Tag Archives: Community

Why ECOS is opposed to Measure A

October 18, 2022

ECOS’ Executive Committee has voted to oppose Measure A, the Sacramento County sales tax initiative on next month’s ballot. Here are some reasons to vote NO on Measure A:

Measure A is designed to circumvent the Sacramento BLUEPRINT, California’s climate targets, and federal transportation planning law. Its highway projects are not included in our region’s long-range plan, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (MTP/SCS). They have not gone through any public process or analysis against accepted smart growth planning principles, goals, and laws. Why? Because these projects would not pass the test. So, the measure’s proponents have skirted the process, and spent over a million dollars for a “citizens’ initiative” to make us pay for projects that enable their sprawl developments.

Measure A is full of roadway capacity expansion projects and a new rural expressway. These projects will induce more car travel and sprawling housing development. This will pull resources from infill development, with its attendant economic revitalization, better transit access, affordable and energy efficient housing, and community enhancements.

Being anti-planning has another serious dollars and cents impact for our region. SACOG, our metropolitan planning organization, has shown that the measure’s projects would cause our region to exceed federal air quality standards and greenhouse gas targets, making us unable to receive State and federal transportation and housing funds.

Measure A will mean a dismal and economically disastrous step backward; a forty-year prospect of regional decline and a worsening climate. So, can we consider and pursue other options?

We admire cities in Europe because they have many layers of development, making the character of the streets inviting, alive, and culturally valuable. In Sacramento, we have just an initial layer of built form, and in many places the buildings are dilapidated and no longer work economically. We are ripe for another layer of development to fill in. Sacramento should take this moment in its history to flex forward, to turn away from the automobile as the primary means of getting around. This is what the climate challenge demands and what future generations will need.

Let’s work together to write an initiative for 2024 that puts local transportation funding where it needs to go: locate higher capacity transit where more people live and where bus ridership is high; create new accessible public plazas and parks, connected by boulevards and promenades; and provide housing for people of all income levels within walking distance to transit, food, and schools. And, let’s show the federal and State government that Sacramento can be a reliable partner for funding by uniting around a vision.

On Thursday, the SACOG Board meeting will feature an example of coalescing behind a vision with a workshop/case study of the Salt Lake City region, Envision Utah. October 20, Agenda Item 18: https://sacog.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?meetingTemplateId=3358

Below is SACOG’s map of the Measure A proposed projects and their estimated effect on vehicle miles traveled (VMT.)

Please vote NO on Measure A.

Click here to read our full statement, including footnotes.

Environmentalist of the Year Awards

Click here to go to the main Environmentalist of the Year Awards webpage.

Join us for a memorable 2022 Environmentalist of the Year Awards. Attend and enjoy, have refreshments and wine, talk with friends and colleagues, and learn more about the important work of the award recipients, our partner organizations, and ECOS.

Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at Curtis Hall, Sierra 2 Center, Sacramento 95818

  • 5:30 pm Social and Refreshments
  • 6:45 pm Award Presentations

ECOS has been hosting the Environmentalist of the Year Awards since 1973. Through the Environmentalist of the Year Awards, ECOS honors local leaders who have had noteworthy success in achieving action on climate change, preserving habitat, promoting transit-oriented development, and advocating for clean air and against sprawl.

TICKETS: Online ticket sales have ended. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.

Help good work to continue through Sponsorship

$250 Ansel Adams
$500 George Washington Carver
$1000 Rachel Carson
$2500+ John Muir

Become a Sponsor
2022 Sponsors

Your support of ECOS means so much! Please sponsor the 2022 Environmentalist of the Year event and join us on November 15 evening to celebrate the awardees:

  • Chris Brown, Sacramento Climate Coalition
  • Mackenzie Wieser, Sacramento Splash
  • Mark Berry, American River/Rancho Cordova
  • Ralph Propper, ECOS Climate Committee

Through the EOY Awards, ECOS honors local leaders who have had noteworthy success in achieving action on climate change, preserving habitat, promoting transit-oriented development, and advocating for clean air and against sprawl.

Past EOY awardees have been citizen activists, professors, students, elected officials, governmental and agency staff, business and labor leaders, scientists, lawyers, developers, planners, and architects.

Your sponsorship recognizes the awardees’ good work and supports the future work of ECOS. See the sponsorship levels and tickets, tax-deductible as ECOS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit organization.
Thank you very much for your generosity.

Susan Herre
President of the ECOS Board of Directors

SacCounty CAP video, and a request that you write to the Supervisors before Sept 27

Dear ECOS community,

Please take three minutes to watch this video about Sacramento County’s Climate Action Plan (CAP). It describes what is at stake.

It would be good if you would write to the County Supervisors (email addresses below) before their meeting on Sept 27, 2022, something like this:

Dear Supervisors,

Please reinstate in the CAP the requirement for all new growth located beyond the Urban Policy Area (UPA) and/or Urban Services Boundary (USB) to be carbon neutral. The previous draft CAP included such a requirement however it was removed at your request. Consider that even if the CAP works perfectly, nearly seventy percent of the County’s emissions will still exist in 2030. A huge task will be left to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 (AB1279.) Compared to the massive transition ahead, the requirement for new developments that are located outside of existing planning limit lines to be carbon neutral is modest, prudent, and reasonable.

Do the right thing, please.

Sincerely,

Here is the film: Climate Action in Sacramento County – A once in a decade opportunity. Thank you to Kent Lacin, filmmaker.

And the addresses: SupervisorKennedy[at]saccounty[dot]gov; richdesmond[at]saccounty[dot]gov; SupervisorSerna[at]saccounty[dot]gov; nottolid[at]saccounty[dot]gov; SupervisorFrost[at]saccounty[dot]gov; BoardClerk[at]saccounty[dot]gov; CountyExecutive[at]saccounty[dot]gov; smithtodd[at]saccounty[dot]gov; LundgrenJ[at]SacCounty[dot]gov

Thank you,

Susan Herre

President of the ECOS Board of Directors

ECOS joint comment letter on County Climate Action Plan

On September 22, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, the Sacramento Audubon Society, the Sierra Club Sacramento Group, and the Xerces Society submitted recommendations to strengthen the proposed Sacramento County Communitywide Climate Action Plan (Plan) released for public review on August 26, 2022.

Your inclusion of these recommendations into the Plan will increase the County’s preparedness to meet the challenges of our changing climate and its impacts on the region’s water resources and environment. Specifically, these recommendations will promote long term improved quality of life for County residents while contributing to biodiversity and local beneficial species preservation in our region.

Click here to read the comment letter.