Do you care about sprawl in the greater Sacramento area?  We need more infill projects, not large developments outside of urban areas.  Especially when those areas do not have the infrastructure to support the growth.  Rancho Murieta is one such area.  For those that are not familiar with Rancho Murieta, it is located about 25 miles from downtown up Jackson Highway.  Developers want to build thousands of new homes in Rancho Murieta.  In addition to destroying the topography and cutting down thousands of oak these news homes will increase sprawl in Sacramento.  Rancho Murieta does not have large employers and almost all working adult in Rancho Murieta must drive a 20+ miles to get to their jobs.  We do not need thousands of more people adding to our already congested roads. 

The issues surrounding development are vast and stretch far beyond the sprawl issue.  There was recent article in the Sacramento News and Review about the history of the fight in Rancho Murieta.  The CA Department of Real Estate, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, CalTrans, and State Attorney General have all issued opinions specific to this development that side with residents that want limited rural growth.   

Even with all of the overwhelming evidence against developing this area the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors may still vote to approve it.  Only one supervisor Don Nottoli actually represents the Rancho Murieta area.  The other supervisors do not care because Rancho Murieta does not represent their voting block and the developers are very large campaign contributors.  That is where you can help.  We need people to write letters that do not support uncontrolled growth in Rancho Murieta, especially without a new master plan (the current one is 25 years old).  The only thing that combat the influence of  campaign contributions is voters in the supervisor own district.  Please take the time to write a brief letter to your supervisor and let them know that one of their voters does not approve of sprawl.  Here is a map of the districts.  Below is the contact information for the supervisors.  Also if you can forward any letters to info@preservemurieta.org so we can keep track that would be greatly appreciated.

Roger Dickinson - District 1
700 H Street, Suite 2450
Sacramento CA 95814
dickinsonr@saccounty.net

Jimmie R. Yee - District 2
700 H Street, Suite 2450
Sacramento CA 95814
jyee@saccounty.net
               
Susan Peters - District 3
700 H Street, Suite 2450
Sacramento CA 95814
susanpeters@saccounty.net

Roberta MacGlashan - District 4
700 H Street, Suite 2450
Sacramento CA 95814
macglashanr@saccounty.net

Thank you, PreserveMurieta.org

There is a proper way to develop and many agencies including the state attorney general have chimmed in and said the developers in Rancho Murieta are not developing according to current laws.

I think Sacramento's main focus on development should be the creation of a strong city core. This will work wonders in reinforcing Sacramento's identity, raising its civic profile, increasing civic pride and also raising Sacramento's stature amongst California cities.

It's finally happening now that there seems to be a lot of new life being ushered into the Midtown area. But the residential population in the core is still too low. There needs to be more residential areas in the Downtown and Midtown Areas. We definitely need to focus on rebuilding areas such as the K Street Pedestrian Mall, Alkali Flats, the Railyards, Oak Park and many others.