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ERDKUNDE
1
Heft
Band XXVI,
FERD.
VER LAG /BONNMarz 1972
DUMMLERS
IN MEMORIAM
*8. 4. 1908
BARTZ
FRITZ
21.
6.
1970
t
sind dem Gedenken an
Die Aufsatze von J. J. Parsons, K. J. Pelzer und H. Hahn
fuhlen sich ihm verpflichtet,
Fritz Bartz gewidmet. Die Herausgeber der ERDKUNDE
nicht nur weil er in den Jahren 1949-1960, in denen er das Fachgebiet Wirtschaftsgeo
graphie
an
der Universitat
Bonn
vielfache
vertrat,
Anregungen
sondern
gab,
auch wegen
seiner Tatigkeit als Schriftleiter in der schwierigen Zeit nach der Wahrungsreform von
1948. Seinen Bemiihungen ist es mit zu verdanken, daft es gelang, die Zeitschrift fortzu
fiihren.
SLICING
UP THE OPEN SPACE: SUBDIVISIONS
IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
WITHOUT
HOMES
With 1 Figure and 1 Table
James
J. Parsons
im weiteren
Stadtum
Grunderwerb
Zusammenfassung:
ohne Bebauung.
land in Nord-Kalifornien:
Parzellierung
ver
Massives
anhaltendes
und
Bevolkerungswachstum,
in der
iiber das Leben
bunden
mit
einer Erniichterung
Stadt
und
einer
Einstellung
gewandelten
gegeniiber
Ent
dem Lande,
hat zu einer neuen
zur raschen
im nordlichen Kalifornien,
namlich
wicklung
von
und
ZweitFerienhausern,
gefiihrt.
Verbreitung
Solche
Landentwicklungsprojekte
(?Erholungsgemeinschaf
dem
Leben
auf
in attraktiven,
die
aber
besiedelten
ten"),
sparlich
Gebieten
mit niedrigen Grundstiickspreisen
in
liegen, wie
ver
den Vorbergen
der Sierra und in den Kiistenketten,
iiber ein Klubhaus,
einen Golfplatz,
fiigen gewohnlich
einen Flugplatz,
immer iiber einen See oder einen Stausee
zum Stadtgebiet
sowie iiber gute Strafienverbindungen
der
40 000 bis 50 000 Parzellen
San-Franzisko-Bucht.
Einige
sind im Laufe
der letzten Jahre alljahrlich
in den Bergen
neue Landerschlie
erschlossen worden.
Diese
die
ftung ist von Anzeigenkampagnen
gewesen,
begleitet
stets den hohen Anlagewert
zum Kauf
der kleinen,
ange
botenen Parzellen
hervorheben.
war
Der Umsatz
lebhaft.
Bis zu 5000 Baustellen
sind in einer einzigen
ver
Saison
kauft worden,
doch sind nur wenige
Grundstiicke
bebaut
worden.
Kaliforniens
Die
ungiinstigen
okologischen
die gewohnlich
Entwicklungen,
gen und Vegetationsanderungen
Auswirkungen
derartiger
von groften
Erdbewegun
seit
sind, haben
begleitet
Dffentlichkeit
hervorgerufen.
kurzem
Reaktionen
in der
Die
fiir die miftbrauchliche
landlicher Gebiete
ErschlieEung
haben daher
1971 weitere
zustandigen
Organe
gesetzgebe
rische Maftnahmen
in Betracht
um die
gezogen,
Zerstorung
der Eichen-, Chaparralund Kiefernwalder
zu verhindern.
Eine
und -regulierung
Landnutzungsplanung
etwa der des Staates
oder der Region,
Ebene,
vermeidbar.
auf
hoherer
scheint un
Contemporary California bulges with some 20 mil
lion restless people, most of whom live in urbanized
areas
that
are
increasingly
congested
and
chaotic.
A
vaguely defined desire to find at least a partial escape
from the growing pressures of city life has turned the
and more
of more
attention
to the attractive
residents
oak woodland and the coniferous forest land of the
Coast Ranges and the Sierra foothills. Possession of a
parcel of property, however small, in a pleasant and
somewhat remote part of the statehas become awidely
held middle class ambition. It has been encouraged
by an intensive and continuing advertising campaign
and
by real estate promoters
speculators
proclaiming
the "investment"
of such mountain
land.
potential
Some purchasers may hold the vague intention of one
day building a second home on their "recreational
tract"
lot
for vacations
for retirement,
and
more
but many
or
week-ends,
perhaps
on specu
have
bought
lation and as a defense against inflation, expecting to
sell later at handsome
The message
vision,
in newspaper
and
radio,
profits.
is pounded home relentlessly on tele
One
advertisements.
is constantly reminded of Andrew Carnegie's
statement
came
so
that
"ninety
through
owning
of all millionaires
percent
real estate."
Our mail
reputed
be
is full
of almost irresistably colorful brochures
describing
new
"recreational
subdivisions"
in
the more
are invitations
parts of the state. There
at which
one may
learn more
about
round-trip
excursions
on
chartered
remote
to free dinners
them,
planes
and
to
free
inspect
them and perhaps lay down a
down-payment on a lot.
