American River Parkway Grant Needs Support

Photo by Dave Edwards

The City of Sacramento, in partnership with Friends of Sutter’s Landing Park (FOSL), have applied for Proposition 84 River Parkways Program grant funding in the amount of $1.48 million for the American River Parkway Enhancement at Sutter’s Landing Park Project. This project would restore a 3-acre area on the south bank of the American River with native plants, as well as construct interpretive signage, a ¾-mile multi-use trail, and parkway entry improvements at the levee.

Enhancing public use and habitat quality in the American River Parkway portion of Sutter’s Landing Park is one of the most important urban river parkway restoration projects in California, and will transform the park into the gateway to the American River Parkway from the Central City. This historic site is part of the 23-mile long American River Parkway, the premier river parkway corridor of any city in California, with over five million visitors annually. We have received tremendous help from FOSL, as well as Friends of the River Bank which organizes monthly family activities at the site, Midtown and East Sacramento neighborhood representatives, and other community partners.

California voters passed the “Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act” in 2006, authorizing $62 million for acquisition, restoration, protection and development of river parkways. Projects must meet at least two of five conditions: recreation, habitat, flood management, conversion to a river parkway and/or conservation and interpretative enhancement. The Sutter’s Landing Park Project meets four of the five conditions.

You can support the grant application by sending a support letter by Friday, November 18, 2011, for the City’s proposed American River Parkway Enhancement at Sutter’s Landing Park Project to:

Bryan Cash, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Bonds Grants

California Natural Resources Agency

1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311

Sacramento, CA  95814