“Previous sprawl has sent Fresno to the edge of bankruptcy.” – Keith Bergthold , City of Fresno Planning and Development, at the Partnering with K-12 Education in Building Healthy, Sustainable & Competitive Regions, 2012-12-06

The Cordova Hills development is on the agenda for the Sacramento Board of Supervisors on this Wednesday, December 12. The meeting starts at 2:30 pm in the county board chambers at 700 H St in Sacramento.

I hope that a many people will attend and protest this development. This is sprawl of the worst kind. Not only is it beyond all developed areas, it is even beyond the county’s generous growth boundary. With no significant employment opportunities within or near the development, people would be commuting long distances to work in Sacramento, Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova, Folsom, and Roseville. More vehicle miles, more air pollution, more climate change, more taxes required to maintain infrastructure. Less community cohesiveness, less time, less open space.

The transportation page of the Cordova Hills website say “Residents will benefit from the creation of a significant community transit system looping internally through Cordova Hills and connecting offsite to the Hwy 50 regional employment center and Mather regional light rail station,” with 15 minutes headways during peak times. This is a preposterous claim. Only the most used transit routes in Sacramento County offer this frequency of service, with others being 30 or 60 minutes. The Rancho CordoVan service is similar, but is provides services on a short route during limited hours, and it is heavily subsidized by the city. So people who work a regular schedule might be able to get to work, but families could not get to cultural, educational, and retail opportunities in the region. The reason Sacramento Regional Transit has such a difficult time providing a high level of service in the region is that it has to attempt to serve sprawling suburbs. Of course that doesn’t bother developers, who know the taxpayers will be on the hook for expanding the public transit system in a futile attempt to serve far flung users.

The Sacramento Bee, which has pretty much never met a development it didn’t like, is against this project. Listed below are articles, letters and editorials from the Bee over the last year.

This project is also closely tied to the Capital Southeast Connector. Cordova Hills is exactly the sort of induced sprawl that people were concerned about when the connector was approved. If Cordova Hills is approved, I believe a long line of other projects will come for their turn at the trough of public money. The result will be a more sprawling, poorer, and less livable Sacramento. See the two maps at the bottom from the SacBee, which show the relationship of Cordova Hills to the connector, and how the project is outside the growth boundary.

Cordova Hills Development

• Editorial: County should reject leapfrog Cordova Hills (SacBee 2012-12-10);
• This Week: 8,000-home Cordova Hills project before supervisors Wednesday (SacBee 2012-12-10)
• Viewpoints: Sacramento must resolve to kick its unhealthy addiction to sprawl (SacBee 2012-12-08); Letter: Increase developer fees to reduce sprawl (SacBee 2012-12-10)
• Letter: Cordova Hills Development (SacBee 2012-11-28)
• Editorial: A foul smell will waft over big Cordova Hills development (SacBee 2012-11-25)
• Editorial: County should reject Cordova Hills (SacBee 2012-11-18)
• Promising a college, project seeks approval (SacBee 2012-10-12)
• Letter: Cordova Hills Subdivision Proposal (SacBee 2012-10-12)
• Supervisors amend county plan, facilitate Cordova Hills proposal (SacBee 2011-09-29)
• Cordova Hills website

Added links

• Controversial Cordova Hills development up for approval (Sacramento Business Journal 2012-12-10)
• Green Democrats opposes approval of Cordova Hills (Green Democratic Club of Sacramento County 2012-12-07)

Capital Southeast Connector

• Environment compromise reached for beltway in southeast Sacramento County (SacBee 2012-11-27)
• Sacramento road planners, environmentalists, settle lawsuit over planned beltway (SacBee 2012-11-26)
• Sacramento-area plans advance for SouthEast Connector (SacBee 2012-07-20)
• First step for southeast Sacramento County expressway? (SacBee 2012-06-29)
• Project to widen White Rock Road in Sacramento County breaks ground (SacBee 2012-06-28)
• Approval sought today on proposed alignment of Elk Grove-Rancho Cordova beltway (SacBee 2012-03-07)
• Sacramento area may get its first toll road (SacBee 2012-12-15)
• Capital Southeast Connector JPA website