The purchaser in these planned
developments, whether
it be a 50-foot lot, a half-acre
parcel, or a 20-acre
"ranchette", is of course buying more than a stake in
the land. He is also buying the
privacy and security,
more
often
than
not,
of
a
guarded-gate
community,
with theprivilege of access to a private lake, a modern
clubhouse or lodge, a golf course, and
perhaps an
airport.
2 Erdkunde Band XXVI
Table 1:
Northern
Major
22.
"Recreational
California
(Boise Cascade
23. Copper
&
Subdivision
Number
of
Developer/Owner
1. Klamath
(Boise Cascade
3. California Pines
&
4. Moon
Valley
5. Lake
(Envirotec
6. Wild
17,800
Inc./Sun
Life
5,590
7. Rancho
Mesa
Reserve
Tehama
8. Shelter
Cove
2,000
4,100
4,100
2,640
& Assoc.,
(R. J. Beaumont
Los Angeles)
Rancho
8,600
29,000
Dennis, Oakland)
(Jeff
10. Brooktrails
5,600
11. Sea Ranch
2,000
Properties/Castle
(Oceanic
Inc., Honolulu)
Cooke,
12. Clear
Lake
4,300
& Assoc.)
(R. J. Beaumont
5,400
3,000
Corp.)
14. Century Ranch
(bankrupt)
(Dr. Rolf W. Peter, Palo Alto)
1,000
500
15. Royal
2,000
1,000
4,000
3,400
2,000
2,500
Pines
(Wm. Lyon
can-Standard
Lake
Development/Ameri
Corp.)
16. Lake Wildwood
(Boise Cascade
17. Lake
Corp.)
of the Pines
(Boise Cascade
18. Alta
Corp.)
Sierra
3,000
19. Auburn
Lake
(Transamerica
San Francisco)
20. Lake
Trails
Village
(Great Lakes Development/
Centrex Corp., Dallas,
Texas)
Calaveras
(Boise Cascade
1,600
3,400
Corp.,
Camanche
21. Rancho
5,500
Industries,
(Lakeworld/Dart
Los Angeles)
Corp.)
Park
8,000
16,000
4,870
3,500
2,263
6,700
1,800
8,400
5,500
8,000
4,500
24,900
Corp.,
Sierra Hilands
Land
Investment
Co.,
(Fresno)
Ranch
(proposed)
(Boise Cascade
29. Bear Valley
Corp.)
Springs
Industries)
No one knows how much of California's foothill
and mountain land has been carved up into such
subdivisions in recent years. Most of the activity has
been
in northern
centered
promotional
California,
spread
developments
the metropolitan
stretch
developments
San
with
large-scale
in a
Francisco
from
giant arc
Bay
Coast
the North
Area.
The
Ranges,
through the volcanic plateau country aroundMt. Shasta
and Mt.
Lassen,
and
down
into
the attractive
Mother
Lode of the Sierra foothills where there are large new
public reservoirs such as Don Pedro, New Hogan,
Tulloch, Camanche, Auburn and Oroville to lure the
fishingand water sports enthusiasts (Fig. 1).
promotions,
characteristically
the spring months when
Inc.,
13.Hidden Valley Lake
Lake
Lakes
(Bonadelle
Sales
920
2,987
(Custom Properties,
San Fancisco)
(Boise Cascade
5,200
&
Riviera
2,000
Corp.)
(United Continental
Los Angeles)
around
(proposed)
1,100
14,080
Sacramento)
(Wm. Lyon Development/Ame
rican-Standard
Corp., New York)
9. My
26. Yosemite
(Dart
355
12,200
Corp.)
(Boise Cascade
28. Wells
11,000
Estates,
Pedro
25. Pine Mountain
42,000
Corp.,
General/Superior
Lincoln, Nebr.)
Horse
Don
(Boise Cascade
Corp.,
(Dorado
Cove
27. Bonadelle
2.089
Petroleum
24. Lake
33,000
Baltimore)
California
Equity
6,100
Pasadena)
Ranch
(Occidental
Los Angeles)
Acres
515
Corp.)
(Great Lakes Development/
Centrex Corp.)
Approx
imate
Idaho)
8,000
Broad,
Co.,
Boise,
2,500
Enterprises,
(Kaufman
Insurance
1,900
Corp.,
2. Lake Shastina
(Beverly
Lots
Estates
River
XX
Bar/Circle/Diamond
Subdivisions"
clear,
often
concentrated
not yet
the daytime
temperatures
free barbecues,
horse
regattas,
and
in
the grass is green, the sky
excessive,
include
shows
or
rodeos. The strategy is to get potential buyers onto the
land.
Pressure-cooker
sales
and
techniques
subtle
applied psychology do the rest of the job. It is ap
difficult
parently
for many
Americans
to say
"no"
to
a salesman in a Stetson hat cast in the tradition of a
rough-hewn but friendly cowboy, though he rides a
instead
jeep
of a horse.
Thus
a Nevada
County
devel
opment could recently proclaim that "72 percent of
the people who bought vacation land at Lake Wild
wood bought it the firsttime they saw the place."
