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Monday's Internet Edition, March 15, 2010.
Wilton tells Elk Grove to ‘take floodplain out of SOI’
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Photo by Fran Soto
Don Hazen, planning director with the City of Elk Grove, gives a presentation on Tuesday, March 2 at Elk Grove City Hall concerning the city's boundaries and how land use issues will affect Wilton and the Cosumnes River floodplain.
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By Fran Soto
River Valley Times Staff
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Members of Wilton Action Group (WAG) traveled to Elk Grove on Tuesday, March 2 to attend yet another informational and public comment meeting on the City of Elk Grove Sphere of Influence (SOI) application. Of interest to Wilton residents is the city’s desire to include the Cosumnes River floodplain within the boundaries of their SOI.
For the past two years, WAG has repeatedly requested that the floodplain be removed from the SOI and that no development be planned in the floodplain because of its unique habitat and flood control properties. In answer, the city of Elk Grove has drafted a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the city and the County of Sacramento rather than remove the floodplain. This MOU is an agreement regarding roles and responsibilities for land planning issues relating to the Cosumnes River floodplain.
Still in draft form, the MOU states that preservation and protection of open space and habitat lands within the Cosumnes River basin is of the utmost importance and that development is inappropriate and unacceptable. At the March 2 meeting, facilitator Kendell Flint gave a presentation saying that land use changes could be made if both city and county agreed. “The way the MOU reads at this time, there can be no land use changes unless there is an agreement between the city and the county,” Flint said.
Flint made it clear to those attending that the purpose of the meeting was to gather comments so that a final MOU could be written to be submitted to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors for their approval. Don Hazen, planning director with the City of Elk Grove, attended the meeting to answer questions during and after the public comment session. “Kendell’s role is to get as much information about the MOU as possible,” he said. “This is not a final draft, just the start of the process.”
The draft MOU, which can be viewed at the Elk Grove Planning Department’s website at www.egplanning.org, is divided into five topics including land use, jurisdictional coordination, open space and habitat and farmland and floodplain protection.
Although specific comments and questions on the topics were requested, Wilton residents were adamant that the floodplain should be removed. Wilton resident Barbara Washburn, one of the founding members of WAG, spoke on protecting the floodplain as it exists today. “Any change in land use should go before the voters,” Washburn said. “Elk Grove has never provided sensible plans on land use. We need a credible analysis of land use.”
Elk Grove City staff members Taro Echiburu and Gerald Park were on hand to record all questions, comments and opinions voiced by the audience. At the conclusion of the meeting, all notes were posted for public view and included topics such as requesting definition of terms, determining how the MOU and SOI benefit the citizenry, the likelihood that future councils and amended general plans could allow development and trails in the floodplain and the decisions that have already been made. Flint emphasized that all comments would be recorded as written or uttered and made available to the Elk Grove City Council and the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. “They will see everything that was said here,” she said.
The next meeting scheduled by the City of Elk Grove will be Thursday, March 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Elk Grove City Hall at 8401 Laguna Palms Way. According to WAG spokesman Bill Kutzer, the main focus of the meeting will again be the floodplain and the landowners.
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