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Below is information about objection to the proposed cutting of 10 redwoods at the Newman Center from the River Park Tree Canopy Project. Here’s the latest news about efforts to save the 10 Coastal Redwoods located on Carlson Drive and J Street across from CSU Sacramento Please email City and Diocese officials — tell them why you want the Coast Redwoods saved! Also ask your friends and family to do the same! Email Vice Mayor Jeff Harris: JSHarris@cityofsacramento.orgIf you don’t live in VM Harris’ district, be sure you also send email to your own council member Email Robby Thacker – City Community Development staff: rthacker@cityofsacramento.org Email the Diocese of Sacramento –Chief finance officer Thomas J. McNamara tmcnamara@scd.org Construction and Properties Manager John Gonsalves jgonsalves@scd.org Director of Newman Catholic Center Sacramento Weston Ruiz wruiz@scd.org   Why contact the Diocese? The Theory student housing project is to be built on land owned by the Diocese of Sacramento. The Diocese proposes demolishing the existing Newman Center and building a new Center next door.  One challenge in preserving the trees is that the proposed apartment building will be close to the tree roots. That can be avoided if the building is moved further from the trees. The developer is only considering the subdivided lot as submitted to the City. The diocese can help save the trees by re-positioning the new Newman Center and revising the lot subdivision. Even though the housing project and the new Newman Center project are “separate” there is no reason they cannot be studied in concert and addressed as a whole. The Diocese says this project is being done to better serve the needs of the College community.  We believe that stewardship of these irreplaceable redwoods is a key part of serving the college community and stewardship for our Earth.  Pressure from the Community can help to get the Diocese to rethink the total project and make preserving the trees a priority. Paula Peper, renowned local arborist and ecologist, analyzed the environmental benefits associated with the redwoods.  Paula’s i-Tree analysis show that the trees provide an enormous environmental benefit. For an updated fact sheet about the trees and why they should be saved, email kbriley@surewest.net Meetings with Developer and City Advocates met developers on December 21.  Developers said limited space and plans to cover the drainage ditch on the City right-of-way along Carlson and J Street make it difficult to preserve the trees.   Developers said they are working on project revisions and committed to coming back with revised plans. Advocates asked the City to stake the property line along Carlson and J Streets to make sure that all the City trees are identified (City Code has different level of protection for City Trees and Private Protected Trees).  The city met with advocates on January 28 to say they are asking that of the developer. We learned the City doesn’t yet have a recommendation on the tree removal permit. City gave very rough estimate of in lieu fees required from the developer – over $190,000 before any credit for replanting or reduction for unhealthy or unsafe trees.

The City Council is expected to vote this Tuesday, January 19, 2021, on the Land Use designations of the 2040 General Plan, leading to neighborhood rezoning that could directly impact your home. This proposed key strategy is in response to California’s housing and affordability crisis. The attached Housing Policy Toolkit document explains many of the details. The proposed plan would allow for: 

• The building of duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes (the missing middle housing) on any residential property. These are cheaper to build and become rentals as they age. 
• The R-1, single-family zone designation protection would be eliminated for all residences.
• The building of up to two secondary homes (called Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) on any lot within 5 feet of the property line. The homeowner does not need to live in any of the units.  
• There would be relaxed requirements for height limits, maximum square footage, lot coverage, setback minimums and parking restrictions.
• Developers would be able to convert any or all single-family houses to multi-family units regardless of the impact on the neighborhood. 

Concerns and issues regarding the 2040 General Plan land use and rezoning proposal: 

• The addition of more sewage flowing into the current failing combined sewer system would cause overflows during dry and wet weather. 
• Additional traffic and parking problems.The streets are so narrow that two cars can no longer pass each other if there are cars parked on both sides of the street.  
• The SMUD electrical system will become overloaded – we experience outages now on a regular basis. 
• The decline of property values and the departure of single-family homeowners to outlying areas.    

 The elimination of the current land use designation code of R-1 in East Sacramento would cause an undue burden on our aging infrastructure and the sense of community in our neighborhood.  Many neighborhood associations (East Sac, Land Park, Elmhurst, Mangan, etc.) have concerns regarding this potential rezoning proposal for ALL neighborhoods in Sacramento. Instead, they recommend new housing on commercial corridors, underused commercial and industrial properties. The city had a chance to build affordable housing in McKinley Village and the new Sutter Park neighborhood – instead, the median home price is $875,000 and most of them cost over $1 million.   

We urge you to express your opinion on this particularly important issue before the city council votes on it this coming Tuesday, January 19th.  You can write to all the city council members (eComment) at the link/website below.  Thank you for reading this and making our voices heard.  

http://sacramento.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=21,

Select eComment next to the Jan19th, 5 pm council meeting, 

Scroll down to the bottom of page and select page 2, 

Scroll to item #15 discussion of 2040 General Plan

Select Comment on the right side of the page

You can write up to 1000 characters 

OR you can create a login ID and password and upload a document  

Jeff Harris’ email is:  jsharris@cityofsacramento.org