By Oscar Balaguer
On September 27, County Supervisors put off scheduled adoption of the CAP because the hearing had been scheduled for the same date as the close of public comment, so that recent comments hadn’t been reviewed; and because staff presented proposed changes at the hearing without prior notice. Thanks to the many 350 Sac members who wrote, phoned in, and presented oral testimony – it made a difference! Supervisors rescheduled the hearing to December 6, but we just learned it will be postponed further, into 2023.
350 Sac (and allies) presented extensive September 27 written comments and oral testimony regarding the four main issues that together make the County CAP worse than none: the CAP’s weak measures, its permit streamlining function, the County’s sprawl bias, and the County’s failure to provide adequate environmental analysis of the CAP. The County also received comments from an environmental law firm stating that because of the above and related concerns, the CAP does not meet legal requirements.
Several Supervisors provided general direction to staff to tighten up some elements of the CAP, particularly in regard to encouraging infill and identifying funding for implementation. Staff also proposed several changes, including modifications to measure GHG-08 to please the construction industry, weakening it in such a way as to make it nonsensical and unenforceable. 350’s CAP Team has continued analysis and advocacy with an October 11 letter to staff detailing the problems with GHG-08 and proposing alternative wording, and requesting a public review of any CAP changes. We followed up with an October 19 letter to Supervisors, cataloging the proposed changes and repeating our request for public review; and subsequently heard informally from staff that there will be a public review period.
We are currently working with two UCD undergrads, serving as paid 350 research assistants, to further document the County’s failure to present a fully-developed, coherent CAP, starting with compiling a searchable inventory of the numerous commitments of staff work the CAP presents, without however identifying costs or funding source.
