Case Against Elk Grove’s Proposed Expansion to be Made Wednesday Night

UPDATED 10/1/2013 |

September 30, 2013 |

At Wednesday’s meeting of the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo), opponents of the City of Elk Grove’s proposed expansion will be given the opportunity to voice their opposition to the scheme.

As part of their sphere of influence (SOI) application, the Elk Grove City Council is seeking to expand the city by up to 8,000-acres. The acreage is on the city’s southern border extending south toward the Cosumnes River.

The Sacramento LAFCo is the governing body that will decide if the 8,000-acres will fall in the city’s influence. The approval of the SOI application is the first step the city must take to ultimately annex the area.

While city council members have long stated the SOI is needed for long-term planning and to correct the city's jobs to housing imbalance, the proposal has met resistance from a variety of environmental and smart-growth advocates who believe the expansion will only encourage more sprawl and encroach on the environmentally sensitive Cosumnes River floodplain.

Among the groups to speak against the expansion Wednesday night will be members of Elk Grove GRASP. Formed last year, the group’s members have long cast suspicion on the need for the additional land.

One of the group members, former Elk Grove mayoral candidate Lynn Wheat, has been a regular attendee of city council meetings and criticized not only the project, but the process.

Wheat has noted that the subcommittee formed in September 2012 consisting of the Mayor Gary Davis and Council Member Jim Cooper was not subject to the Brown Act (which governs how California public meeting are conducted), and have not communicated details of their meetings with the Sacramento LAFCo.

“Now I read in the Sacramento Bee that a consideration for reducing the  acreage is being discussed.  As a resident of Elk Grove and a regular attendee of council meetings I cannot consider our city leaders transparent when I read about this in the Sacramento Bee,” Wheat said. “The most important stakeholders, homeowners and residents are being left out of the process. This is not transparency. What is happening to the house of the people?”

At last Wednesday’s city council meeting Cooper said giving an opponent of the SOI a chance to speak was unprecedented and that Elk Grove was being singled out.

"The meeting next week is highly unusual, LAFCo has never done this before," Cooper said at that meeting. "Why is Elk Grove being treated differently."

All five members of the city council were Emailed offering them an opportunity to comment on the appropriateness of opponents of the SOI being given the opportunity to argue their case. Only Vice Mayor Steve Detrick responded by noting his comments at last weeks meeting.

According to Wheat, at the March 2012 LAFCo meeting two presentations were heard regarding the SOI from the South County Environmental Setting and Overview (ECOS/Stones Lake NWR) and the  South Sacramento Habitat Conservation Plan.

“I did note that Susan Peters, [former member] Jay Schenirer and Jimmie Yee left the meeting before the environmental groups spoke,” Wheat added. “So it will be interesting if commissioners leave before we present.”

Wednesday night's LAFCo meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and will be held at Sacramento City Hall,
915 “I” Street, Council Chambers, First Floor..   County Administration Building, 700 H St., Sacramento,  Sacramento County Board of Supervisor Chambers.