Some of the earliest and largest of these remote land
sales ventures were in southern California and in
Arizona - at Salton Sea, California City, California
Valley,
some
Lake
15,000
was
Another
Havasu1).
acres
terrace
of hard-pan
Madera
on
Acres,
the east side
of the San Joaquin valley. And then therewas Christ
3,500
4,470
3,450
5,600
mas
Valley
in the desert wastes
*) Taylor,
R.:
Subdividing
1970.
Sacramento,
where a California
Newspapers,
of southeastern
Oregon,
land sales promoter bought up an
the Wilderness.
McClatchy
James ]. Parsons:
Slicing
up the open
space:
Subdivisions
without
inNorthern
homes
California
3
^^^^
Fig
1: Large
scale recreational
80,000-acre cattle ranch in 1961 for $ 10 an acre and
built a lodge, golf course, airstrip, and a lake stocked
with fish2). It was just what smog-choked southern
Californians were looking for and they flocked in to
buy up some 10,000 sagebrush-covered lots. Since that
time little has happened at Christmas Valley, which
ten years later has a population of scareely 250.
Comparable in area toChristmas Valley, and estab
lished in the same year, was California City, a vast
tract
of Mohave
Desert
country
some
80 miles
north
east of Los Angeles where some 45,000 lots have been
sold over a 12 year period but only 600 houses built,
a
construction
rate
D.E.:
2) Courtney,
neer Fringe? Yearbook
(1967).
of
1.3 per
The
Assoc.
cent.
The
1970
census
1967: A Pio
Desert,
Oregon
29:7-19
Pacific Coast Geogr.
subdivisions
gives California City a population of only 1,224 per
sons.
Its original
has
developer
gone
on
to other
chal
lenges and in early 1971 was proposing a 25,000-acre
development to be called Battle Creek Park at the
north end of the Sacramento Valley. It lies across the
Sacramento River from the 11,000-lot Lake California,
another elaborate promotion thatwas linkedwith the
now bankrupt Penn Central Railroad and recently
was auctioned off for $ 8 million to the Envirotec
syndicate.
Even more
remote
isCalifornia
Valley,
an
enormous
subdivision adjacent to the treeless alkali flats of the
Carrizo Plains in southeastern San Luis Obispo county,
advertised as being "half way between Los Angeles
and
San
and
the
Francisco
...
a
sea
in land."
...
half
strategic
In one day
way
spot
in May,
between
to
stake
the
your
Sierras
future
1963, some 23,000
4 Erdkunde Band XXVI
persons were lured to California Valley by a free
barbecue and picnic. Doubtless many of them signed
contracts
purchase
for 2V2-acre
But
ranchos.
the 7,000
landowners have not built in this desolate land, nor
are many of them likely to do so. The closest high
school is still more than 50 miles away. A recent
election to establish a Special Services District turned
up 26 registered voters in the area. The deluxe motel
at California
combination
pool
restaurant-swimming
Valley is apparently supported by property owners
who come on week-end trips fromLos Angeles simply
to "visit" their lot. They may manicure it a bit and
speculate on its future or alternatively refurbish the
sign offering it for re-sale.
In recent years, with the growing scarcity of large
blocks of low-cost land in southern California, the
land developers have turned their eyes northward, or
to Arizona3). But even in northern California land
project buyers from the Los Angeles area constitute a
major part of themarket. The rest are from the Bay
Area and other northern California points. Almost
none
are
from
At
out-of-state.
Shelter
on
Cove
the
remote and foggyHumboldt County coast a majority
of the purchasers
were
southern
Californians,
of
many
whom put down theirmoney sight unseen, attracted
sum
and
forests
cool,
green
smog-free
of
the development's
maintenance
by visions
mers.
The
of
road
net, badly eroded by heavy rains, has threatened to
become
a
severe
on
burden
financial
the county.
The
lot purchasers, not a particularly happy group, face
the prospect of steep assessments to pay off a $ 5.4
million bond issue that helped finance construction of
the subdivision. Meanwhile the developer has moved
on
to some
cut-over
land
redwood
at Brooktrails,
near
Willits inMendocino county, where parcels priced at
$ 4,000 and up have been moving well.
Some
of
the
country's
larger
corporations
have
joined local land developers in exploiting this new and
sometimes naive market, slicing up large tracts of
remote and inexpensive property and packaging it for
sale
as
or
"recreational"
"second-home"
subdivisions.
Among national firms that have entered this lucrative
business
the Boise
Cascade
Corporation,
a
conglom
erate of recent evolution ($ 1 billion a year gross
sales) that started as an Idaho lumber company is
incomparably the most active. Others include Occi
dental Petroleum, Penn Central Railroad, Dart In
dustries (Rexall Drug), Transamerica, Centrex Corpo
ration (a Texas construction firm), Castle & Cooke
(Hawaiian sugar factors), and City Investing Corp.
(a New York conglomerate). There are indications
that others may be on the way. Big money from
outside has been bidding up values forCalifornia land.
There
are
at
least
C. E.:
3) Campbell,
zona:
Characteristics
25
such
large-scale
speculative,
The
Remote
and
Distribution.
