Sacramento County is weighing one of its most significant development decisions in years, as supervisors consider a massive and controversial project near Natomas known as the Upper West Side. The plan was taken up at a Board of Supervisors meeting that drew an overflowing crowd, with a final decision expected to come only after hours of debate and public testimony.
The scale of the proposal is what has made it so contentious. The plan calls for 9,000 housing units, four schools and hundreds of businesses, spread across 2,000 acres of unincorporated land between Interstate 5 and the Sacramento River. Developers say the community could eventually house around 25,000 residents, roughly the size of the city of Galt, a prospect that has both excited and alarmed residents.
At the meeting, the chamber was filled with residents who fell on both sides of the issue, some strongly supporting the project as proposed and others pushing for changes or more time to study it. Public comment got underway with around 76 people signed up to speak, and officials acknowledged the session was likely to stretch on for several more hours before any vote.
The project has also opened a clash between the county and the city of Sacramento. Last summer the City Council sent a letter opposing the plan, and Vice Mayor Karina Talamonte said that opposition still stands. She pointed to a long list of unanswered questions surrounding schools, water supplies, the continuity of services, the interchange and how people would move in and out of the new neighborhood.
Talamonte stressed that she was not trying to discourage new housing in the region, but said her concern was the scale of the project. She asked the board to hold off until January, when a new supervisor is set to be elected, arguing that the incoming official would be directly accountable to voters and able to work with the city and Natomas residents to resolve the outstanding questions.
Developers, for their part, proposed several alternatives aimed at addressing the environmental and traffic concerns raised by critics. Neighbors remained divided, with one resident of about 25 years saying the area had always been growing and welcoming more housing, while others worried about congestion in a community with only a couple of ways in and out, and some said they were simply willing to wait and see how it all plays out.