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Old Sugar Mill Proposal is back! February 2008 Last January, the Delta Protection Commission (DPC) blocked what would have been the first urban development in the primary zone of the delta since the Delta Protection Act (DPA) was passed in 1992. The project had been approved by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, despite concerns regarding inadequate levees and flooding issues. After hours of testimony, the DPC concluded that the Old Sugar Mill Project violated parts of the Delta Protection Act and Delta Management Plan. This marked the first test of the DPA, a 15 year old law designed to protect about 500,000 acres of delta open space and agricultural land from urban development. The Old Sugar Mill developer has recently come back to the County with a redesigned project with fewer houses (122), but otherwise, very minor changes from the original proposal. On January 24 of this year, the Yolo County Planning Commission heard the revised project and voted to approve the project 6-0, despite the fact that Environmental documents state that the project could expose people and structures to significant risk of loss, injury or death due to potential levee failure. Clarksburg residents have also recently been advised that they no longer have 100-year flood protection. The developer's plan to get the houses out of the flood plain is to build them up 12 feet. This, however, would put the existing residents, homes and businesses in even greater danger of flooding if a levee breaks. Concerned Citizens of Clarksburg and environmentalists want this plan stopped for good and plan to fight it. Permitting this project would be a violation of the Delta protection act which prohibits urban development in the primary zone of the delta, but it would also set a precedent for further urbanization in the primary zone of the delta. “If urbanization is permitted here, it will be irreversible and self-accelerating”, states Peggy Bohl, a concerned Clarksburg resident. The delta is a fragile and important ecosystem; it contains some of the state's best farmland; it is the source of drinking water for more than 20 million California residents. Urbanization in the primary zone of the delta, in addition to all the other assaults on this fragile environment, could push it over the edge, resulting in collapse of the entire delta ecosystem.
Board of Supervisors: Contact the Delta Protection Commission by writing to: Arnie Simonsen, chair, 14219 River Road, Walnut Grove, CA 95690. For more information, contact Peggy Bohl at 916-744-1555 or bohl@frontiernet.net. |
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