The California Heartland Project
In response to neglect that the many natural treasures of the Sacramento Valley have received, Habitat2020 has developed the California Heartland Project, a comprehensive conservation plan for the Sacramento region.
Our Vision:
A future where nationally and internationally significant natural habitats and wildlife-friendly agricultural lands of the Sacramento Region's Heartland - vernal pools, California prairie, riparian forests, freshwater marshes, oak savanna, and chaparral - are protected, connected, and conserved.
Our Mission:
The California Heartland Project seeks to create a connected network of parks, preserves, and conservation easements on working farms and ranches - creating access to open space for education and recreation, protecting the unique biological diversity found in the Sacramento Valley, and conserving our agricultural heritage: to spread our vision; to identify, protect, and connect our natural treasures; to seek the means and mechanism to implement the vision; and to promote cooperation and coordination of local governments, organizations, and the public.
→ View the Habitat 2020 Vision Map (PDF)
Stay tuned for upcoming new maps and GIS resources for the entire six county region.
Issues
Elk Grove Sphere of Influence (SOI) Expansion:
The City of Elk Grove has filed a SOI expansion application to the Sacramento County LAFCo (the Local Agency FormationCommission). The expansion would blow out the current Elk Grove border across mostly agricultural land, to the Cosumnes River.
The Cosumnes River is the last undammed major river in California, and its watershed is under continual threat of water supply degradation and ecological pressures due to encroaching sprawl development. The questions of how climate change would affect the already dwindling water supply loom heavily. These lands represent the wintering grounds of the Greater Sandhill Crane (Threatened, CA), and provide habitat for myriad species, including the Swainson's Hawk (Endangered, CA), and the Giant Garter Snake (Endangered, Federal). We wish to have the watershed regulated and the entire riparian corridor of the Cosumnes preserved.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks and months for news and needed citizen action.
Measure A Connector:
The "Measure A" or "Grantline" Connector is now known as the 'Capital Southeast Connector.'
This project is moving forward separately, but when the County Board approved the Cordova Hills application, the connector was used as justification that there would be transportation out there. So either the Connector is being used to induce sprawl growth or sprawl growth is being used to justify the Connector. Either way, this is not kosher under CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act).
In Measure A, the Connector was explicitly defined to be a very limited access roadway so that it would bring no concerns of growth inducement. And note that the Connector project now has a $700 million price-tag - Measure A only allotted $80 million.
Jackson Highway/Grantline East Visioning Areas, and Cordova Hills:
In May 2007, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors directed County Planning Staff to begin exploring development options for two "Vision Areas," the Jackson Highway Corridor and Grantline East. These two areas lie outside of the UPA, the Urban Policy Area (the area that is supposedly the active study area for development), within which there is enough room to already accommodate growth for decades.
In March and April of this year, four public workshops were held to gather input on the visioning process, and in October the Planning Staff released a complete Draft Policy Document of the visions for each area. The document looks pretty and pays plenty of lip-service to "smart-growth" principles-but not only has County Staff been directed to spend a year and a half studying outlying areas that are not part of the County's current study area, but this "public visioning" process was essentially flawed.
At the four public workshops there was little opportunity for open dialogue. Instead, the participants where directed to complete pre-written surveys, in which, ECOS members reported, there was little to no option to express "preserve local agriculture," or "preserve habitat" perspectives, let alone the possibility to state "no development is needed here at this time."
On top of myriad concerns in developing these areas, two of the most integral considerations were left out of the public visioning process entirely: first, the necessary completion of the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan (SSHCP).Some of the highest density vernal pool habitat remaining in the region lies in the two visioning areas; vernal pools provide habitat for the short life cycle of federally listed Threatened and Endangered species, such as the California Tiger Salamander, Fairy Shrimp, Tadpole Shrimp, the Western Spadefoot Toad, and dozens of endemic plant species. A vast portion of the critical vernal pool habitat within the USB (Urban Services Boundary) is essential to meet the required targets of the SSHCP. The SSHCP is a requirement of the Freeport Water Agreement and its completion should take precedence over any new development planning. Until those easements are designated and confirmed, no reliable development plan can be drafted.
The second outstanding omission at the workshops was the Cordova Hills development proposal, located in the southern portion of the Grantline East area. In May '08, immediately after the "public" visioning process, the County Board of Supervisors approved the Cordova Hills Application to proceed as an amendment to the General Plan - despite being separate and inconsistent with the broader Visioning plan, and against the recommendation of the Planning Commission. This site represents some of the very highest density of vernal pools and if Cordova Hills were to move ahead, there would be no adjacent infrastructure (water, utilities, transportation) at all - a clear violation of Sac County Planning Policy Land Use 75 (LU 75).
For more info on vernal pools go to: www.vernalpools.org
ECOS has stated to the County that some degree of expansion on the Jackson Corridor could eventually make sense but ECOS is opposed to any development past Excelsior Rd (the current UPA boundary). When the California climate change bill, AB32, demands less car travel, and at a time when our existing suburban communities are severely struggling under the current foreclosure crisis, further expansion of low-density suburban development makes no sense from an economic or fiscal policy perspective.
Flooding an already oversupplied, failing suburban housing market with more of the same will only cause area property values to continue to fall. Continued insistence of County Supervisors to approve more sprawl development as the only answer to the need for revenue production just digs the County deeper into a financial hole.
Expanding our planning boundaries will make it that much more difficult for County staff to do the most important planning work facing our region: figuring out how to manage population growth in ways that renew and revitalize already developed areas. County Planning staff time and budgets have and will be allocated to planning for newly included areas instead of analyzing the full potential for managing growth within the existing UPA. There is more than enough land within the UPA to handle future growth for years to come - if the County commits to fully and aggressively implementing infill and commercial corridor planning strategies, and the revitalization of existing neighborhoods.
Habitat 2020 and ECOS are adamantly working with the County and the potential developers to, if these areas are developed, have our concerns adequately addressed. But in the meantime the Board of Supervisors must hear from the community the wish to reject the short-term fiscal benefits of greenfield development as these developments will only lead to more long-term increasing cost burdens from unsustainable sprawl-To commit to a sustainable future for our region. We can and must figure out how to grow without continuing to sprawl.
The complete visioning document, with maps, is available at:
http://www.planning.saccounty.net/gpupdate/Jackson_Grantline%20Project/Jackson%20&%20Grantline%20Project.html
Events
Contact & Donations
Contact:
Matthew Baker
Habitat Director, ECOS
909 12 St. Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 444 - 0022
habitat@ecosacramento.net
Donations:
Friends of ECOS
(CA Heartland Project)
Betsy Weiland, President
4950 Keane Drive
Carmichael, CA 95608