Feeding the monster to the north

Seems like some folks just don't learn.

Fresh off a suburban building orgy in the 1990s, Stockton is set to do it again. This week it adopted a growth plan that would see its population double by 2035. That means more than 550,000 people living in Stockton in another 30 years.

Yikes.

That means thousands of acres of land will be gobbled up by concrete and tract homes. That means more strain on social services in a region of the nation already hard-hit by poverty and crime. That means a likely merging of Stockton and Lodi to the north, and a possible merging of Stockton and Lathrop to the south.

Say hello to the future of the valley -- where cities bleed into one another, traffic jams are part of life, and infrastructure groans under the increased burden.

Why the folks to our north think this is a good growth model is beyond me. There are hundreds of examples up and down the state that should have given city planners pause for thought. But it looks like sensible planning was jettisoned for a blueprint that gets developers work and gets the city more fees.

And San Joaquin County residents get sold out. Again.