Sacramento promised to require community benefits from developers. Has the city followed through? July 24, 2024, The Sacramento Bee

In 2021, the city of Sacramento promised to require real estate developers pursing major construction projects to provide benefits to local neighborhoods. More than two years after the draft law was initially reviewed by the city council, negotiations remain in limbo — with advocates having awaited next steps from the city for almost six months.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/equity-lab/accountability/article290207904.html#storylink=cpy

California High-Speed Rail Authority Board Clears Final Environmental Milestone to Connect Downtown San Francisco to Downtown Los Angeles

463 Miles Now Environmentally Cleared

June 27, 2024

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The California High-Speed Rail Authority Board of Directors has approved the final environmental document for the Palmdale to Burbank project section. This major milestone is the final environmental clearance needed for the route from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles, with only the Los Angeles to Anaheim section remaining in Phase 1.

Click here to learn more: https://hsr.ca.gov/2024/06/27/news-release-california-high-speed-rail-authority-board-clears-final-environmental-milestone-to-connect-downtown-san-francisco-to-downtown-los-angeles/

20 Years Later, How Are City Climate Plans Actually Going?

Science Friday with Susan Scott Peterson | June 21, 2024

Are Cities Meeting Their Climate Targets?
“The state of decarbonization is lopsided. It’s really imbalanced in this country,” says Hilari Varnadore, a vice president at the U.S. Green Building Council, where she oversees a national program that helps cities with sustainability goals. “We have places—cities and states—that are just really accelerating progress, big time. And then there [are] just places that it’s moving super slow.”

Click here to read the article in full.

Caltrans faces legal battle over I-80 Freeway

By Gerardo Zavala | June 7, 2024 | Daily Democrat

The Sierra Club and the Environmental Council of Sacramento have filed a lawsuit against Caltrans alleging legally inadequate environmental analysis of the Yolo 80 Corridor Improvements Project that would add two new lanes through Yolo County … A press release from the two environmental agencies filing the lawsuit claimed that the environmental impact report “grossly underestimates increased vehicular travel, which would emit far larger quantities of greenhouse gasses and air pollutants than claimed.”

Click here to read the article in full: https://www.dailydemocrat.com/2024/06/07/caltrans-faces-legal-battle-over-i-80-freeway-improvement-project-in-yolo-county/

Here’s what Solano County’s California Forever project could mean for Sacramento

By Robin Douglas | June 2, 2024 | Sacramento Business Journal

Immediate Past President of the ECOS Board of Directors, Ralph Propper, was quoted in a Sacramento Business Journal article about the proposed California Forever project.

“I think this project will make things worse in all regards,” Propper said, listing air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and habitat preservation as likely to be harmed by the development.
He also noted that California Forever’s footprint is only a bit farther from the city of Sacramento than the city of Lincoln in Placer County. “The Sacramento area has some of the worst air quality in the country, and look at the way the wind blows,” he said.

Click here to read the full article.