ECOS letter to Sacramento City Planning Commission re Airport South

On May 21, 2025, ECOS submitted a letter to the City of Sacramento Planning Commission regarding their vote on the Airport South Industrial Project, proposed in Natomas.

Below is an excerpt.

The Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) opposes this annexation of farmland to build warehouses and asks you to recommend denial of the developers’ request to the City Council.

There are many arguments against this project, and few to support it. We hope you, the Planning Commission, will recognize the importance of plans that were put in place to balance development and preservation of open space. This project is clearly inconsistent with Natomas Habitat Conservation Plan, City General Plan, County General Plan, SACOG Blueprint, regional air quality and transportation plans and the Urban Services Boundary.

Click here to read the letter in full.

Click here for the attachments to the letter.

Protect Natomas Open Space: Action Alert!

May 21, 2025

Dear neighbors,

We need your help. The Airport South Industrial Project (ASIP) – the project that would replace farmland and wildlife habitat with warehouses and place traffic-inducing diesel trucks next to a neighborhood and school – is going to the Planning and Design Review Commission this Thursday, May 22, 2025.

Please help us protect our open space and keep the “farm” in “farm to fork.” We need you to:

  1. Submit an e-comment to the Planning Commissioners. Many of the Commissioners haven’t heard much from the public about this project, so they don’t know how many people care about it or why. Let them know that their decisions on Thursday matter to you. Submit an e-comment here.
  2. Attend the May 22 Planning and Design Review Commission meeting. The meeting will begin at 5:30 pm this Thursday at 915 I St. Please plan to speak for 2 minutes, or bring a sign to show your opposition from the audience.

Every voice counts. We need yours to convince the Planning and Design Review Commission that they should recommend that the City Council reject or require significant changes to the project.

LAFCo Votes to Approve Airport South Industrial Project

May 9, 2025

ECOS is taking its message of opposition on the Airport South Industrial Project (ASIP) to the City Planning and Design Review Commission on May 22, at 5:30 pm. 

Unfortunately, the Sacramento Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) voted 7 to 0 on May 7, 2025 to certify the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and approve the Sphere of Influence (SOI) for the Airport South Industrial Project. This project would create 6 million square feet of warehouses on a 450-acre site next to the Westlake neighborhood, the Paso Verde elementary school, and existing habitat.

Despite 60 speakers voicing opposition at the April 2 meeting; despite 700 pages of comment letters; despite air quality and other negative impacts; despite our best efforts, they voted to move the project forward.

The next opportunity to turn things around is the City Planning and Design Review Commission hearing on May 22 at 5:30. The meeting will be held in the City Council chambers at 915 I St. If convinced of the flaws in the proposed project, the Commission may recommend that the City Council reject the project or offer suggestions for changes. I urge you to mark your calendar and plan to attend. Soon after that, the issue will go to the City Council for a final decision.

Thank you to everyone who wrote, called, posted on social media, and testified at the LAFCo hearings. Please contact your representatives as the meetings get closer. We still have a chance of saving this valuable farmland and open space.

Thank you and stay tuned.

Heather Fargo
President of the ECOS Board of Directors

In the News

Below are links to the report on Channel 10, a Sacramento Bee article published May 7, 2025, and today’s Sacramento Business Journal article.

Channel 10, “Battle over Sacramento annexation plan pits jobs against environmental concerns.”

The Sacramento Bee, “Sacramento commission approved annexing 472 acres. Residents are concerned.”

Sacramento Business Journal, “Sacramento LAFCo approves step toward Airport South project near Metro Air Park.”

Sacramento commission approves annexing 472 acres. Residents are concerned, May 9, 2025, The Sacramento Bee

By Emma Hall | May 9, 2025 | The Sacramento Bee

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.

Click here to read the article in full.

Sacramento LAFCO approves step toward Airport South project near Metro Air Park, May 9, 2025, Sacramento Business Journal

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.”

Click here to read the article in full.