Tag Archives: Land Use
Kammerer Road-Highway 99 Sphere Of Influence Amendment DREIR
On September 11, 2017, ECOS submitted our comments on the Draft Recirculated Environmental Impact Report (DREIR) for the Proposed Kammerer/Highway 99 Sphere Of Influence Amendment (SOIA) Application for the City of Elk Grove.
Click here or on the image above to read the comment letter.
Summary
We appreciate the added attention to detail offered in the recirculated draft EIR, but rather than alleviate our concerns expressed in our original letter, the DREIR only further confirms those concerns. ECOS remains strongly opposed to the proposed Kammerer-99 Elk Grove SOI expansion and stands by our initial observation summarizing the project: Elk Grove’s anticipated growth can be accommodated within the existing City limits, and we find no justification for expansion beyond the Sacramento County Urban Services Boundary (USB) established in 1993 to be the ultimate growth boundary within the County. The proposal is inconsistent with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments’ (SACOG) Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (MTP/SCS) for meeting State mandated greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, Federal mandates for Air Quality Attainment under the State Improvement Plan (SIP), as well as myriad regional goals for social equity, public health and natural resource conservation. There is an extreme lack of certainty that municipal water can be provided to this area without severe regional impacts, and the impacts to invaluable agricultural and biological resources by the proposal are potentially impossible to mitigate. The RDEIR confirms significant and unavoidable impacts in all these above-mentioned areas, with the exception of less than significant biological impact after mitigation which is a finding we disagree with. The question is, what justification is there for these impacts? We, again, find that there is not, and we strongly recommend that LAFCo decline the proposed Kammerer/99 SOIA.
Sprawl monitor: Sacramento’s leading environmental protection nonprofit sees growing interest in demanding smarter growth
By Scott Thomas Anderson
July 13, 2017
Sacramento News and Review
ECOS prepping ballot initiative against suburban sprawl
South Placer County beware: An environmental organization is on a mission to educate people about the impacts of wide-scale suburban sprawl. And it’s getting big turnouts.
On June 28, the Environmental Council of Sacramento held a town hall-style meeting about potential ballot initiatives aimed at slowing the tide of business parks and subdivisions spilling across the valley.
For critics of sprawl, the issue has become especially pronounced in cities like Folsom, which is currently allowing 11,000 new homes to be built across 3,600 acres of open space. Across the border in Placer County, expanding tract home developments are overtaking oak woodlands and merging the cities of Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln. ECOS representatives charged that Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, north Natomas and unincorporated Sacramento County territories are also guilty of approving “egregious” levels of sprawl.
According to the Seto Lab at Yale University, suburban sprawl erodes California’s productive farmlands and delicate habitats, accelerates unnecessary energy demands and harms “high-value ecosystems.”
ECOS has noted that the trend is contributing to a large automobile dependency around the region, along with related air quality issues. According to its research, the region has zoning for nearly 120,000 new single family homes already approved, with another 50,000 single family homes being planned for “remote areas.”
ECOS’ June 28 workshop was held at Mogavero Architects on K Street. “The turnout was great,” said ECOS Director of Operations Alexandra Reagan. “It was standing room only.”
Reagan is planning similar workshops in the future, though she said the next major step would be identifying which municipality should be the subject of a sprawl-controlling ballot initiative from her group. Once that’s determined, she thinks her organization will have a lot of help. “When we asked everyone there who would be willing to work on a campaign, 95 percent of them raised [their] hands.”
Amador County says Sacramento growth plans will turn Jackson Highway into a parking lot
By Tony Bizjak
July 7, 2017
The Sacramento Bee
Sacramento County has asked Caltrans to give it control of 8 miles of the two-lane road so the county can turn it into an urban arterial street that would function as the spine for up to 30,000 new homes in the coming decades, allowing the metropolitan area to march east as far as Grant Line Road.
…
The Jackson corridor is one of several large undeveloped areas of east county slated for growth, along with projects underway to the south near Elk Grove and to the north in Rancho Cordova and Folsom, along the Grant Line Road corridor.
Several of the Jackson Highway development teams are conducting environmental reviews of their project proposals now, one of the last steps before they will receive county approvals to build.
Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk Letter re Airport is no place for hawk preserve, May 29, 2017
This is where Sacramento plans to put nearly 3,000 new homes, by Tony Bizjak, May 30, 2017, The Sacramento Bee
Advocates for the Swainson’s hawk, listed as threatened by the state, are unhappy with the habitat mitigation land chosen for the hawks, which is an orchard west of the airport, adjacent to the Teal Bend golf course. Advocate Jude Lamare said the site is too close the airport, where 11 Swainson’s hawks have been counted as hit and killed by jets in the last four years.
The hawks forage in various places around the Natomas basin, but, as development continues, nesting areas will be reduced, forcing more birds into limited sites, including the one next to the airport. “If you are picking a ‘forever’ home for threatened avian species, it would not be next to a runway,” Lamare said. “You are squeezing the species down.”
A Message from Judith Lamare, President of the Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk, a member organization of Habitat 2020/ECOS. May 29, 2017
Here is a text you can copy and email to urge the City to reject the Moody Preserve as part of the Greenbriar project. Use this in the Subject line of your email: Item 19 May 30, 2017: No Hawk Preserve Next to Airport
Dear City Leaders:
- Please reject the proposed Moody Preserve as part of the Greenbriar Project at your meeting on Tuesday May 30. (Agenda Item 19)
- The property is about 600 feet from the Airport’s west runway.
Eleven Swainson’s Hawks have been listed as fatalities in the FAA bird strike data base for SMF between 2013 and 2016. - Airport operations are expected to grow by 30 percent over the next twenty years.
- This is the wrong location to preserve in perpetuity for conservation of a threatened bird species.
- Please require the Greenbriar developer to provide another mitigation site that offers more protection to the Swainson’s Hawk, listed as threatened under state law.
The email string to use is:
MayorSteinberg[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org, Angelique Ashby <aashby[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, Allen Warren <awarren[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, Jeff S. Harris <JSHarris[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, Steve Hansen <SHansen[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, Jay Schenirer
<jschenirer[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, Eguerra[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org,”Lawrence R. Carr” <Lcarr[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, Rick Jennings <rjennings[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org>, clerk[at]cityofsacramento[dot]org,swainsonshawk[at]sbcglobal[dot]net
Thank you for your help in averting a bad decision on conservation for our threatened wildlife.
Judith Lamare, President
Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk
www.swainsonshawk.org
swainsonshawk[at]sbcglobal[dot]net
Stakeholder Meeting for the Downtown Specific Plan
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Hacker Lab, 1715 I St, Sacramento, CA 95811
The City of Sacramento is developing the Downtown Specific Plan.
The plan will focus primarily on:
* Identifying and evaluating a number of urban infill sites within the project area
* Removing barriers to housing development by streamlining the development and environmental review process
* Incentivizing Transit-Oriented Development throughout the Central City, including along the streetcar corridor
* Maintaining and improving the quality of life for Central City residents, and furthering neighborhood livability by including additional amenities and housing opportunities
The project team is hosting a focus group meeting to discuss community amenities, historic preservation, arts and culture, and public health as they relate to increasing Downtown’s housing supply. Take part in developing the plan, and find out the results of a recent community survey.
Please RSVP by March 24th by responding to Salvador Ramirez at sramirez[at]aimconsultingco[dot]com or calling 916-442-1168. If you have any questions regarding this meeting, please contact Gladys Cornell at gcornell[at]aimconsultingco[dot]com or at 916-442-1168.