Academy of Science 6:98-101 (1970)
Subdivision
Jour.
in Ari
Arizona
recreational subdivisions of more than 1000 lots li
censed in northern California excluding the Lake
area.
Tahoe
The
for a successful
formula
"boondocks"
land development is fairly straight forward. According
to Boise Cascade4) it should be located
three hours driving time of a major metro
1) Within
2)
area.
politan
In an area well-known
for recreational
values
3) At a scenic site,or one suitable for construction of a
man-made
lake
of at
acres
200
least
extent.
small
favor
lots, either one-third
developments
con
streets not unlike
or one-half
acre, with winding
on the outskirts
tract subdivisions
of Ameri
ventional
Most
can cities. The demand for such property has until
recently seemed all but insatiable. Prices rangewidely,
from $ 2,000 to $ 20,000, with $ 5-6,000 being close
to the mean. View lots and lakefront lots bring the
highest prices. The common requirement has been ten
per cent down payment with ten years to pay off the
balance at perhaps $ 40 or $ 50 a month. The paper is
carried by the land company or its financial subsidiary
actu
so calculated
that itmay
interest,
to 12 per cent.
at a true rate of closer
at 7-8
percent
out
work
ally
Lot ownership carries with it access privileges to a
wide range of community facilities which, when the
is
development
Property
commons.
sold
Owners'
In
some
out,
be
may
to
over
turned
a
streets and
along with
the streets are main
Association,
developments
tained by the county. Piped water and electricity are
available, but hooking in to them from remote parcels
involves
may
charges
equal
the lot price. Waste
disposal
cent
to 25 per
is always
or more
a serious
of
matter.
Although septic tanks are much cheaper than sewers to
construct
and maintain,
they
require
a
permeable
sub
soil to be effective. Their use has been increasingly
is into streams
wherever
drainage
challenged
or
water
domestic
voirs providing
supplies,
or
even
reser
into
the recreational lakes built by the developers.
Not all large rural subdivisions are speculative
land
within
promotions,
a reasonable
subdivisions
distance
homes.
without
of
Sacramento
Some,
or
other
Valley towns, are developing as a kind of extension of
suburbia with a mixture of retiredpeople and commu
ters (e. g. Alta Sierra, Lake of the Pines). In the tim
bered mid-slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and especially
in the Lake Tahoe basin, increasing numbers of the
more
centage
attractive
of
developments
lots with
built-on
boast
a
substantial
year-round
per
occupance.
Supported by an expanding economic base that inclu
des winter sports,Nevada gambling, and the servicing
of a large summer tourist industry,Lake Tahoe (elev.
6,200 feet) has a permanent population of some 28,000
persons and the figure is rising5).With the passage of
4) Boise Cascade
W.:
5) Bronson,
Financial
It's About
bon 73:46-80 (1970)
Corp.
Too
(1970)
Prospectus
Audu
Late for Tahoe.
James J. Parsons:
up the open
Slicing
space:
Subdivisions
without
brush
country
time
other
recreational
well-situated
developments
a
to the point
that they, too, support
may mature
sig
at
of permanent
residents.
number
Thus
nificant
a 45-year
in the Tuol
old
subdivision
Twain-Harte,
umne County pine zone, one of the firstof theMother
Lode land developments, nearly one-third of the houses
are permanently occupied6). At nearby Miwuk Vil
lage,which dates from 1954, the figure is ten per cent.
At
Sea
on
Ranch,
the
Sonoma
where
coast,
County
Castle & Cooke have tastefully developed a 12-mile
long
tive
terrace
strip of scenic coastal
covenants
(natural
wood
severe
under
restric
no
exteriors,
exotic
plants, etc.) speculation is generally a quite secondary
Most
consideration.
of
the
of
purchasers
these
lots,
averaging $ 15,000 each and ranging up to $ 70,000
forwaterfront parcels, probably intend to build, for
this incomparably beautiful coast is littlemore than
90 minutes
here,
nent
from
San
downtown
seven
after
years
there
are
Yet
Francisco.
some
only
even
80 perma
residents.
Boise
Cascade
the bell-wether
Corporation,
among
the land developers in California, is in the business
nation-wide. Twelve per cent of its net sales in 1969
were from recreational land developments, with 18 of
its 29 projects located in California. Boise also has
large timber holdings both in the Pacific Northwest
and in theGreat Lakes area, and it recently acquired
the independent Union Lumber Company of Fort
one
Bragg,
of California's
redwood
largest
operations.
It is also in the home construction and mobile home
business. In the southern part of the state it is more
conventionally developing land on the fringes of the
built-up areas, as it is at Incline Village on theNevada
side of Lake
nia
sites
Tahoe.
it
is
at
But
some
developing
large-scale
communities".
Access
to water
ten northern
is a sine qua
non
Califor
"recreational
of a Boise
Cascade
development. If a lake does not exist Boise will build
one. At Lake Wildwood and Lake of the Pines inNe
vada County and at Hidden Valley Lake in Lake
County its artificial water-bodies are in the Digger
zone
some 2,000
feet above
pine-chaparral-grassland
sea level. Here
summers
are furnace
the shadeless
hot,
are clear and
but the winters
the persistent
crisp, above
tule fogs and below the snows of the higher country.
