SMUD’s controversial Coyote Creek solar project moves forward, November 11, 2025, Capradio

By Manola Secaira | Capradio | November 19, 2025

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s (SMUD’s) controversial Coyote Creek solar project at a packed Tuesday meeting.
Over 150 people showed up to share concerns or support over the course of hours. The solar project involves developing over a thousand acres in southeastern Sacramento County. The site lies near Rancho Murrieta and the Prairie City State Vehicle Recreation Area.
…
Luz Lim, a policy analyst for the nonprofit Environmental Council of Sacramento, also spoke against the project.
“We think it is necessary to have solar development to reach our climate goals, but we also need to be strategic,” Lim said. “It doesn’t make sense that we are going to, in the name of green energy, kill thousands of blue oak trees, native trees, that have been here for a really long time.”

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Sacramento (and its lawyers) confront county on Natomas. What’s next? September 10, 2025, The Sacramento Bee

By Tom Philp | September 10, 2025 | The Sacramento Bee

The city of Sacramento’s law firm out of San Francisco sent a scathing letter August 19 to Sacramento County on why the city objected to the Upper Westside Project. It includes specifics on the water challenges that the project faces.

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Sacramento Supervisor Phil Serna chickens out of facing Natomas neighbors, August 20, 2025, The Sacramento Bee

By Tom Philp | August 20, 2025 | The Sacramento Bee

“Over the past six years the City has tried to work with the County on this project, including numerous meetings and letters to address the City concerns,” McCarty wrote. “Unfortunately, those concerns remain unresolved.”

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Judge Blasts, Approves, I-80 Causeway Widening Between Davis and Sacramento, August 19, 2025, StreetsBlogCal

By Damien Newton | August 19, 2025

This is a frustrating ruling, Caltrans admits the project will increase VMT (and greenhouse gas emissions) in the long-term in the environmental documents submitted to the CTC. Caltrans combined two projects into one at the start of the decade and didn’t do a full environmental study as a result. The judge notes that the project has no long-term benefits and yet the project is still moving forward.

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Why approving a bad mega-project in Natomas won’t add to regional housing, August 19, 2025, The Sacramento Bee

By Tom Philp | August 19, 2025 | The Sacramento Bee

Approving an Un-Natomas, the basin’s first Uncity, would be a huge step backward, regional planning at its very worst. For being so close to downtown, Pluckebaum’s rosy perspective aside, Upper Westside is a last century project, as it sets aside more than half of its housing land for low-density neighborhoods.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article311750253.html#storylink=cpy

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Why supervisors will say yes to a horrible Sacramento housing project, August 18, 2025, The Sacramento Bee

By Tom Philp | August 18, 2025 | The Sacramento Bee

These supervisors are wired to overlook how Upper Westside has no water supply. Or an agreement with the Natomas Unified School District to help pay the hundreds of millions of dollars for four new schools. Or a plan to preserve the river environment that is consistent with a quarter century of planning in the surrounding Natomas Basin and local agreements with state and federal wildlife officials.

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