The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors announced today that they have moved their workshop on the plan to expand the Urban Services Boundary north of Natomas from tomorrow, December 16th, 2015 to March 8, 2016. ECOS’ comments on how expanding the boundary would allow for a whole new area of urban sprawl when we should instead be focusing on infill development and reaping the co-benefits were submitted on December 15th, 2015.
We hope that your Board understands the significance of your actions regarding expanding the USB north to the Sutter County line. We understand that this is only a step in a long process of considering entitlement approval. But you have authorized entering into contracts for over $7 million worth of studies and work to figure out the details of creating a new town of 55,000 people, and you have authorized preparation of a $1 million Environmental Impact Report to consider the impacts. You are proceeding as if this is a done deal only requiring the planning details to be worked out. And you are doing so without having fully and publicly addressed the significant issues associated with the threshold decision of whether this development should proceed at all, in this time frame, or under the auspices of the County rather than the City. Please consider our request to put the project on hold while you undertake a serious and unbiased review and hold a public discussion on the important concerns we are raising.