At Rancho Calaveras and at Lake Don Pedro in the
Sierra foothill zone there is easy access tomajor public
reservoirs. So is there at the proposed Wells Ranch
near
development
the
entrance
to
National
Sequoia
Park. Boise's Pine Mountain Lake project, on the
well-travelled Big Oak Flat road toYosemite Nation
al Park, is higher up in the pine-cedar forest. It sold
334 lotsworth % 2.6 million in the firstmonth itwas
open in 1967 and $ 17.7 million worth of lots in its
firstyear. At Klamath River Estates in the pine-sage
6) McKinnon,
in the Foothills
thesis, Univ.
R.:
Historical
of Tuolumne
of California,
Geography
of
Settlement
California.
County,
1967, p. 174.
Berkeley,
M. A.
homes
near
in Northern
the Oregon
County,
as at the smal
border,
lerDiamond XX, Triple XX
in Calaveras
5
California
and Bar XX
20 or 40
acre
"ranchos"
properties
are
fea
tured.
To date there are few homes on the Boise projects,
although the company iswell established in themodu
lar home industryand stands ready to assist lot owners
in financing and designing a vacation home. Even at
Lake
of
the
the
Pines,
most
company's
successful
northernCalifornia development and sufficientlyclose
to
Sacramento,
and
Auburn,
Grass-Valley-Nevada
City tomake commuting feasible, only 130 houses had
been built on its nearly 2,000 lots after three years.
The developers, who had bought the land in 1966 for
$ 876 per acre had been able to sell it for an average
of better than $ 20,000 an acre, close to the going price
for sewered bay view lots in the Berkeley or Oakland
hills7). Two-thirds of the lot buyers replying to a
questionairre sent out to all Lake of the Pines lot
buyers in 1970 by theNevada County District Attor
ney's office indicated that theywould not buy again.
More than half wanted to sell out but at that time
only 27 had been able to do so, and of these only
three had made a profit. Yet there is more activity
behind the permanently guarded gates at Lake of the
Pines
than
in almost
any
other
such
recreational
sub
division.
Boise Cascade is a forest products company with
vast land holdings. But it did not get into the land
business thatway, although others, such as Fiberboard
American
Corp.,
Forest
Products
Co.,
and
Weyer
hauser have done so. At Lake of the Pines, its first
northern
California
venture,
out U.S.
it bought
Land,
Inc. of Indianapolis which was also in the business of
developing subdivisions around man-made lakes in the
East and Middle West. Boise's Roncho Calaveras, Lake
Don Pedro, and Klamath River properties were origi
nally owned by Pacific Cascade Land Co., a joint
venture thatwas in part the brainchild of an Oakland
named
developer
Jeff Dennis,
earlier
a successful
sales
man atMadera Acres. Dennis had sold out his interest
in 1967, but three years later he was back in the news
with
a controversial
plan
for cutting
up
a 29,000-acre
tract in remote Round Valley in northernMendocino
County. The 9,000-lot subdivision plan received
the approval of the Mendocino County Board of
Supervisors
to-2 vote.
nating
after
The
economy
discussion
3
prolonged
by a narrow
truth is that the remote
stag
valley's
use a generous
could well
infusion
of
outside money. But the idea of Round Valley (popula
tion 2,000, of whom half are Indians) as a site for a
"vacation
der on
city"
of 35,000
persons
would
seem
to bor
fantasy.
Many of the northern California land promotion
schemes have been in sparsely settled rural counties
E. B.:
Some
of Second Home
7) Myers,
Implications
in Rural
of Northern
Areas
California.
Development
M.C.P.
of California,
1970.
thesis, Univ.
Berkeley,
6 Erdkunde Band XXVI
that have been suffering from economic depression
and
even
absolute
losses
population
The members of the Board
Commissioners
Planning
in recent
decades.
of Supervisors and the
no match
are
in such counties
for the well-paid outside professionals hired by the
corporate developers. A proposal for a $ 40 million
land development scheme that will create jobs and
require services that local businessmen would like to
supply can literally turn such a county inside out9).
Conflicts
of
are
interest
almost
In
inevitable.
rural
California, as elsewhere, "growth" has tended to be
held synonymous with "good" and this is especially
truewhere retail sales are flagging and bank eposits
- and
declining. Sharply increased assessed valuations
are
assessments
on
based
recent
sales
prices
of
lots,
inflated by high commissions, promotional costs, and
huge profits hold out the promise of substantial tax
to
relief
hard-pressed local residents, with the new
landowners presumably placing little burden on local
schools,
Under
police,
welfare
other
and
county
services.
ordinance
to con
such conditions the granting of a subdivision
permit,
or
the revision
of a zoning
form with a developer's wishes, has until recently
attracted littlepublic attention or opposition.
