The push to put a city parking lease to a vote fell flat Tuesday as the City Council rejected a motion to put the question on the June ballot. It was City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy who first suggested in November that the voters should have a say in whether the city leases its parking inventory to an outside company. She conducted a city-wide poll on her website in October, which indicated that 70 percent of respondents favored a public vote on a potential 50-year lease, according to Sheedy. “The (arena) plan hinges on leasing the city’s parking for 50 years,” Sheedy said Tuesday. “I think such a massive public investment warrants a public vote.” Still, after almost an hour of public d

SACRAMENTO, CA | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Regional Administrator Ophelia Basgal joined Congresswoman Doris Matsui in Sacramento announced on January 10 that Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency will receive a $300,000 Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant. Sacramento is one of 13 cities nationwide receiving this funding to begin grassroots efforts to revitalize the Twin Rivers Community Housing, a distressed public housing development at 321 Eliza Street, and transform the Sacramento River District-Railyards neighborhood. “All across the country, local planners are serious about rolling up their sleeves to transform distressed neighborhoods into choice n

Mayor Kevin Johnson spoke confidently Tuesday about the possibility of a new entertainment and sports complex becoming a reality for Sacramento – despite the challenges ahead. “We are at a critical juncture in this process,” Johnson said. “On the court, our team needs to play well. Off the court, I feel good about the progress we’re making on the new entertainment sports complex and the financing.” Johnson said that – on the public side of the equation – the city is moving forward with its “due diligence” on a plan to lease out the city parking system as part of the financial plan for a new arena. “On the private side,” Johnson added, “AEG and ICON and all those folks are doing their pa

The city of Sacramento responded to the recently released California High Speed Rail Authority business plan with a letter of support – and a couple of suggestions for the authority to consider as the project develops. City Councilman Steve Cohn said Tuesday that the city is in support of the project overall, but Cohn and the council want to emphasize two points: recognition that the high-speed rail project must be phased in, and funding should also upgrade existing connecting infrastructure. “It can’t all be built at once,” Cohn said at the Law and Legislation Committee meeting at City Hall Tuesday. “The revised business plan does a more realistic job of explaining this phasing process

The City Council approved $400,000 in funding from new sources Tuesday for upgrades to the Sacramento Intermodal Transportation Facility project, including energy-efficient lighting and new power cabinets that will help reduce air emissions at the new facility. The project is being built at the downtown railyards and is currently in the first phase of development. City officials say Phase 1 should be completed by mid-summer 2012. The project is planned to accommodate rail freight movement, heavy passenger trains, light rail transit and intercity and local buses, according to a city staff report. It will also provide facilities for bicycle and pedestrian transportation modes and – potenti

As part of the Entertainment and Sports Complex project, the City of Sacramento has posted a "Notice of Preparation" for an Environmental Impact Report, or EIR. The public has until October 31 to provide comments to help city staff determine what factors should be considered in this important document. The Notice of Preparation can be found on the City of Sacramento's website in PDF format: http://www.cityofsacramento.org/dsd/planning/environmental-review/eirs/documents/ESCNOPFINAL.pdf Reports like this EIR are written to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which requires that California governments consider the effects of their projects on the state's environ

The City Council unanimously gave the go-ahead for a feasibility study of seven potential river crossing locations Tuesday and accepted a definition for “neighborhood-friendly bridge” that will set the parameters for design of those bridges. “This has been a long time coming for both communities,” West Sacramento Mayor Chris Cabaldon said at the Sacramento City Council meeting. “We obsess about the boundaries between the two cities, but the economic vitality, cultural vitality and the urban agenda for both of our communities will be enhanced by being better connected.” Location details of potential river crossings can be found here. There are currently three major bridges crossing the r

Conceptual plans were revealed to the public Monday night for the intermodal transportation facility and the entertainment and sports complex proposed for the Railyards site. Think Big Sacramento committee members presented the proposal to about 100 community members. The town hall meeting was hosted by City Councilman Rob Fong and the discussion was led by Assistant City Manager John Dangberg. Attendees had mixed responses to the proposed facility, some questioning the economic viability and some expressing support. Dangberg emphasized that the project would be an economic driver for the region. Fong, whose district the Railyards is in, said the plans are still in the early stages but

A public opinion poll delivered to the City Council Thursday shows support for both the downtown arena and several public funding options. That poll came in with 33 days remaining in the Think Big Sacramento committee’s 100-day timeline to come up with a “menu of options” for financing an entertainment and sports complex, said Kunal Merchant, chief of staff to Mayor Kevin Johnson. Paul Maslin, of the public opinion research and strategy organization Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, said his company did more than 700 phone interviews with residents of Sacramento, Sacramento County, El Dorado County, Placer County and Yuba County. The polls were completed two weeks ago. The f

The Railyards is currently abuzz with activity. I recently had the chance take a short tour of the construction as part of my work with the City and it is a sight to behold. Seeing the massive excavation of dirt is am impressive far cry from what the site looked like only two months earlier, when construction started in May. The progress of the 245 plot of land is a welcome sight. The earth directly in front of the main shop buildings, north of the Sacramento Amtrak Station, takes a large dip, perhaps twenty feet deep now. Before, this area was a flat expanse of dusty land, reaching to the rail station. Excavators pepper the site, clambering around their newly built depths of soil. Steam

