Aggie Square Environmental Review Update

September 18, 2020

The environmental review for Aggie Square Phase 1 is being done in a document called the “Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the University of California, Davis Sacramento Campus 2020 Long Range Development Plan Update.” For additional information and to access the Draft Supplemental EIR and Draft 2020 LRDP Update, click here.

Public comments on the Notice of Availability of the Draft Supplemental EIR were due on September 16, 2020. The Environmental Council of Sacramento and its partners submitted comment letters outlining our concerns with the document.

“Our primary concern is that the planned expansion of the UC Davis Sacramento Campus facilities does not cause displacement of low-income residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS)

Click here to view the letter from the Environmental Council of Sacramento.

“We hope to see a version of Aggie Square that supports the health and livelihoods of existing and future Sacramento residents through the creation of affordable home and job opportunities for communities too often excluded from the economic prosperity and investments elsewhere in the City.”
Sacramento Investment Without Displacement

Click here to view the letter from the Sacramento Investment Without Displacement.

Learn More

Click here to learn more about this project, and our concerns.

Councilmembers back call for community benefit ‘commitments’ on Aggie Square

September 18, 2020 | By Felicia Alvarez | Sacramento Business Journal

Two Sacramento city councilmembers, Jay Schenirer and Eric Guerra, are backing a call to prevent gentrification near Aggie Square.
Aggie Square is the University of California Davis’ planned satellite campus in Sacramento. The $1.1 billion, 25-acre project would fill land the university owns near Stockton Boulevard and Broadway with over 1 million square feet of research, wet lab, commercial space and housing.
https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2020/09/18/councilmembers-back-community-benefit-aggie-square.html

Click here to read the full article.

A $1.1 billion project will mean thousands of jobs in Sacramento. Will renters be displaced?

By Theresa Clift | September 14, 2020 | The Sacramento Bee

Guadalupe Del Angel-Garcia moved into her North Oak Park apartment 14 years ago. Three years ago, her rent was about $800 a month. Now it’s $1,100.
The rent is increasingly difficult for her family to pay, especially since her husband was laid off from his restaurant job due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Oak Park is home. She’s lived there more than two decades and belongs to a close-knit community through her church.
When she heard about Aggie Square, a sprawling new project bringing thousands of jobs to the UC Davis Medical Center about a mile away, she was deeply concerned.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to learn how ECOS is involved in trying to get UC Davis to uphold the community development principles taught in their classes and make sure Aggie Square doesn’t cause more displacement in Sacramento’s underserved neighborhoods.

Image by Leroy Skalstad from Pixabay

Implementing Vehicle Miles Traveled Guidelines

On May 26, 2020, ECOS joined other organizations in sending a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom in response to requests from some parties to postpone the implementation of SB 743 (2013). Environmental groups urge the Governor to not further delay the implementation of this very important statute.

Click here to read the letter.

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels.

Innovation without gentrification?

By Graham Womack
April 1, 2020
Sacramento News and Review

The promise and pitfalls of Aggie Square in Oak Park

“The reality is Aggie Square could be the best thing for the neighborhood, and it could be the worst thing for the neighborhood,” said Sacramento City Council member Eric Guerra, whose district is directly east of UC Davis Med Center.
https://sacblog.newsreview.com/2020/04/01/innovation-without-gentrification/

Even a UC Davis official—Hendry Ton, the university’s associate vice chancellor for health equity, diversity and inclusion—has questions about Aggie Square causing gentrification and displacing residents.
“I think there’s a lot of questions about that and I certainly have questions about that as well,” Ton said. “I think that the potential is that if the people in Aggie Square and the university are thoughtful and careful and collaborative about this, this can be a very significant force for good in the neighborhood.”
So far, however, collaboration hasn’t exactly been smooth, with officials and residents clashing on plans to ensure the neighborhood benefits from the project.
A group connected to the California Endowment’s Building Healthy Communities initiative, known as Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, has been working on a legally binding community benefits agreement for Aggie Square.
A January draft of the agreement called for local hiring from nearby zip codes, anti-demolition policies to protect homes and enrollment of at least 50 percent of Medi-Cal recipients living within five miles of Aggie Square.
“We believe that this project has a lot of potential to be successful. But it also has a lot of potential to displace working families.”
Gabby Trejo is executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together.
“We want to see Aggie Square be successful,” said Gabby Trejo, who has been working on the agreement and serves as executive director of Sacramento Area Congregations Together. “We believe that this project has a lot of potential to be successful. But it also has a lot of potential to displace working families. And we want to make sure that working families in our region are protected.”
City leaders have yet to commit to a community benefits agreement, however. Guerra and Councilman Jay Schenirer, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, are instead working on a letter of intent, which city leaders declined to provide.
“I’m less concerned about the type of document and more concerned about an honest agreement… that will last longer than whatever we call the agreement,” Guerra said.
But Trejo and Sasso said the letter is insufficient. “We’ve seen other folks be bad actors in that things are promised and then they’re never delivered,” Sasso said.
https://sacblog.newsreview.com/2020/04/01/innovation-without-gentrification/

Click here to read the full article.

ECOS’ Involvement

ECOS is a part of the Sacramento Investment Without Displacement coalition to work towards preventing the displacement of long-time residents and local businesses that could occur as a result of this significant, new project at the UC Davis Medical Center.

Click here to learn more about Aggie Square and ECOS’ involvement.

Image credit: Edna Winti, 2016/366/238 Proceed with Caution

ECOS Board Meeting – Jan 28

You are invited to the ECOS Board Meeting on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020. All are welcome to join.

This month, we’ll have a special presentation by Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) staff on Strategies to Cool the Capital Region, and Community Air Protection.

Shelley Jiang will present SMAQMD’s just-completed Capitol Region heat island study: Cool roofs & pavements, tree canopy, electric vehicles, and smart growth can cool us!
Ashley Reynolds will discuss their Community Air Protection program, focusing on under-served communities.
A Question/Answer session with SMAQMD presenters will follow the presentation

Agenda

Click here to view the meeting agenda.

More Information

Click here to learn more about SMAQMD’s Community Air Protection Program.

Click here to learn more about the Capital Region Urban Heat Island Mitigation Project.