LAFCo Votes to Approve Airport South Industrial Project

May 9, 2025

ECOS is taking its message of opposition on the Airport South Industrial Project (ASIP) to the City Planning and Design Review Commission on May 22, at 5:30 pm. 

Unfortunately, the Sacramento Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) voted 7 to 0 on May 7, 2025 to certify the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and approve the Sphere of Influence (SOI) for the Airport South Industrial Project. This project would create 6 million square feet of warehouses on a 450-acre site next to the Westlake neighborhood, the Paso Verde elementary school, and existing habitat.

Despite 60 speakers voicing opposition at the April 2 meeting; despite 700 pages of comment letters; despite air quality and other negative impacts; despite our best efforts, they voted to move the project forward.

The next opportunity to turn things around is the City Planning and Design Review Commission hearing on May 22 at 5:30. The meeting will be held in the City Council chambers at 915 I St. If convinced of the flaws in the proposed project, the Commission may recommend that the City Council reject the project or offer suggestions for changes. I urge you to mark your calendar and plan to attend. Soon after that, the issue will go to the City Council for a final decision.

Thank you to everyone who wrote, called, posted on social media, and testified at the LAFCo hearings. Please contact your representatives as the meetings get closer. We still have a chance of saving this valuable farmland and open space.

Thank you and stay tuned.

Heather Fargo
President of the ECOS Board of Directors

In the News

Below are links to the report on Channel 10, a Sacramento Bee article published May 7, 2025, and today’s Sacramento Business Journal article.

Channel 10, “Battle over Sacramento annexation plan pits jobs against environmental concerns.”

The Sacramento Bee, “Sacramento commission approved annexing 472 acres. Residents are concerned.”

Sacramento Business Journal, “Sacramento LAFCo approves step toward Airport South project near Metro Air Park.”

Sacramento commission approves annexing 472 acres. Residents are concerned, May 9, 2025, The Sacramento Bee

By Emma Hall | May 9, 2025 | The Sacramento Bee

Sacramento residents, including former Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, were against the project altogether, saying it’s too close to schools and other residential areas. Residents were concerned about construction and the annex will have environmentally, especially with the Natomas Basin Conservation habitat plan.

Click here to read the article in full.

Sacramento LAFCO approves step toward Airport South project near Metro Air Park, May 9, 2025, Sacramento Business Journal

By Ben van der Meer | May 9, 2025 | Sacramento Business Journal

“I think our main concern is it crosses the urban services boundary,” said Heather Fargo, the current ECOS board president and a former mayor of Sacramento. She added the land is also active farmland, and developing it violates the spirit of the Natomas Basin Conservancy Plan, first approved by local governments in 1997. “It starts to unravel the conservancy plan.”

Click here to read the article in full.

ECOS Orientation 5/20/2025

Come learn what ECOS is all about! Attend our monthly orientation session on Tuesday, May 20, 2025 from 6:00 – 6:30pm via Zoom to get a broad overview of what ECOS does, why it matters and what you can do to help! This orientation can also help anyone wanting to learn more about environmental issues in the Sacramento region. We will cover our current goals that involve climate change prevention, promoting infill over sprawl development, transit, habitat protection and the wise use of water resources, among others.

Make Polluters Pay Rally in Sacramento 5/27/2025

The fossil fuel industry has enjoyed some of the best profit margins in history, while externalizing the costs of their operations onto our health, communities, and our planet. They have known for decades the impacts of their industry pollution on the climate, and they continue to obstruct the energy transition. Big Oil has used these profits to corrupt our government at all levels, and Trump said the quiet part out loud during his campaign, promising big tax cuts and deregulation in exchange for millions in contributions. Now the administration is gutting agencies and programs that protect people and planet, and pursuing the “drill baby drill” agenda.

In California, the word “unprecedented” has started to lose its meaning as wildfires, floods, droughts, sea level rise, and even fire tornados hammer the golden state regularly. And as a potential Trump recession looms, social programs, environmental protection and disaster relief, among others, may face major face cuts as the state budget faces shortfalls. California is on the verge of joining Vermont and New York in creating a Climate Superfund, but we need your support!

It is past time that we hold polluters accountable for the damage they have caused, and make the major investments that our communities desperately need. It is time to Make Polluters Pay! Join us at a peaceful rally in Sacramento at the West Steps of the Capitol from 5 – 7pm on May 27th.