In what Mayor Kevin Johnson called an unprecedented event, 14 chambers of commerce from the Sacramento region announced Thursday that they support an entertainment and sports complex in downtown Sacramento. Johnson said the backing of the regional business community, which came after a four-county bus trip for Think Big Sacramento, is a commitment to the promise he made to the National Basketball Association earlier this year in New York City that Sacramento is an NBA city and can build a new arena. “I did not sell Sacramento, I sold our region,” he said, adding that a common commitment to a downtown sports and entertainment complex will provide a more vibrant community. The major obsta

Sacramento officials believe a new arena can be integrated with a future regional transit center in the historic downtown railyards – making this one of the country's most eco-friendly sports and entertainment facilities, Assistant City Manager John Dangberg said Tuesday. At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Dangberg gave council members a status report nearly halfway into a 100-day technical review of a proposed arena. The $387 million project is on an expedited schedule to be in operation by May 2015. One of the most critical issues being reviewed is the need to coordinate construction of an arena with the previously planned transit center. Both structures would be built on a site

Mayor Kevin Johnson is currently in the process of visiting Sacramento’s six major counties to discuss the benefits of a future entertainment and sports complex along the stretch of what used to be the old Southern Pacific railyards downtown. At the mayor’s weekly press conference Tuesday, Johnson, who had just visited El Dorado County and the city of Folsom the day before, called his visits “authentic outreach.” Johnson is going on a bus tour Thursday to visit regions of El Dorado County, Davis, Roseville and Rancho Cordova to seek input from the communities there, he said. This city-to-city outreach is part of the the mayor’s Think Big Coalition. Johnson said the four guiding principl

New Sacramento Railyards Project Manager Fran Lee Halbakken said she became a civil engineer because she loves solving problems. Halbakken is now tackling challenges with one of the city's and country's largest redevelopment projects after starting in her new role June 27. At nearly 240 acres of combined private and city land, the railyards project is so big it will virtually double the size of the central business district. The key position was created at a critical stage of the massive undertaking. The private portion of the site has a new owner and the projects’ housing plan must be revised in light of the recession. Also, plans for a new regional transit center must be coordinated wi

A new downtown arena could draw 3.1 million visitors to the central city each year and bring the region more than $7 billion over 30 years, according to a report released Thursday by an arena campaign committee. The 37-page report on an arena’s expected impact to the region was released to reporters at a press conference at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel. "In downtown Sacramento, there's a considerable economic boost, just by the fact that there really isn't a facility like that," said Cathleen Dominico, author of "The Economic Engine Report: An Economic Analysis on the Regional Impact of an Entertainment and Sports Complex," during the press conference. "If you can create a downto

The Sacramento region will have to get creative to come up with a public-private financing plan that might work to build a new arena – possibly coming up with funding sources never tried in other cities before, a prominent sports financing expert said Thursday. Sacramento will need a unique financing model, partly due to the community's "limitations" in size and past efforts to gain voter support for public arena funding, Barrett Sports Group owner Dan Barrett told a crowd gathered for a town hall meeting at the Central Library. The media market is relatively small, which makes it less lucrative, and there aren't a lot of potential corporate sponsors here. Other challenges come from diff

A regional campaign to finance a new arena officially launched Tuesday. A coalition called "Here We Build" will work within a tight, 100-day deadline to evaluate what kind of financing mechanisms, fees or taxes might be used. While the list of 60 leaders is still being finalized this week, the coalition is expected to meet for the first time within about two weeks. The group will be co-chaired by state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, and State Sen. Ted Gaines, a Republican from Roseville. Steinberg called on the region to unite behind the campaign to boost jobs, economic development and pride in the greater Sacramento area. "It's time for everyone

A new arena for Sacramento is likely to cost nearly $400 million and will likely have the Kings as tenants but not operators, the mayor said Tuesday. The cost of the entire project, which would build a new arena from the ground up, is expected to be far lower than the $600 million proposed to build an arena in 2006 – partly because the recession has lowered construction costs and partly because the plans will call for a "smaller but yet world-class venue" of less than 700,000 square feet that fits the region's needs, according to Mayor Kevin Johnson. Power Balance Pavilion, the Kings’ current home, is 442,000 square feet. "The viability of this project happening in Sacramento is real,"

The National Basketball Association apparently continued weighing Sacramento and Anaheim as markets for the Kings Thursday. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson jumped off a stage to take a phone call at a groundbreaking ceremony for railyards railroad track relocation Thursday morning. He later said he wouldn't comment on whether the call came from NBA Commissioner David Stern. Shortly after finishing the call, Johnson told reporters he didn't have any word on a Kings decision, from either Stern or Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clay Bennett, who chairs the league's Relocation Committee. "I have not gotten an update," said Johnson, who described the call as "private." "I haven't heard from Clay

The American Institute of Architects' Central Valley chapter this week led a panel discussion and tour in the River District, described by some as one of the region’s hottest areas. The roughly 773-acre River District, previously known as the Richards Boulevard area, sits north of downtown in an area bounded by the Sacramento and American rivers, the historic railyards and parcels along North 16th Street. More than 200 property owners hold title to about 400 parcels located there. The discussion featured Township 9 developer Steve Goodwin, Sacramento Economic Development Department Senior Project Manager Rachel Hazelwood, Community Development Department Senior Urban Designer Greg Taylor