Why is this important?

A community is comprised of a variety of land uses, such as residential, commercial, industrial, and recreational. A significant amount of land is also devoted to public uses, such as parks and schools, to serve the other types of land uses. In the case of jurisdictions that have the majority of its lands held for public use, planning for growth and economic vitality can be a challenge due to this limited resource. Measuring the amount of land held in public use provides insight into the possible use by residents and visitors to the City of Sonora and Tuolumne County.

Although these public lands are not available for development they do provide other economic benefits to Tuolumne County through natural resources, tourism, recreation and employment.

What is the measure?

Public lands for both the City of Sonora and Tuolumne County are included within the public and parks and recreation designations under their respective General Plans.

How are we doing?

Approximately 76.5% of Tuolumne County’s 1,458,121 acres are public lands. Amador County public/private land ratio is almost the exact opposite. Of their almost 382,000 acres, approximately 24% of their county is publicly owned (USFS, BLM, Wilderness, East Bay Municipal District, County, School District and Tribal Trust Land), and 76% is in private ownership.

The City of Sonora is comprised of a total of 1,782 acres. Approximately 20% of these acres are public lands.

Government ownership or stewardship of public lands is usually very stable and seldom changes substantially. While there are occasional acquisitions for road and highway projects or similarly agencies sell properties that are considered excess, the Tuolumne County numbers have not changed recently.