Rancho Cordova continues building a welcoming community and continues the struggle against those who would restrict their efforts, and the battle over the interpretation of laws continues.
Rancho Cordova may ease wetlands protections
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - mlvellinga@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, April 18, 2008
Rancho Cordova is preparing to loosen its policies for protecting vernal pools from development – a move that once again pits the young city against a statewide group seeking to preserve seasonal wetlands.
On Monday, the Rancho Cordova City Council is scheduled to vote on proposed changes to the city's general plan. The new language would give the city more latitude to allow streams to be channeled into concrete corridors and to build roads across preserves.
It also would modify language calling for connected habitat preserves within the boundaries of the city's new development areas, potentially allowing more builders to meet their obligations by preserving or re-creating vernal pools somewhere else.
On-site preserves would be required only if the city found them "feasible" and "necessary for (the) viability of protected species."
"They've removed anything enforceable," complained Carol Witham, a local leader of the California Native Plant Society.
Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that fill in winter, flower in spring and may host a variety of endangered plants and animals, including tiny shrimp and plants such as the slender orcutt grass, which in the Sacramento area occurs only in Rancho Cordova, according to Witham.
The remaining grasslands of Rancho Cordova are dotted with some of the richest vernal pools in the region. Development has already been approved for much of this land, and more projects are on the way.
A lawyer for the native plant society – which is battling the city in court over development in the Sunrise Douglas community plan area – said the changes would lead to the city abandoning the idea of creating interconnected preserves in areas scheduled for building.