Every California county has, or soon will have, a
Planning
Commission
and
a county
land-use
plan,
for
these are necessary to qualify for certain federal and
state funds. But the Board of Supervisors implements
such plans and may change them at will. The cam
paign to take land-use planning out of local agency
hands and make it a state responsibility faces heavy
opposition.
property
"Home
owners"
rule"
are
still
and
the
sacred
"rights
cows. For
of private
as
then
"open
space",
re-zone
it one's needs.
convincing
the
supervisors
to
developments seem to be offering a kind of
country club atmosphere essentially pitched to urban
tastes. The emphasis is likely to be on a kind of snob
bery and elitism, although the appeal is also to families
with children ("a great place to get acquainted with
your kids"). An inordinate share of the buyers seem to
come from the newer middle class suburban tracts of
suchBay Area communities as Daly City, San Leandro,
Fremont, Hayward and the sprawling suburbs of San
Jose. The purchaser becomes a part of a social group
with a stake in a particular piece of land. He may
recognize that he has paid an exorbitant price for his
lot, but he is likely to be defensive about his mistake
and seek tomake the best of it ("Hi, Sucker!"). Even
those developments advertised as "fair housing com
munities" open to all races emphasize their guarded
Most
R.: Subdividing
8) Taylor,
56:4-9
Bulletin,
(1971)
the Wilderness.
Sierra
Club
service.
security
The
receives
buyer
a folksy newsletter, attends picnics, and perhaps the
annual
of
meeting
Owners'
the Property
Association.
is hovered over by a solicitous developer anxious
He
for
to
him
start
on
construction
a
for
home,
start improves
the "investment"
housing
movement
tract. On week-ends
when
each
of
image
is brisk
the
buyers
may be found hanging around the "Howdy House"
or
as
"Hacienda",
sales
wearing a "Howdy
be known,
may
headquarters
Stranger" badge: "My Name
I own
_I'm from_,
is
lot
No_"
There is, of course, much rural land for sale outside
of the big developments here described. There are
many more subdivisions of 200, 300, 400 lots than
are
there
of
the
but
they
the community
ones,
larger-scale
nor
are
promoted
conspicuously
are
not
facil
ities usually comparable. Recently an almost limitless
of "investment"
supply
of 5, 10, 20 or 40
parcels
acres
has been advertised, the product of lot splits.Lot split
ting
is a procedure
for
and
quartering
re-quartering
property into smaller and smaller pieces that legally
County,
county's
$ 9.5
on
restrictions
existing
by-passes
Nevada
for
subdivisions.
In
more
than
there were
example,
2000 property splits in the fiscal year 1970-71 com
pared with a mere 100 two years earlier. Of the
in assessed
increase
million
valuation
in 1971-72 more than 60 per cent was attributable to
either splits or raw land subdivisions. Many feel that
lot splitting has unseated recreational subdivisions as
the
one
number
land-use
some
in
problem
set
some
in
counties
estate
real
development
but
interests
sparsely
lot sizes have
populated California counties.Minimum
been
developers
the profit is not likely to be in developing land zoned
for development, for such property is already rela
tively expensive. The big returns are to be won from
obtaining options to buy low-value rural land zoned
24-hour
and
gates
in others, where
pro
be in control,
may
there is still no limit to the number of times splitsmay
be made. One of the pressures leading to such activities
is clearly the rising taxes on rural property in the
vicinity
of the huge
recreational-land
developments.
Much of the apparent demand for property in the
large projects is probably artificial, forwhen the sales
force and advertising backing departs a true demand
will scarcely exist. If so the promise of profits from
the re-sale
Owners'
of
lots is sure to be
Association
illusory.
and
assessments,
Taxes,
upkeep
be high, often as much or more than
installment payments on the principal.
calculated that a $ 10,000 lot at Lake
would have to bring $ 25,000 ten years
for the owner
landowner
even
to break
fees,
interest
-
after
charges,
the monthly
It has been
Don Pedro
later simply
assessments,
taxes,
and
inflation9).
clear that large numbers of buyers would
out
but
can't.
Almost
all
developments
Property
costs can
have
It
is
like to get
numerous
lots up for re-sale at prices below the purchase price.
In the summer of 1971, the state legislature passed
legislation directing the State Real Estate Commission
9) Besone,
Berkeley)
R.:
(student
report,
Univ.
of
California,
James J. Parsons:
up the open
Slicing
Subdivisions
space:
to require that advertised conditions of purchase be
"fair, just and equitable". Such a testhas been in effect
1963
since
for
of
offerings
out-of-state
estate
real
and Arizona). This
(chiefly desert land in Nevada
would apply to all conditions under which a parcel of
land might be offered, including price. To the real
estate lobby this is anathema, for it implies govern
ment
"price
fixing".
