Measure B: Anticipating Change

Good civic planning includes anticipating likely developments and problems in the future, and appropriately creating policies and regulations in advance to cope with them. The alternative is waiting until problems develop and then reacting to them after the fact when solutions are often too late, an approach which involves no planning at all.

Measure B, the Hotel Limitation Measure, anticipates the problem of over-building of large hotels. It is in response to witnessing economic forces that have transformed once-charming wine country towns into over-crowded tourist destinations that have eroded the quality of life for residents. It continues to happen elsewhere, and if no limitations are established, it will inevitably happen in Sonoma.

Those who believe otherwise are either innocent, ignoring the world around them, or actually like the idea of more and bigger hotel growth in Sonoma. More large hotels certainly will provide plenty of opportunity to cash-in on a growing tourist trade for those with such interests, but such self-interest must be balanced against the community's interest in remaining quiet, rural, and slower-paced. And in a nutshell, that's what this Measure B Hotel Limitation Measure election is all about.

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