[CPEO-MEF] City limits growth to protect Travis

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California
SACRAMENTO BEE
City limits growth to protect Travis
By Herbert A. Sample -- Bee San Francisco Bureau
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Monday, June 9, 2003
Fairfield's City Council creates a buffer zone the base may not use,
while angry business interests say the land should be reserved for
homes.

FAIRFIELD -- Travis Air Force Base is this city's economic lifeblood,
and no civic leader here would dare pose a challenge to its vitality.

But when the City Council last month barred private development on
thousands of acres around Travis in an effort to protect its future --
capping a long effort by an unusual coalition of military retirees,
environmentalists and others -- Fairfield began to roil.

Supporters insist the new restrictions will provide ample land for
expansion of the major air transport hub, which might be reviewed when a
new military base closing commission begins work in 2005.

"We need to do everything we can to protect Travis Air Force Base," said
Mayor Karin MacMillan, one of the leading voices against building too
close to the base that annually pumps an estimated $1 billion into the
area economy.

But opponents, mainly members of the business community, consider that
reasoning a ploy to mask simple anti-development fervor. And they are
infuriated by the council's decision to adopt the changes without
putting them before voters.

"You cannot stop growth no matter how much you would like to be able to
put up a sign that says, 'Welcome to Fairfield. Now go home,'" said Mark
Essman, president and chief executive officer of the Fairfield-Suisun
Chamber of Commerce.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/california/story/6820993p-7771312c.html

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