Editing Cotati, California (section)

===Incorporation, growth, and rent control===
On July 2, 1963, less than a year after the incorporation of the lands north of town to form [[Rohnert Park, California|Rohnert Park]], voters approved (by a 284-to-41 margin) the incorporation of Cotati as a separate city.<ref name="DeClercq"/> After incorporation, the city grew rapidly, due in part to being within commuting range of [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]].<ref name="Ford">{{cite web
  |url=http://www.sonoma.edu/users/n/norwick/Document/Ford/gws1.html
  |title=Evaluation of Ground Water Resources: Sonoma County
  |author=Ford, Robert
  |year=1975
 }}
</ref> Between 1965 and 2000, the population increased by more than a factor of four.

In 1979, Cotati voters approved a [[rent control]] ordinance for all residential rentals,<ref name="code19">{{cite web
 |url=http://ordlink.com/codes/cotati/index.htm
 |title=Cotati Municipal Code: Title 19 - Housing
}}</ref> but in 1995, that ordinance was partly preempted by the passage of AB ([[California State Assembly|Assembly]] Bill) 1164, known as the Costa/Hawkins Bill.<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/95-96/bill/asm/ab_1151-1200/ab_1164_bill_950804_chaptered.html
 |title=AB1164 Bill Text
 |access-date=December 1, 2007
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=54466513106+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve
 |title=California Civil Code Sections 1954.50-1954.535
 |access-date=December 1, 2007
}}</ref> At the time, Cotati was one of five cities in California with "strong [[rent control]]" laws which included vacancy control. (The other cities were [[West Hollywood, California|West Hollywood]], [[Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica]], [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] and [[East Palo Alto, California|East Palo Alto]]). The Costa/Hawkins bill made it impossible for California municipalities to enforce vacancy control, except in special cases like [[Trailer park|mobile home parks]].<ref name="Dreier">{{cite web
 |url=http://tenant.net/Alerts/Guide/papers/dreier/dreier1.html
 |title=Rent Deregulation in California and Massachusetts: Politics, Policy, and Impacts
 |author=Dreier, Peter
 |date=May 14, 1997
}}</ref> When the 1979 ordinance was repealed by Cotati voters in 1998, it was replaced with a more limited ordinance aimed at mobile home parks.<ref name="code19" /> At the present time, eight of the nine incorporated areas in Sonoma County have rent control for mobile home parks, the exception being [[Healdsburg, California|Healdsburg]].<ref>{{cite web
 |url=http://www.fhosc.org/mobilehome/mobileinfo.html
 |title=Mobile Home Park Rent Control in Sonoma County
 |access-date=November 24, 2007
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222074612/http://www.fhosc.org/mobilehome/mobileinfo.html
 |archive-date=December 22, 2007
|url-status=dead
 }}</ref>

In 1990, Cotati citizens voted to impose a [[Urban growth boundary|limit]] on future annexation of land by the city.<ref name="Cotati Today">{{cite web|url=http://ci.cotati.ca.us/sections/about/history6.cfm|title=CotatiToday|access-date=August 4, 2008}}</ref> This was followed in 1997 by a ballot measure prohibiting "big-box" retail stores of more than {{convert|43000|sqft|m2}}. However, on November 4, 2003, Cotati voters approved (by 1,047 votes to 1,013) Measure B, granting an exception to this ordinance so that a [[Lowe's]] home improvement warehouse could be built on the west side of U.S. 101.<ref name="B-net">{{cite news|url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1300446/Voters-approve-Solano-County-growth.html|title=Voters approve Solano County growth boundaries|access-date=September 26, 2010}}</ref>