Category Archives: Developments

Lawsuit Against McKinley Village – Appellate Court Hearing Set

Posted on 09/18/2016 by admin

Below is information from East Sacramento Partnerships for a Livable City regarding their suit against McKinley Village, including a link to the legal brief.

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The lawsuit brought by East Sacramento Partnerships for a Livable City (ESPLC) to protect our neighborhood and future residents from the dangers of the McKinley Village project will be heard on Monday, September 19, 2016. ESPLC will present oral argument to a panel of judges at the Court of Appeal in Sacramento.

ESPLC pursued legal action after all attempts failed to persuade our City leaders to put the interests of City residents above special interests of developers. ESPLC continues its advocacy for first preserving, protecting, and improving environmental quality of life for residents throughout Sacramento. Common sense reveals the dangers and irresponsibility of approving a residential housing complex on an island of land surrounded by a major freeway on one side, high‐volume railroad tracks on the other, and bordering a former landfill:

• Increased cancer risks up to 12 times the accepted standard.

• Noise and toxic air particles from the anticipated 100 trains per day that require installation of air filtration units inside all of the homes and will render the outdoor portions of these residences, and project playgrounds, virtually unusable.

• An additional 1.2 million vehicle trips per year generated by this car‐dependent project through our already‐congested neighborhood.

• Potential methane contamination from the adjacent landfill site and inadequate monitoring systems that two independent agencies have described as not “fully effective in detecting and/or controlling landfill gas migration.”

These dangers, and many others, are simply too grave to ignore, and will never go away. ESPLC encourages you to join in support of our advocacy for common sense and for a fair and just public process by attending the oral argument before the Court of Appeal and by reading ESPLC’s attached legal brief. The oral arguments are open to the public and typically last less than an hour.

Legal Brief

When: September 19, 2016

2:00 p.m.

Where: Court of Appeal of the State of California (Third Appellate District)

Stanley Mosk Library and Courts Building

914 Capitol Mall, First Floor

Sacramento, CA 95814

Case Name: East Sacramento Partnerships for a Livable City v. City of Sacramento, et al.

Case No. C079614

ATTENDANCE
For those attending the hearing, please plan to arrive by 1:30 PM.  We have visited the Court and spoken to the security officers about procedures.  Business or business casual attire is appropriate.  Electronic devices (including cell phones), food, and drinks are not allowed.  Visitors are asked not to speak once inside the courtroom and proceedings have started.
PARKING
The parking lot closest to the Library and Courts Building is the City Parking Lot on L Street between 10th and 11th Streets.  Entrance is on 10th Street between L and K Streets.  Payment is collected by credit card at the “Pay Here” machine on the 10th Street side, or by cash on the 11th Street side.  (It is a large facility used by downtown employees but usually has plenty of room.)
THANK YOU
For your support of our neighborhood efforts to preserve and to protect the quality of life for all people within the City of Sacramento through advocacy of common sense and a fair and just public process.

 

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McKinley Village Update

Posted on 04/27/2015 by admin

On April 9, 2015, the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento, denied a petition challenging the city’s approval of the McKinley Village housing project as violating the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), and simultaneously expressed concern about environmental hazards that may impact future residents at the development.

As the court described it, the McKinley Village project “will place 336 new residential units on land encircled by a major freeway to the north and railroad tracks to the south, and adjacent to a former landfill. Residential units will be sited as close as 250 feet from the landfill, less than 60 feet from the freeway, and less than 90 feet from the railroad tracks.” Although the court denied the petition, the court acknowledged that ESPLC had “raised serious concerns about the wisdom of approving a residential development sandwiched between an active railroad, a former landfill, and a congested freeway.” Nonetheless, the court explained that it was constrained, in light of prior court decisions, to conclude that CEQA only requires the city “to identify the significant effects of a proposed project on the environment, not the significant effects of the environment on a proposed project.” The court, however, agreed with ESPLC that there “may be sound policy reasons why agencies should be required to analyze how the existing environment may adversely affect the future occupants of a project,” as “it may make little sense to require analysis of the health risks to residents when a freeway is built next to them, but not to require analysis of the exact same risks when new homes are built next to an existing freeway.”

Thus, although the court determined that, based on the law as it currently stands, the city did not violate CEQA by approving the project without considering the impacts of certain significant environmental hazards, serious questions remain about the impacts those hazards may have on the health and safety of future residents of McKinley Village.

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