ECOS Climate Committee 5/12 Focus on Transportation

ECOS Climate Change Committee – Focus on Transportation, THURSDAY, MAY 12 6:00 pm

Co-hosted by Ralph Propper, Climate Committee Chair and John Deeter, Transportation Team Lead

Agenda

6:00 Let’s chat — Zoom break-out rooms

6:05 Welcome and brief introductions

6:10 Sacramento Regional Transit (Sac RT) staff will discuss plans for the coming year. RT’s fiscal status has improved, as ridership is increasing again.

Craig Norman (Director of Engineering) will discuss more frequent service on Folsom line, electric buses, low-floor light rail stations/vehicles, new LRT stations (Dos Rios station; Horn Rd. station near Rancho Cordova’s Kassis property)

6:30 SacRT and TOD – Traci Canfield will provide high level overview of the SACOG-SACRT Transit-oriented Development Action Plan written in 2020

6:50 CapCity Freeway Lawsuit Update – Betsy Weiland of SARA (invited contributor) to discuss impacts to river

7:05 Transportation Ballot Measure for November election – Steve Cohn of SacMoves (invited contributor)

7:20 UPDATES

  • Climate Action Plans for County and City of Sacramento
  • For July presentation — Valley Rail, San Joaquin JPA, by Dan Leavitt, Manager of Regional Initiatives, will update us on the Stockton to Sacramento segment of Valley Rail w/maps, station areas, station designs. Valley Rail is on the Sacramento Subdivision from Stockton to Natomas — on separate, parallel UP track(s) to Sac RT from Cosumnes River Blvd to R Street in Midtown. Service will extend to Natomas (Elkhorn Blvd), but planning work is being done with Butte CAG and SACOG for a future extension to Butte County (Chico).

7:30 Adjourn

Thursday, May 12, 2022, 6:00pm

Link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6656164155

To phone in: 669-900-6833, Meeting ID: 665 616 4155

Sac City Council Meeting, April 26, 2022, Item 19 Quarterly Climate Update 

On April 26, 2022, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento Council Members regarding their Council Meeting on April 26, 2022, Item 19: Quarterly Climate Update. Below is an excerpt from our letter.

Sacramento can be a leader in sustainable and equitable growth and reducing of GHG emissions. The Sacramento region is the home of the Blueprint, upon which was modeled the landmark law SB375 linking land use and transportation. The concept of coordinating or integrating land use and transportation was right in 2008 and it is still right today. The key is to implement it.

Therefore, ECOS urges the City to use SacRT’s transit system as the backbone for redevelopment. Five- to seven-story buildings should frame the light rail station areas. Streets with existing high-ridership bus routes should be transformed into boulevards with consistently high street walls, wide sidewalks, protected bikeways, street trees on park strips, and curb parking. New parks and public plazas should be inserted.

Click here to read the letter in full.

ECOS Letter to Sac County re Climate Action Plan

On March 23rd, 2022, Sacramento County held a workshop on their CLimate Action Plan. ECOS, Sierra Club, 350 Sacramento, as well as several other organizations and many residents, provided testimony during the workshop.

ECOS submitted a letter preceding the meeting, stating:

We’re grateful for the effort that County staff has made developing this CAP draft. However, it doesn’t address the biggest change we need to make: we need to increase housing in ways that don’t increase commute distances and thereby make our air and climate less healthy.

Click here to read our letter in full.

Joint letter to SMUD re Sac County Climate Action Plan

This Jan. 24, 2022 letter from the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Sierra Club Sacramento Group, and 350 Sacramento, regarding the Sacramento County Climate Action Plan (CAP) requests that SMUD verify some of the SMUD-related information in the CAP, and also consider helping to increase standardization of CAP processes across the state.

Click here to read the letter.


Photo by Vincent M.A. Janssen from Pexels

Report Back on the November 2021 UN Climate Change Conference – Join us Nov 30

After returning from Glasgow this month, Michael Paparian will provide us with a report on the November 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26). Michael Paparian has served as Sierra Club California State Director, and as Executive Director of the California Pollution Control Financing Authority; he gave us a report after returning from the Paris Climate Accords in 2015.

Zoom Link to join meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81865377865 | Call-in: 1-669-900-6833

Click here for the agenda.