McKinley East Sacramento Neighborhood Association (MENA)

Centrage project will increase traffic, may cut through levee

Feb 10, 2006

By Nancy Cornelius and Ron Maertz
Land Use and Development Chairpersons
Developers met in late January with East Sacramento community members to discuss a housing development project at the old Centrage site between the freeway and the railroad tracks near the Cannery Business Park. The development is proposed to include 300 to 400 homes and is currently being called The Village although it is not certain that this is the final name for the project. There is no application submitted to the city, so this project will not likely be built for years. One of the concerns discussed are the roads that will connect to the development. There is no current access to this site. Discussions with the development team included breaking through the levee to provide access, which brings up flood control issues for neighbors. Bringing traffic through from Lanatt Street, 33rd Street or Alhambra Boulevard are also possibilities that have been talked about.
This topic was up for discussion during January?’s MENA board meeting and the board emphasizes that since the average number of trips per single family house is 10 vehicle trips per day, this development would create about 4,000 new trips per day in our neighborhood near existing heavily traveled streets. The developer is citing the project as being mixed use, but their preliminary flyer sent to East Sacramento residents uses the term "mostly residential" which does not mean mixed use. Professional land use planners use the term mixed use to refer to the combination of retail/commercial and/or service uses with residential or office use in the same building or on the same site in order to reduce vehicle trips. This project and its associated impacts are of significant concern to the MENA board. If you have concerns about this proposed project, please email MENA at MENA@eastsac.org.
Theodore Judah may close its doors
Theodore Judah Elementary School is listed for possible closure. There is a committee of select participants deciding what to recommend to Sacramento City Unified School District. They did not contact MENA for input or ask any of the MENA board members to apply for the committee. This small committee is composed mostly of parents, teachers, administrators and city staff. There are no recognizable business representatives or members of local neighborhood associations on this committee. The school district said they have known about this possible closure for 3 years. Neighbors around the school report they have just learned of it. The committee meetings, located at SCUSD headquarters, have no microphones, making it difficult to hear, and the meetings are closed to input from the public.
Judah is being considered for closure or reuse as a small high school. Neighbors, community members and PTA members are beginning to band together to discuss strategies of how to communicate with the district. Please email MENA your thoughts about this to MENA@eastsac.org.
R/30th Street Medical Building Proposal
MENA reviewed the Notice of Preparation for an Environmental Impact Report for the R Street Medical Office Building Project and parking facilities. Our comments included concern over traffic and associated air quality impacts. MENA recommended full transit subsides for all building tenants, parking charges equal to or exceeding the cost of using transit and that the building be compatible with surrounding uses within the community. Most important, MENA recommended that the project proponent, Dain Domich, meet with MENA to work on issues before the extensive work on the environmental document.
American Lutheran Church of The Cross on 45th and H Streets
There is a proposal to remove an existing house and replace it with a modular building with a ?“customized?” front that faces H Street supposedly resembling other buildings in the neighborhood.