This week, the city of American Canyon has a great opportunity to engage its diverse and evolving citizenry and give them the reins by placing on the November ballot the city’s proposed urban limit line.

In our view the urban limit line, which for the first time sets firm boundaries around the city’s expansion and locks them in until 2030, is solid public policy. The line both allows the growing city to expand in smart ways — encouraging some business growth in the industrial north and a mixed-use Town Center east of the highway — while protecting nearby agricultural land and capping the sort of tumult that has marked the city’s expansion in recent years.

The line is sketched out in two important documents:

• The urban limit line is the linchpin in a wide-ranging contract between American Canyon and Napa County that was reached last month and settles several scores, including who will build the Devlin Road extension southward (the county, by 2018) and who will provide water service to the airport area (the city, without muss or fuss.)

• The second document is a petition circulated by Impact 94503, an AmCan citizens group led by former American Canyon City Manager Mark Joseph.

In little more than two weeks, the group gathered more than enough valid signatures to get the urban limit line on the AmCan ballot, a sign that support for the line is likely strong in the community. The next step is for the American Canyon City Council to either simply adopt the new line as law, something it could do at Tuesday’s council meeting, or put it to a vote of the people in November.

Last week Joseph, Impact 94503 Vice President Ray Marcus and American Canyon Chamber of Commerce President Pam Wilkinson visited the Register editorial board and said they’d like to see the city council simply adopt the line as law. That tack reduces uncertainty, sets other aspects of the city-county agreement into motion more quickly and — as Wilkinson points out — leaves one less item on what promises to be a monster ballot.

In our view, the American Canyon City Council should put the urban limit line on the ballot and leave the power with the people on this vital issue.

At the same editorial board meeting, lifelong American Canyon (nee Napa Junction) resident Paulette Freskan-Griffin opposed the initiative and the urban limit line. She is skeptical of the benefits for the city, skeptical of the wisdom of this city council and thinks the measure should “definitely” go to the ballot.

We respectfully disagree with her on all but one point.

The urban limit line and city-county agreement have enormous benefits for AmCan residents, for countywide efforts to preserve agricultural land and for the two public agencies trying to put old disputes behind them.

Yet we agree with Freskan-Griffin the best step is for the city council to give citizens the right to decide. Put the urban limit line on the ballot, lay out the persuasive reasons why it is a good idea, and empower the citizens of American Canyon to lead the city.