Tag Archives: Climate Solutions

Sacramento County OKs birds, bees and farm stands with urban ag ordinance

January 24th, 2017

By Robin Opsahl

The Sacramento Bee

Residents of urban and suburban Sacramento County will be able to legally grow and sell crops, keep bees, and raise chickens and ducks at home under an urban agriculture ordinance that county supervisors unanimously passed Tuesday.

Proponents say the new legal framework will make life easier for small-scale farmers and provide fresh food in areas that lack full-service grocery stores.

Read more here.

Sacramento’s New Downtown

November 5, 2016

Interview By Cosmo Garvin

The Sacramento City Council is likely to approve the downtown railyards development plan this Thursday, November 10. Most of the buzz about the project has been around the proposed stadium for the Sacramento Republic soccer team.

The media has paid less attention to the amount and type of housing that will (or won’t) be built there, even though this is probably the most important part of the whole enterprise.

In Cosmo Garvin’s latest podcast, he interviewed Earl Withycombe and Alexandra Reagan of the Environmental Council of Sacramento, who say that “the current plan for the Railyards doesn’t include enough affordable housing, or enough of any kind of housing. They say the project isn’t dense enough, isn’t ambitious enough, about building a transit friendly, environmentally sound, inclusive urban core.”

Clearing CEQA: Study vindicates California environmental law

November 3, 2016

By Matt Kramer

Sacramento News & Review

CEQA gets a bad rap but it’s what allows people to provide feedback on plans for development in CA.

Many critics of CEQA [the California Environmental Quality Act] say that the it impedes business and ties projects up in litigation. However, a new Rose Foundation study places the percentage of projects that end up in litigation at only 0.7 percent. This helps shed light on a much-misunderstood law. “CEQA isn’t just about litigation; it’s also about having to do … reviews on projects that have a significant impact on the environment … It’s really the state’s bedrock environmental law.” says Ethan Elkind, director of the Climate Change and Business Program at the UCLA and UC Berkeley schools of law. #CEQA helps us protect our environment by requiring “that state and local agencies assess the potential significant environmental impacts of proposed development projects and work to minimize such impacts when practical.”

Read more here: https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/clearing-ceqa-study-vindicates-california/content?oid=22662052

“Leading the Way” on strategies for a more sustainable California

October 27, 2016

Matthew Baker of ECOS led the research for a new report by ClimatePlan called “Leading the Way” on strategies for a more sustainable California. 

OVERVIEW 

California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act of 2008 (SB 375) connects land use and transportation planning with California’s ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals. This innovative law requires the state’s 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to create Sustainable Communities Strategies (SCSs) showing how their regions will meet statemandated GHG reduction targets through changes in land use and transportation.

In many regions, the SCS process has led to innovative policymaking to support healthy, equitable, and sustainable patterns of development. Drawing on reviews of adopted SCSs, as well as extensive input from ClimatePlan partners, transportation planners, and others, this report highlights some of the leading practices that have emerged so far. It also offers recommendations that go beyond existing SCSs in areas such as climate adaptation, water, and affordable housing.

This report was prepared for ClimatePlan by Adam Livingston of Sequoia Riverlands Trust with expert input gathered by Matt Baker of the Environmental Council of Sacramento.

Read the full report here: http://www.climateplan.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Leading-the-Way-Full-Report.pdf