ECOS Board Meeting – Jan 28

You are invited to the ECOS Board Meeting on Tuesday, January 28th, 2020. All are welcome to join.

This month, we’ll have a special presentation by Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District (SMAQMD) staff on Strategies to Cool the Capital Region, and Community Air Protection.

Shelley Jiang will present SMAQMD’s just-completed Capitol Region heat island study: Cool roofs & pavements, tree canopy, electric vehicles, and smart growth can cool us!
Ashley Reynolds will discuss their Community Air Protection program, focusing on under-served communities.
A Question/Answer session with SMAQMD presenters will follow the presentation

Agenda

Click here to view the meeting agenda.

More Information

Click here to learn more about SMAQMD’s Community Air Protection Program.

Click here to learn more about the Capital Region Urban Heat Island Mitigation Project.

LA proposes putting ‘anti-displacement’ zones around luxury development

It’s aimed at helping renters in a one-mile radius around new buildings

By Bianca Barragan
November 13, 2019
Curbed LA

The proposal stems from a motion introduced by Councilmember Herb Wesson, Jr.
In his motion, Wesson says that while luxury and market-rate projects are “designed to strengthen” a neighborhood’s economy, many times they have negative consequences for long-time residents, especially when they’re located in neighborhoods that sustained decades of disinvestment resulting from racist housing covenants and redlining.
“Development projects should help to build up an area in need of economic investment so that members of a community can make use of these local amenities and improve their everyday lives,” Wesson says.
https://la.curbed.com/2019/11/13/20963844/anti-displacement-zones-los-angeles-development

Click here to read the full article.

Reminder to City to follow State Law on Surplus Land

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and the Sacramento Housing Alliance (SHA) have sent out letters to City of Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, as well as the Facilities & Real Property Superintendent Richard Sanders (at the Department of Public Works). These are to remind the City of Sacramento to follow the Surplus Land Statute.

In the letter to Mayor Darrell Steinberg, The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and the Sacramento Housing Alliance (SHA) write:

We are prompted to offer this reminder of the Surplus Land Act because of concerning trends in the sale of city properties. Reviewing recent sales of seven city owned lots, only one was sold to an affordable housing non-profit (City of Refuge, who plans to build a homeless shelter for women and children on the land). The other six were sold to for-profit entities. Most alarming is the case of 4722 9th Ave and 4601-4625 10th Ave, where the city rejected a proposal to build 130-195 affordable rental units in favor of market rate apartments.
We are requesting city officials be particularly mindful of a few key provisions in the Surplus Land Statute.
1. Prioritize proposals that make at least 25% of the housing units affordable to low income households.
2. Give priority to the proposal with the most affordable units at the most affordable level.
3. Enforce the inclusionary requirement tied to the sale or lease of surplus land.
4. The City of Sacramento can sell or lease the land at a discount to affordable housing developers.

Click here to view the full letter to Mayor Darrell Steinberg, and the four key provisions in the Surplus Land Statute.

In the letter to Superintendent Richard Sanders, The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and the Sacramento Housing Alliance (SHA) write:

The City has a real opportunity to lead on this important issue and we urge you to do so. For example, the City could serve as a clearinghouse for public surplus lands available in the city, including parcels controlled by other public agencies (local utilities, Regional Transit, RASA, etc.). Having a centralized location to get information about all public sites would support getting the most public benefit from the use of these sites and facilitate access to critical information to affordable housing developers and the public.
In summary, the Sacramento Housing Alliance and the Environmental Council of Sacramento specifically request [that] the City:

1. Establish specific policies and procedures to:
• Provide clear, consistent standards for evaluating the potential of publicly owned sites for disposition.
• Provide timely notice to public agencies and interested parties that a surplus site is available.
• Prioritize proposals for use of surplus properties that commit to making at least 25% of the housing units affordable to low income households.
• Prioritize proposals with the greatest number of affordable units at the most affordable price or rent.
• Ensure surplus property developed with 10 or more residential units include at least 15% of the units as affordable to lower income households.
2. Play a leadership role in maximizing the use of public surplus properties for affordable housing purposes by establishing a clearinghouse of sites available from all public agencies within the City including Regional Transit, public utilities, and RASA. In addition, the City should ensure all public agencies understand the law and their responsibilities regarding the use of public surplus property for affordable housing.
3. Evaluate establishing a phasing policy to maximize the potential reuse of surplus properties for affordable housing purposes.
4. Engage in a robust and transparent public process to establish such policies.
5. Encourage the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to establish a policy, similar to one adopted by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission in the Bay Area, that incentivizes local governments using surplus public property for affordable housing purposes.

Click here to view the full letter to Facilities & Real Property Superintendent Richard Sanders.

MTP/SCS EIR Scoping Comments from ECOS

On May 25, 2019, ECOS submitted a letter outlining our comments and concerns about the Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (MTP/SCS) 2020 update, managed by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG).

The Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (MTP/SCS) for the Sacramento region pro-actively links land use, air quality, and transportation needs. The current 2016 MTP/SCS was adopted in February 2016. The MTP/SCS is federally required to be updated every four years. The next MTP/SCS is required to be adopted by February 2020.

Click here to view the letter.

July ECOS Board Meeting – Great Speaker Line-Up!

Free and open to the public! Join the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) on our mission to achieve regional and community sustainability and a healthy environment for existing and future residents.

We host a brief social/networking reception (with wine and light refreshments) at 5:30 pm. The meeting begins at 6:00 pm.

Presenting on July 24th… a panel on Affordable Housing and Transit-Oriented Development!

Panelists include:

• Prof. Jesus Hernandez (UC Davis Sociology) – Sacramento Region communities – history and ways to achieve equity

• James Boyle (Planning Director, Sacramento Regional Transit District) – Sacramento City plans for Transit-Oriented Development Ordinance

• Cathy Creswell (Sacramento Housing Alliance, Board President) – How to achieve Affordable Housing in our region

We encourage you to use public transit, walking or biking to get to the meeting. Parking is restricted to street parking and is limited. There is secure bike parking in the downstairs hallway.

Location: 909 12th St, Sacramento, California 95814 (in the Sierra Club CA conference room on the 2nd floor).

View the full agenda here: https://goo.gl/YtWF7z

ECOS Comments on the Folsom General Plan

On June 25, 2018, ECOS submitted our comments/testimony on the latest changes to the City of Folsom’s General Plan.

Here is an excerpt:

ECOS and Habitat 2020 are greatly relieved to see that the Study Area for new City growth south of White Rock road has been removed from the General plan.

Further growth in this area would pose potentially un-mitigatable impacts to invaluable agricultural and biological resources and severely inhibit successful implementation of the South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan (SSHCP), currently in its final phase of adoption after decades of development.

Further growth in this area would be critically 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.

Finally, ECOS is extremely concerned about the ability of the City to supply adequate water supplies to this potential growth area, or any new expansion area. With the decision to supply the City’s current expansion south of US 50 solely with conservation efforts of existing supplies, it is apparent that the City has fully allocated those supplies. We remain concerned that the City will not be able to supply the current expansion area without severe burdens on existing residents with the mandatory cut-backs in supply that the City is subject to in Dry and Extremely Dry years. We have not seen evidence that the City has yet acquired back up supplies to prevent these burdens, and given this, it is extremely difficult to see how the City could speculate on further expansion of their footprint.

Click here to read the full comment letter.