A more
suggestion,
revolutionary
with little chance of adoption, would place a special
tax on unearned
The
divisions
case
many
increment
environmental
is attracting
the landscape
from
land
sales.
remote
impact of large-scale
increased
public
has
been
sub
In
attention.
scarred
irretrievably
with miles of unneeded and unused roads which have
created
erosional
muddied
hazards,
streams,
disturbed
wildlife habitats and destroyed vegetation. The po
tential threat to domestic water supplies, should the
subdivisions be built up, has recently attracted special
some
In
attention.
areas
have
developments
already
outstripped available water supplies. The threat of
water pollution has made septic tanks increasingly
considered
yet
unacceptable,
sewers
piped
are
costly
and often impractical. In early 1971 the State Water
Quality Control Board was considering a ban on the
use
of
septic
tanks
hill
developments,
nation
both
among
The
ment
reaction
ments.
unprecedented
two major
Sierra
foot
conster
that was
causing
and lot purchasers.
developers
wave
of concern
for the environ
many
against
of
these
above
Lake,
Lyons
least
has inevitably generated a strong
("ecology")
At
in at
a move
mountain
Sonora
develop
in the Tuolumne
County forest zone, a proposed 2,345-lot subdivision
has been thwarted by united community opposition itwas put forward by William Lyon Corp., a sub
sidiary of American Standard Corp. (formerlyAme
rican Radiator & Standard Sanitary), which has other
projects at Royal Pines Lake near Grass Valley and
Rancho
Tehama
Reserve
in the northern
Sacramento
Valley. At Lake Edson in El Dorado County an
uprising of negative sentiment, led by a fiestyGeorge
town woman
librarian,
Boise
turned
Cascade
its
from
Stumpy Meadows project. ItsWells Ranch develop
ment in Tulare County at the approach to
Disney's
proposed Mineral King winter sports area is similarly
threatened. At Battle Creek Park in Shasta County
the developer of the huge California City in the
Mohave Desert has run into opposition from theBoard
of
Supervisors.
On
the Oregon
border
near
Horn
brook, in Siskiyou County, another large project was
doomed when the state of Oregon refused permission
to export
the water
necessary
for the development
into
California. InMendocino County a public referendum
has overturned the Board of Supervisors' approval of
theMy Ranch project inRound Valley.
Significantly the largest of the developers, Boise
Cascade, has pulled back for another look.With credit
tight and environmentalists protesting sales have
slowed. After some painful analysis the company has
it is not
that
announced
inNorthern
homes
without
7
California
in the
land
business
for specu
lation but that it is selling a product for use. Terms of
sale to the buyer are said to have been made tougher,
the "hard sell" softened, and every buyer required
henceforth to physically stand on the land before a sale
is consumated.
"We've
our mistakes
made
we're
but
learning" says the general manager of Boise Cascade
Recreational Communities (formerly Boise Cascade
Properties, Inc.), the land development subsidiary.
"We
have
to
reacted
the pressure
of
ourselves
consider
"we
continues,
ists . . .what we do
he
in an
area
the
ecologists",
conservation
leaves
that
it better
...
area
at
least
as good as itwas when we came in, and ifwe have
done
our
it leaves
right
job
we
eco
ask
logists for an inventory of the environment and then
to tell us how we should develop it.The fact thatwe
are a large company enables us to go slow, do it right
and
the environment
preserve
at
while
same
the
time
creating a socially useful project. We can afford to
take time, to even abandon a project if it doesn't make
sense10)."
Boise
says that in the future it will
most
Coast
feel
U.S.,
Lake
"most
because
of the western
as
areas
sensitive"
"ecological
Mendocino
avoid
of
such
or
Tahoe
the
the
community,
a sort of
they have
that
vested ownership in the beauty [of such places]. Any
thing thatwe could do would be subject to immediate
criticism and ifwe should make a mistake we would
really be shot at. To avoid that, our projects will be
focused on locations where the ecology (sic) is not so
good to begin with and where what we do is going to
obviously
be an
improvement."
The public has been made quite widely aware of the
threats to the land posed by uncontrolled land devel
opments. A noteworthy series of articles in the
newspapers
McClatchy
"Fresno
Bee",
("Sacramento
Bee", "Modesto Bee") by Ron Taylor, and another
in the "San Francisco Examiner" by Lynn Ludlow,
has called attention to the more questionable practi
ces of the "boondocks subdividers" who "sell the
sizzle
but
never
tative
has
termed
the
steak".
these
A
Sierra
activities
Club
the greatest
represen
menace
to the Sierra Nevada
since placer mining. The Ne
vada County District Attorney, Harold
Berliner,
who has spoken out vigorously against the continuing
and
senseless
observed
of mountain
expansion
that
unscrupulous
subdivisions,
developers,
using
has
frau
dulent and misleading advertising, can take in more
money in a singleweek-end in his county than would
ten years
of burgularies.
Placed on the defensive, some 12 major
developers
banded together early in 1971 to form theWestern
Developers Council to establish a self-policing code
of ethics and, incidentally, to fight proposals
being
10) Boise
Baltimore,
Cascade
Md.,
Nov.
Financial
20,
Information
Seminar,
1970. Proceedings
Transcript.
8 Erdkunde Band XXVI
aired before a legislative sub-committee investigating
to
subdivisions"
"premature
impose
its own
that
more
is already
code
on
controls
has not joined the group,
such activities. Boise Cascade
stating
state
severe
than
that ofWDC.
The California Commissioner of Real Estate esti
mates that 40,000 to 50,000 lots in mountain sub
divisions
have
been
created
in recent
annually
years,
representing some $ 250 million each year in value11).
