Sacramento residents, including former Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, were against the project altogether, saying it’s too close to schools and other residential areas. Residents were concerned about construction and the annex will have environmentally, especially with the Natomas Basin Conservation habitat plan.
By Ben van der Meer | May 9, 2025 | Sacramento Business Journal
“I think our main concern is it crosses the urban services boundary,” said Heather Fargo, the current ECOS board president and a former mayor of Sacramento. She added the land is also active farmland, and developing it violates the spirit of the Natomas Basin Conservancy Plan, first approved by local governments in 1997. “It starts to unravel the conservancy plan.”
“It is farmland, it is habitat, it is next to a school in a neighborhood, and it is not suited for warehousing. It needs to go somewhere else,” Fargo said.
On May 5, 2025, comments were submitted on behalf of 350 Sacramento, California Native Plant Society, California Wildlife Foundation, Central Valley Bird Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Habitat 2020, Sacramento Audubon Society, and Sierra Club on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch Project.
On May 7, 2025, ECOS submitted a letter to the Sacramento Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) regarding the Continued Public Hearing To Consider And Certify The Environmental Impact Report And Approve The Respective Amendments To The Spheres Of Influence For The City Of Sacramento And Sacramento Area Sewer District (LAFCo Project #2023-03).
Here is an update on the Airport South Industrial Project!
The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) held the first hearing on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. The Community response during the nearly four hour hearing showed the depth of feeling and opposition to this project. About 80 written comments were submitted and more than forty people spoke against the project.
Some highlights of the hearing included expert testimony on the failure of the EIR to discuss truck ultrafine particulate emissions’ impacts on health of children and residents in the neighborhood. A retired planning commissioner and a retired school district board member spoke to the incompatibility of the project with the adjacent neighborhood. Other issues: I-5 corridor traffic and trucks already disrupting the neighborhood; the incompatibility of the 96 acres of detention basins with airport runway. The hearing is available on YouTube.com in the video below.
In the end, LAFCo continued the hearing (delayed their decision). Staff and lawyers appeared to be concerned about getting their paperwork in order, and because the City has not yet held a hearing on the project. The next LAFCo meeting is scheduled for May 7. Plan to be there and show your opposition.
Meanwhile, please help get more signatures on our petition. Over 1050 people have signed our petition against approving the project.