Samples of previous Action Alerts
Sacramento Audubon Society needs your help in opposing the proposed “Greenbriar” development project, proposed by Angelo Tsakopolous / AKT. The city has scheduled a second workshop on Tuesday Jan 15, 2008.
The Greenbriar project, if approved, would pave over nearly 600 acres of prime agricultural land and habitat in the Natomas Basin, outside of the existing City limits, outside of the County’s urban services boundary, outside of the boundaries of the lands that may be permissibly developed under the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan, and inside of a deep basin that has inadequate flood protection. The City’s Planning Commission already rejected this project last November on a 5-2 vote, due to its unacceptable safety risks and unmitigated environmental impacts. Rather than listen to its own Planning Commissions’ recommendation, however, the City has now announced that it will hold a public “Workshop” on the Greenbriar proposal on Tuesday, January 8, 2008, and that the City Council may consider approval of the project as early as Tuesday, January 22, 2008.
Please call or write to the City Council, or attend one of the upcoming meetings (or both), to inform the Sacramento City Council that you support the Planning Commission’s rejection of the Greenbriar project. The meeting times and places, and contact information for the City Council are as follows:
Workshop: Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008, 6:00pm. Location: Sacramento City Hall, 915 I St., Sacramento, 1st Floor (enter from patio between old and new city halls or from H street entrance).
City Council Meeting (tentative, please check agenda when it is published): Tuesday, January 22, 2008, 6:00 pm. Location, Sacramento City Hall, 915 I St., Sacramento, 1st Floor (enter from patio between old and new city halls or from H street entrance).
Contact Information for City Officials Address for letters: Office of the Mayor and City Council, City Hall, 915 "I" Street, Fifth Floor, Sacramento, CA. 95814 Fax number (same for Mayor and all Council Members): 916-264-7680.
Telephone and e-mail contact info:
Mayor Heather Fargo: hfargo@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-5073.
Councilmember Ray Tretheway: rtretheway@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7339
Councilmember Sandy Sheedy: ssheedy@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7002
Councilmember Steve Cohn: scohn@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7235
Councilmember Rob Fong: rkfong@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7340
Councilmember Lauren Hammond: lhammond@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7234
Councilmember Kevin McCarty: kmccarty@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7336
Councilmember Bonnie Pannell: bpannell@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7008
Councilmember Robby Waters: rwaters@cityofsacramento.org, 916-808-7338
Reasons that you might include in explaining why this particular project is even more offensive than most of AKT’s out-of-bounds efforts to destroy habitat and promote sprawl and gridlock in the Sacramento region, include:
- Everybody, including the City and AKT, knows that adequate flood protection does not exist in the Natomas Basin. Approval of the project would be extremely irresponsible, and poses a substantial risk loss of life and property.
- The project cannot lawfully be approved, because it lies outside of the area covered by the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (“NBHCP”). The project area supports wildlife species such as the imperiled Swainson's hawk and giant garter snake. Wildlife protection agencies and Swainson's Hawk biologists have formally commented that the mitigation plan that has been proposed for Greenbriar is grossly inadequate.
- The project is not consistent with current city or county general plans. A general plan is supposed to guide sensible future development – not simply catalogue a neverending swath of environmental carnage, sprawl and gridlock caused by the City’s approval of socially and environmentally irresponsible development proposals in the Natomas Basin, such as this one.
More info on the ill-conceived Greenbriar proposal, and the reasons why it should not be approved, is posted at the following link: http://www.swainsonshawk.org/Greenbriar2.html. |
