How does Sacramento manage stormwater during major rain events?
Join the ECOS Water Committee for an overview of Sacramento’s historic combined sewer system and the infrastructure that protects public health and water quality during wet weather.
Featured Speakers:
Fernando Duenas, Senior Engineer, City of Sacramento Department of Utilities
Joshua Nurmi, Senior Civil Engineer, Sacramento Area Sewer District Echowater Resource Recovery Facility
Presenters will discuss the history of the combined sewer system, current regulatory requirements, how increasing storm intensity affects system operations, the challenges and opportunities associated with a combined system, and innovative projects such as the McKinley stormwater vault!
ECOS Climate Change Committee Presents: Sustainability and Infill Development in Sacramento County
Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Homelessness, lack of affordable housing, and worsening climate conditions are some of the leading concerns in Sacramento County.
Join us in conversation with Jessie Shen and Joshua Lathan to discuss Sacramento County’s Infill Program, ongoing Zoning Code Amendment, Climate Action Plan, and Sustainability Dashboard.
The status quo is rarely on the side of emerging women in politics. And in moments like this when change is in the wind, the next generation decides to take some risks, reject outdated ways and suggest a new approach to leading. It’s how a healthy local democracy is supposed to work. It’s how greater Sacramento can make itself better.
The Board of Supervisors (BOS) has scheduled a vote on the Upper Westside project for Tuesday, June 16 at 2 pm. Plan to attend at 700 H St, Sacramento.
To confirm that the vote will be held, the morning of the 16th, check our webpage or social media pages.
Places where you can get updates include:
The ECOS Natomas Campaign webpage – see the Important Update message
You can also check the agenda on Board of Supervisors meeting webpage.
Background
The vote is to approve or deny this project which will rezone over 2,000 acres of farmland to enable residential and commercial development.
The fundamental reason to oppose this project is that the County should not build an unincorporated city, the size of Galt, in a flood zone, next to the Sacramento River. It will destroy valuable farmland and wildlife habitat. The project will add over 20,000 people to Natomas and will not improve main transportation arteries, resulting in increased traffic and congestion. This project also flouts long-standing agreements between the City and the County.
The City and the Natomas Basin Conservancy have retained counsel and sent strongly worded letters to the County explaining how proposed rezoning will destroy the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan. You should help us to oppose this project.
Submit a Comment to the Supervisors
Email a comment to BoardClerk[at]saccounty[dot]gov. Include “Upper Westside Specific Plan” Item #58, in the subject. Providing your contact information is optional. Or, you can mail a comment to the County Board of Supervisors at 700 H Street, Suite 2450, Sacramento, CA 95814
Ideas for your comments could include the following. You don’t need to use them all – use ones that reflect your reasons for opposition.
The City’s opposition – The City Council passed a resolution against UWSP. The City’s excellent letter is here.
Habitat – There will be irreversible and fatal impacts to the Natomas Basin Conservancy, the Swainson’s Hawk and the Swainson’s Hawk Zone. Two excellent letters from NBC are here. There is total disregard for 3 decades of planning for habitat preservation. There are conflicts with the Urban Services Boundary (County’s ultimate boundary for growth) and the Natomas Basin Conservancy.
Traffic impacts – I-5 and I-80, West El Camino, and Garden Highway will be severely impacted by the addition of 20,000 residents.
Water – There is no viable source of water. The urban water rights do not exist for these parcels and water reliability is diminishing with climate change. ECOS wrote a letter in response to the project’s recent proposal to use agricultural water.
Fire & Police – Concern with the ability of the county to provide adequate protection for urban scale services typically handled by the city, not the county.
Negative business impact – Millions of square feet of new commercial space will pull business from existing businesses in Natomas and downtown.
Evacuation Risk – Increased congestion creates dangerous evacuation conditions in case of flooding or other emergencies.
Air Quality Damage – Excessive and unhealthy air quality emissions are not sufficiently addressed. The EIR identifies significant air quality impacts that can’t be mitigated.
Lack of Affordable Housing – This project does not address the region’s affordable housing need. Our housing need is for low and moderate income housing which is a minor part of this project. More importantly, plenty of land is already zoned for housing. See ECOS’ letter that argues against more SacCounty approvals of Greenfield projects including the Upper Westside proposal.
Please join us in opposing this project. Attend the meeting, give a 2 minute spoken comment and/or, submit a written comment.
Thank you for taking action to demonstrate your opposition to this project.
The vote on the Upper Westside project by the Board of Supervisors (BOS) has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 16 at 2 pm. Please put June 16, 2 pm on your calendar and plan to attend at 700 H St, Sacramento.
The BOS vote has been cancelled (with about 18 hours notice) twice. So, on June 16, plan to check whether or not the vote is on the agenda. The County only needs to post the agenda for a public meeting 72 hours prior to the meeting.
ECOS will send out updates. Join our email list here.
If you have submitted written comments for either of the previously scheduled votes, they will be included with the materials for the BOS on the new date.
Sacramento’s Housing Crisis
One of the arguments used in favor of developing Upper Westside and other green spaces in Sacramento, is the housing crisis. Sacramento does have a housing crisis, however, the solution isn’t to approve more farmland for development, but to actually construct more homes.
Securing an entitlement, or an approval by a jurisdiction such as Sacramento County to develop land, does not build more homes. Sacramento County has already entitled far more land for residential development than the market will bear, as demonstrated by how slowly the housing units are being built out.
Since 1995, eleven land developments designed for 70,000 housing units have been entitled by Sacramento County. In these developments, only 5,000 housing units were constructed by 2020, and it is projected that only 17,000 housing units will be built by 2050. One reason for the slow pace of construction is the builders’ fear of saturating the market. If many houses are under construction at the same time, sale prices fall, negatively affecting builders’ profits.
Approving the Upper Westside Project will not help to solve the Sacramento housing crisis, but it will add to the excess of entitlements, further disincentivizing builders from building.
The jurisdictions in our region must incentivize construction, not entitlements.
In Natomas, large parcels of land entitled by the City of Sacramento over 20 years ago for residential development, are still sitting there as open space with no construction. The clip of the aerial photo below shows these large areas on both sides of I-5, north of Del Paso Road.
ECOS recognizes the gravity of Sacramento’s housing crisis and its impact on home buyers. We support infill and higher-density building as solutions to the supply and affordability problems. Because of the increasing impacts of climate change and the rising risk of flooding in Sacramento, we believe it is important to protect open land. We also believe strongly in Sacramento as the Farm to Fork Capital and that we must protect our agricultural land. We do not need more development projects entitled on agricultural land.
To read more about ECOS perspective on the housing crisis, see this position paper.
When the Rivers Rise – Flood Risk and Resilience in the Sacramento Region
Watch the presentation in the video below to learn about the Sacramento region’s flood risks, current mitigation efforts, and how you can prepare for future floods.
Featuring:
Gary Bardini | P.E., Director of Planning, Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency
Austin Miller | Environmental Specialist at Sacramento County Department of Water Resources
Nicole Sears | Environmental Scientist & Graduate Student, Water & Environmental Law, McGeorge School of Law
