ABOUT MYVALLEY SPRINGS.COM

WHO WE ARE and WHAT WE DO

MyValleySprings.com was created in 2005, in response to rapid development in the rural unincorporated Valley Springs area east of Stockton and the San Joaquin Valley in the rolling Sierra Nevada foothills of western Calaveras County. A group of concerned citizens met and began to research the extent of current, proposed, and projected development. We learned Calaveras County had no zoning or development maps available to the public; and planning projects were being approved with no meaningful mitigation to address the cumulative impacts of development, including from increased traffic. Read "The Birth of an Activist" (EPFW Newsletter, Spring 2006). How could a safe, healthy, and productive human and natural environment in Valley Springs be preserved?

We decided to try to fix problems, and let the public know what was happening! MyValleySprings.com developed our own map of planned developments. Based on the best available information in 2005-2006, one of the MVS.com board members produced a map of current, future, and under review residential projects that showed the potential for over 3,500 new homes in the Valley Springs area.  A build-out scenario based on existing zoning presented on August 27, 2009, by EDAW, Inc., the consultants on the Valley Springs Community Plan Update, verified that number and more.  At build-out, the potential population for the area under current regulations could be over 30,000—more than three times the current population.  As with so many foothill communities, especially those within easy commuting distance of the Central Valley, the nature and character of our community are threatened.  The Sierra Fund notes, “…rapid growth itself dilutes a community’s identity, and therefore its awareness of what it is and what it should be protecting.”

After over a year of collecting money in a jar to support our website and promote a new vision of growth and development for our community, MyValleySprings.com incorporated as a non-profit public benefit corporation effective January 4, 2007.  MVS.com is supported by foundation grants and individual donations.  Click here for a list of MyValleySprings.com’s current Board and Volunteers.

Click here to read more about what we do.

*MyValleySprings.com is a California and federal 501c(3) non-profit corporation. Links to application documents (Form 1023 and Bylaws) and IRS exemption letter are posted below.

MVS_Bylaws

MVS_Form_1023

MVS_IRS_Exemption_Letter