as the population of the area increases. Another committee has led the way for trans-county studies of water availability and use.
Today the Sonoita Crossroads Community Forum remains faithful to its founding even while it builds on the experience of ten years and continues its mission as a representative voice for the people of Northeast Santa Cruz County.
© 1999 - Sonoita Crossroads Community Forum