General Plan Policy Document (Adopted 7-11 ... - City of Wheatland

GENERAL PLAN SUMMARYBealeAirForceBaseRecentHistoryEARLIERPLANNINGEFFORTSINWHEATLANDHOWTHISGENERALPLANWASPREPAREDand some reform legislation was passed. However, no substantiveimprovements occurred and the influence of the IWW in the CentralValley waned. By 1925, Wheatland, then with a population of about450, was listed as the second largest hops producer, employing 4,000during harvest seasons. Later in the 1920s, frequent slumps in thehops commodity led the landowners and growers to turn to fruit andvegetables with marked success. Fruit and nut orchards soon replacedhops in importance. Four abandoned hop kilns at the E. ClemonsHorst Ranch and the Damon Estate are reminders of an exciting periodin Wheatland history.In 1942 the U.S. government selected 86,000 acres of land in Yuba andNevada Counties for the establishment of an Army base, Camp Beale,seven miles east of Wheatland. With the formation of Camp Beale, thesmall communities of Erle, Waldo, and Spenceville declined. CampBeale was used as a training base for armored and infantry divisions,as a personnel replacement depot, and as a German prisoner of warcamp. Following World War II, the camp was declared surplus, and70 percent of the buildings were removed. Today, the base’s primarymission is to house the 9th Reconnaissance Wing, a branch of the AirForce that maintains U2 and Global Hawk spy planes. Many of thebases personnel and their families rely on support services inWheatland.Wheatland’s first subdivision was built in 1953 when Charles Nicholsdeveloped his property bordering the northeastern part of the city.Ten homes were built in the first project that led to the first housingdevelopment within the city. Wheatland’s rate of commercial andresidential development has been slow relative to the growth rates ofnearby areas such as Marysville/Yuba City and particularly southPlacer County. Over 78 percent of the city’s housing was built prior to1960 and only 14 percent has been built since 1975.The City first adopted a General Plan in August 1971, and laterupdated the plan in 1981. The 1981 update planned physical andeconomic growth to the year 2000, and assumed a built out of the citylimits with a population of 5,000 peopled by 2000. The plan alsoassumed significant traffic impacts to SR 65 by the year 2000. Inretrospect, the plan accurately projected the conditions of the city in2000, although Wheatland’s actual population was about half (2,500).Since 1981 various elements of the Plan have been updated, includingthe Land Use Element and the Transportation and Circulation Elementin 1986, and the Housing Element in 2005.The City of Wheatland initiated its General Plan Update in 2004 inresponse to regional and local population projections, two majordevelopment proposals, and the need for additional research on theCity’s Wastewater Treatment Plant capacity, fire and police protectionWheatland General Plan Policy Document, Part I 6July 11, 2006