American River Parkway Resource Impact Monitoring Plan

August 4, 2020

Sacramento County Regional Parks has begun the long awaited process to get a Resource Impact Monitoring Plan in place for the American River Parkway. Before a Resource Impact Monitoring Plan can be developed and implemented, Parks has put together a technical team to develop a Natural Resource Management Plan. The purpose of this plan is to provide relevant and defensible information to the Parkway Manager so the Manager can make informed decisions for managing, maintaining and restoring the American River Parkway natural resources.

Please participate and complete the survey by the deadline, August 15th, and share it with your networks!

Take the Survey

Elk Grove Multi-Sport Complex Site Update

July 21, 2020

Heads up! The City of Elk Grove is still trying to acquire more land to develop, despite having thousands of acres that are available to develop within their sphere of influence. The next action deadline is August 19, 2020.

The latest move by the City of Elk Grove is called the Multi-Sport Complex Site and Southeast Grant Line Industrial Annexation Area. Here is where the project is in the environmental review process, under the California Environmental Quality Act.

There are four general stages to the CEQA process and the Supplemental EIR:

Notice of Preparation and Scoping – Under this stage, the City provides notice (through a Notice of Preparation) that a Supplemental EIR will be prepared. This provides other local and State agencies, as well as the public, with an opportunity to comment on the scope of the EIR.
Draft SEIR – The City will prepare and release for public comment, a draft Supplemental EIR. The EIR will be available on this page for review and comment.
Final SEIR – The City will review comments received on the draft Supplemental EIR and prepare responses to comments, along with technical corrections to the draft Supplemental EIR. This will be documented in a Final EIR.
Certification – Once the Final Supplemental EIR is prepared, the document will be presented to the Planning Commission and City Council for review. The City Council will be asked to certify the document. Once certification is completed the City Council may approve the General Plan amendment, prezoning, and initiate the annexation application with LAFCo.

The Supplemental EIR is currently at Step 1, Notice of Preparation and Scoping. A Notice of Preparation (NOP) has been prepared and is available for review.

The comment period for the NOP is from July 20, 2020 to August 19, 2020. Comments may be mailed, emailed, or submitted using the form on their website.

To learn more, visit the project’s website at http://elkgrovecity.org/city_hall/departments_divisions/city_manager/strategic_planning_and_innovation/multi-_sport_park_complex.

Nesting in Natomas, Cathryn Rakich, Jul 2020, Inside Sacramento

Unaware they are trespassing on land owned by the Sacramento Kings, hundreds of snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons have taken up residence in a deserted oasis on the north side of Sleep Train Arena.

From a chain-link fence surrounding the grassland, the birds can be seen gliding among cement slabs and rebar, the foundation for a baseball stadium project led by Greg Lukenbill in the late 1980s that never came to fruition.

Click here to read the full article.

Save the Delta, Stop the Tunnel

Take Action!

Deadline: April 17, 2020 (Close of Business)

For those of us at home, the feeling of helplessness can be real. BUT we can still help the earth! Right now, you can take action to Save the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Please share! And take care.

Barring another extension, comments on the Department of Water Resources’ Notice of Preparation for the Delta Conveyance Project Environmental Impact Report are now due on April 17th. Please write a short letter asking for a full review of this massive project’s devastating impacts on the environment. Click here for the Delta Conveyance Notice of Preparation, published January 15, 2020. Click here for some previously submitted comment letters.

We encourage you to:

educate yourself on the Delta Conveyance Project,
share this message; and
send an email with your letter, if you can.

Learn More

Click here to learn all about the Delta Conveyance Project, aka “The Tunnel.”

Photos by Osha Meserve.

City Council member calls hospital’s opening plan ‘awfully optimistic’

February 19, 2020
By Lance Armstrong, Staff Writer
The Elk Grove Citizen

Elk Grove City Council Member Pat Hume on Feb. 11 referred to California Northstate University’s (CNU) proposal to build a $750 million to $800 million teaching hospital in the Stonelake neighborhood by November 2022 as “awfully optimistic.”
“I know that OSHPD (Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development) and some of the standards that are put on (the construction of) hospitals are pretty onerous and that the oversight is pretty strict,” he said. “So, I don’t know. I know that they like to be aggressive and assertive in what they do. If they think it’s realistic, okay. But it seems awfully optimistic.”
…
Hume additionally told the Citizen that he has a variety of concerns regarding California Northstate University’s proposal to build a teaching hospital in the Stonelake neighborhood.
“I’ve got all kinds of concerns,” he said. “Does it fit? Do they address some of the concerns that were raised here (at the meeting) tonight with respect to traffic and circulation and flooding and floodplain and neighborhood issues?

Click here to read more.

ECOS @ Green Drinks Sacramento

On the evening of Tuesday, February 11, 2020, the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) enjoyed the spotlight as Green Drinks Sacramento’s monthly featured nonprofit! Green Drinks is a monthly mixer of people from non-government organizations (NGOs), academia, government and business who are working in the environmental field or simply care about the future of our planet.

What do you know about land use and habitat conservation in the Sacramento region? How current are you on local transportation goals and climate action planning? Attendees of Green Drinks Sacramento in February 2020 tested their knowledge with trivia questions crafted by ECOS! ECOS and friends had a wonderful time as the featured nonprofit at Green Drinks Sacramento’s February event. We enjoyed strengthening existing connections with individuals and organizations who share our values, and meeting new contacts who can help us build a more sustainable future for all residents. Thank you to Green Drinks and to everyone who played trivia with our ultra-local environmental trivia questions!

Kudos to Green Drinks Sacramento for hosting this space every month! Join the next one on the second Tuesday of the month!