Land Use Humor

Wanna see something funny?

If you're ever down on your own job, take a moment to pity the poor
planning staff in Sac County who are working on the General Plan. Their
job is to pretend to treat with utmost seriousness the suggestions made by
AKT, and similarly mercenary developers, that capture the fancy of the
supervisors. They must treat these proposals without condescension or
sarcasm. Unlike us, they're not allowed to dismiss proposals based on
common sense or suspicions about the source.

We already know that AKT has proposed opening up portions of rural
Sacramento County at the extreme eastern frontier to development, in total disregard of the existing Urban Services Boundary. We know
that county staff opposes the suggestion, pointing to the immense amount
of developable land within the existing USB and the moderate expansion
area proposed by staff. We know that even SACOG objects to the idea of
developing the Eastern Sacramento/El Dorado frontier, since it would
effectively eviscerate their "Blueprint" land use model. Still, county
staff has to take this proposal at face value.

This is county staff's response.

Don't be fooled by the sober and understated tone. Page by page, this
document makes a mockery of the Tsakapoulos development plan. With
admirable restraint, county staff destroys the notion that the development
of this region is justified by the minimial amount of development
occurring on the El Dorado side of the line. With a saintly lack of
sarcasm, they consider the question of whether the proposal is consistent
with the blueprint, and whether the project would result in traffic
impacts or increased infrastructure demands on the county.

Please take a moment to thank county staff for their hard and honest work
by speaking to their bosses on Wednesday afternoon at 4 PM-- that's when
the BOS will hold a workshop on the proposed "update" of the county
General Plan.  If there is any justice in the world, the whole county planning staff should get a raise that is recuperated from the salaries of any supervisors who support the AKT land use scheme.