Get involved in plans for I-80 and Hwy 65 Transportation Corridors

Posted October 15, 2019

Get involved in the future of the I-80 / Business 80 corridor from downtown Sacramento to Auburn and the Highway 65 corridor from Lincoln to I-80. The effort will result in a multi-modal plan that considers improvements to vehicle, truck, rail, bus, pedestrian, and bicycle travel along the corridor, with an emphasis on increasing travel choices to reduce congestion.

Learn more and join the conversation on Monday, October 28 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. for the second Placer Sacramento Gateway Plan Community Workshop. A brief presentation will begin at 5:45 p.m. Stop by anytime between 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. to hear a project update!

Can’t make it to the workshop? Go to http://bit.ly/more80choices for a livestream of the presentation.

Click here to RSVP.

4 Developers Invited to Submit Aggie Square Proposals

By David Wescott
September 16, 2019
UC Davis Media Relations

What is Aggie Square and why are environmentalists and community advocates concerned? Click here to find out.

The University of California, Davis, has issued a request for proposals, or RFP, to a group of real estate developers interested in financing, designing, building, owning and managing the first phase of Aggie Square, a new innovation hub for the university’s Sacramento campus.
The developers were selected from a list of firms who responded to the university’s original request for qualifications in June. All have experience with complex, major development projects. The four master developers and partners are: BioRealty/Greystar; Hines; The University Financing Foundation Inc. (TUFF)/Collaborative Real Estate LLC/CA Ventures; and Wexford/GMH Capital Partners.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Sacramento Needs Public Bathrooms

Need to go to the bathroom in Sacramento? Good luck! Unless you are close to home or happen to be somewhere where you have just been a customer (but what if you didn’t “have to go” then?) your chances of finding a toilet are slim. Even our parks are lacking. According to the Sacramento Bee, “…the city operates 205 parks, but most either have no bathrooms or have facilities with limited hours. In the central city…only 5 of 22 parks have restroom facilities.” Many times, park bathrooms are locked up without warning or notice of when they may reopen.

Many of the river access points closest to downtown Sacramento completely lack any bathrooms for beach-goers, such as Sutter’s Landing. Imagine taking your family to have a nice day at the beach, only to find that your kids or your aunt have no where to relieve themselves! That’s what Sacramento is like, and it’s time to change that.

Why? Diseases, for one thing! Now the river is full of bacterias that can make people really sick, like E. Coli.

The link to this SacBee article, published September 12, 2019, has been changed or removed and is no longer available.

Sacramento will continue to struggle with sanitation and risk of disease so long as the city refuses to provide an adequate number of public restrooms, on and off the river, for both people who are experiencing homelessness and those who are not.

Alexandra Reagan

Director of Operations, ECOS

Sacramento Two Rivers Trail Bike Trail

On September 12, 2019, ECOS and Habitat 2020 submitted a comment letter on the Sacramento Two Rivers Trail (Phase II) DEIR.

The Two Rivers Trail Phase II project will provide a 2.4 mile long multi-use path between Sutter’s Landing Park and H Street, by Sacramento State. The trail will provide residents of River Park and East Sacramento a safe, convenient, and protected path into downtown Sacramento. The overall vision is to eventually have the trail connect to the Sacramento River Parkway and create a continuous trail system along both sides of the Sacramento and American Rivers. In addition, the project will environmentally clear the next phase of the trail between Sutter’s Landing Park and the Sacramento Northern Bike Trail.
https://www.cityofsacramento.org/Public-Works/Engineering-Services/Projects/Current-Projects/Two-Rivers-Trail-Phase-II

There are many habitat issues that remain unaddressed in the Draft Environmental Impact Report.

The bottom line is that a bike trail on a levee is not only feasible, but it is the best option for the Two Rivers Trail if we want to protect the American River Parkway and its ecosystems. There are numerous other benefits to putting the trail on top of the levee as well, such as better access during winter floods.

Click here to read the letter in full.

The South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan is Here

By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board
August 6, 2019
The Sacramento Bee

To say the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan has been a long time coming is a vast understatement.
Two decades after the seeds were first planted, the plan is finally ready for Sacramento County supervisors to consider on Wednesday. They should approve it.
Developers would get a simplified and predictable process for federal and state environmental permits. And conservation groups would get large, interconnected areas of protected habitat, open space and undeveloped farmland.
Years of push and pull among groups representing developers, farmers, environmental and conservation interests, plus state and federal agencies, has produced a fair deal that most can support. While the success of this very complex framework depends on implementation and enforcement, that by itself is something of a miracle.

The co-chair of ECOS’s Habitat 2020 committee, Sean Wirth, has had an important role in bringing this plan to fruition.

North Natomas’ Panhandle Annexation Update

July 22, 2019
Sacramento City Express

Despite numerous concerns raised by ECOS and other organizations for over a decade, the panhandle of North Natomas has been approved for the construction of houses, schools, parks, etc. Among these concerns are flooding hazards, negative impacts on wildlife habitat, an increase in air pollution, and various other issues. This article by Sacramento City Express also fails to address the environmental and agricultural concerns related to this plan.