Good thought, and if Sacramento annexed the area under consideration to be the next city in the County, the main argument might dissipate (though, given the chaos often governing the city of Sacramento, it might not) and the neighborhoods along the Parkway of Sierra Oaks and Wilhaggin (who have stayed out of the Arden Arcade borders) would probably ask to be included in the annexation ones.
This would be good for the Parkway as it would settle three major governmental stakeholders in the Parkway’s future (Sacramento, the County, and Rancho Cordova) perhaps strengthening ongoing negotiations around forming a Joint Power Authority and, as we would like to see, using the JPA to contract with a nonprofit organization to provide daily management of the Parkway, which would also have the capability to develop a financial endowment which could provide supplemental maintenance funding as well as funds for future acquisitions to enlarge the Parkway’s footprint.
These are all good things.
Editorial: Annexations anyone?
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, March 18, 2007
This is the best political moment in years for Sacramento and Sacramento County to launch discussions about annexations, about planning for changes that seem inevitable instead of reacting to them.
A move to create another new city in the county, in the community known as Arden Arcade, is getting serious. So should discussions between the city and county about more sensible alternatives.
A variety of planning processes are under way around Sacramento, city and county. It should come as no surprise that they are not coordinated.
At Sacramento City Hall, the council has been mulling its long-term growth strategy, known as the general plan. This involves many meetings and a lengthy environmental review process.
A few blocks away at the chambers of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, planners and supervisors are busy on precisely the same review process for the general plan covering unincorporated areas of the county.
When the supervisors are not in session, a commission sometimes will take over the chambers to do its planning work. It's the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO. Some county supervisors and City Council members sit on the LAFCO board as part of their duties.
LAFCO's job is to review possible boundary changes for local governments; that includes the review of proposed new cities. In Arden Arcade, the activists who want to create a new city seem to have gathered enough resident signatures to prompt LAFCO to start reviewing the possibility.
The Arden Arcade community is bordered on two sides and part of a third by the city of Sacramento. It is no stretch of logic to consider the possibility of Arden Arcade joining its neighbor on three sides and becoming part of the city of Sacramento. It is a possibility that LAFCO should not ignore.
The Sacramento City Council the other night made an initial, yet important, move to contemplate such an annexation. As it was holding one of those meetings about its future general plan, the council approved funds for the city staff to review the options for Arden Arcade. A review by staff, however, needs to be happening as well.