He has publically questioned that the market can
absorb this abundance of offerings. In the four-year
period between July 1, 1966 and June 30, 1970,
permits issued for subdivisions in remote northern
California counties approximated the following12)
(1970 population of county in parentheses):
5,400
8,600
1,400
2,500
3,700
14,500
Siskiyou (32,000)
Modoc (7,000)
Lassen (14,000)
Shasta (77,000)
Tehama (41,000)
Lake (18,000)
lots on
lots on
lots on
lots on
lots on
lots on
19,000
11,200
24,700
27,200
20,000
13,000
acres
acres
acres
acres
acres
acres
Nevada County has 18,000 lots already subdivided,
most of which have been sold to urban dwellers who
hoped for profits as land values go up. At present rates
it has been projected thatwithin fiveyears all of the
private land in the county would be in subdivisions13).
There are 20,000 lots subdivided inTuolumne County
and there is concern that there is insufficientwater to
meet
A
their potential
recent
needs.
survey
by
the U.S.
Soil
Ser
Conservation
vice14), concerned about the effectof such subdivisions
on runoff and erosion, predicts that between 1967 and
1980 some 800,000 acres may be withdrawn from
agricultural,
recreational
use
and
forest
range
subdivisions.
similar
and
in California
for
to
Close
one
fourth of thiswould be in theMother Lode counties,
much of the rest in the far north. Leading counties in
these
are
estimates
the
northern
larger
ones:
Shasta
70,000 acres, Siskiyou 47,000 acres, Modoc
acres,
acres. One
27,000
consideration
Lassen
currently
authorize
part of the legislation
would
in Sacramento
under
to
counties
future
reject
29,000
subdivision
Street Journal
1941-42
H.:
Plague
13) Berliner,
3 (Summer
vol. 5, No.
1970)
Soil Conservation
14) U.S.
Water
24, 1970.
Estate.
Subdivisions
of Real
Issued and Lots
Reports
to 1969-70.
Sacramento,
Dept.
12) California
California-Public
County,
Dec.
Conservation
Needs
on
the Land.
pp. 1-11.
Service.
Inventory
and
1970
Cry
California
1967.
Acres
northern
stood
in
by
(mimeo.).
California,
where
counties,
popula
or declined
in recent years.
Speculation in land is an American tradition. It was
a major motivating factor in the opening of theWest.
It has flourishedwhere land has been cheap and regu
lations
its use minimal15).
regarding
and
recent
A
estimate
is that some 3,000 acres per day are being bulldozed
in the U.S. for new land developments, but most of
thishas been on the fringe areas, just beyond suburbia.
The
recreational
speculative
seem
cities,
major
to
remote
subdivisions,
a new
represent
from
phenomena.
There have been many rural subdivisions in the history
of theWest, but never on this scale and never in the
name
of "recreation".
Its critics
a country
that
argue
side of uninhabited, city-sized lots is being created,
to no
and
that
purpose;
it may
be
also
creating
poten
tial areas of tension through the establishment of
private enclaves behind locked gates in the midst of
rural
open
traditionally
societies.
The frenzied character of the land boom in the
"boondocks" cannot long persist without doing major
to
harm
environment.
the California
excesses
Its
are
reflected in the fact that less than three per cent of
lots"
"recreational
on. An
oversupply
in recent years
of over-promoted
sold
been
have
and
built
improperly
developed lots seems certain to lead to ultimate price
collapse with thousands of small buyers the victims.
But
speculative
excesses
are
not
the
cause
sole
of
this
new form of abuse of the countryside. Our whole
systemof values is involved. It is equally attributable,
as Harold Berliner points out, to the curious idea that
we thinkwe need to own a particular plot of land just
to use it threeweeks a year. "People who sail on the
San
Francisco
compelled
he recently
Bay",
a
to own
particular
"don't
observed,
acre
in the middle
feel
so
they can sail around in that acre and feel it's all theirs.
. ..
They are willing to share the water with others
There is no reason why can't think too of all kinds
of new ways of using land without harming it, divid
ing it up, and fencing it." On all sides there is a grow
ing public concern. Some sort of statewide or regional
approach to land use regulation, such as recently has
in the comprehensive
proposed
Tomorrow
"California
Plan16),
and
far-reaching
seems
increasingly
inevitable, if the state is to remain the attractive place
to live that ithas been in the past.
R. M.:
15) Yearwood,
ment: American
Attitudes
American
Journal
trols.
and Develop
Land
Subdivision
on Land
and Con
Subdivision
of
29:113-126 (1970)
Tomorrow,
16) California
Plan. San Francisco
(1970). A
Remarks
Soil
California
constant
been
pro
posals if an adequate number of subdivided but un
improved lots already exists to satisfy current and
foreseeable housing needs. If enacted this could well
cut off further such land developments for a long time
J1) The Wall
in most
tion has
from
the Third
Conference.
Planning
mer 1971), p. 13.
Cry
and
Economics
Inc.
California
Tomorrow
California
First Response
California
Biennial
Vol.
Sociology
...
Including
Tomorrow
6, No.
3 (Sum