Next meeting:
Thursday, January 18th, 7:00 p.m.
Charting a course for 2007 |
Sacramento County and "Uncity's lawless streets":
The Sacramento Bee published an
editorial
Monday Morning, January 15th, about the need for traffic patrol in
Sacramento County's unincorporated areas which are in effect actual
cities. It cited Carmichael, Antelope, Fair Oaks, and Orangevale.
These localities have precisely the same problem as El Dorado Hills:
State law restrictions which reserve full traffic patrol authority to
the CHP and insufficient CHP resources to provide adequate patrol. The
Bee reports that Sacramento County is seeking the same solution as
advocated by the Citizens Alliance for El Dorado Hills: Change state
law to permit the county sheriff to have full enforcement authority for
the Vehicle Code in these areas.
It is encouraging to find that the Sacramento County Board of
Supervisors is taking the initiative to support such a change in state
law, but as the Bee points out there are obstacles that have previously
stopped such efforts in the legislature.
Empire
Ranch Road Interchange, Draft EIR comment period closing next Monday:
The deadline of January 22nd is less than one week away for submission of public comments to the City of Folsom on the
Draft EIR for this interchange project. We have submitted our own
comments from the Citizens Alliance,
expressing strong support for the project while pointing out flaws in
its traffic analysis which cause the DEIR to understate the value and
need for this US 50 interchange. Our main concern is to be sure that
the interchange is designed with adequate capacity to handle the
traffic load that it will actually experience.
One flaw is that it very substantially understates the population of El
Dorado Hills, we have already passed the population that it forecasts
we will reach in 2025. It also neglects needs to tie the new
interchange to White Rock Road and the future Rancho Cordova/Elk Grove
Connector. That connection is needed not only to reduce the risk of
gridlock in El Dorado Hills near Town Center, but also to serve growth
already being planned by Folsom for its current Sphere Of Influence on
the south side of US 50.
General Plan Amendment for Floor Area Ratio policies
El Dorado County is in the public review period for its own
DEIR for changes to Floor Area Ratio policies
in the County General Plan. We have not yet reviewed the new DEIR
fully, but at first glance it appears to roughly double the amount of
business development expected to occur in El Dorado Hills. The deadline
for public comments is February 15th.