On September 29, SACOG held a land use workshop — the first RUCS workshop. Stakeholders from across the six-county region helped gather information on current rural land use policies and conditions in the region.
Participants included land use and transportation planners, agriculture commissioners, and representatives from resource conservation agencies, local agency formation commissions, farm bureaus, and various other advocacy and conservation groups.
SACOG staff presented its research on current conditions in the rural areas of the region and then participants grouped by county identified two study areas: one with rural character and another with urban character.
In the innovations phase — the next phase for the land use working group — these study areas will be used Special Area Management Plans (SAMPs) across the region, and establish the framework for substantive regulatory reform.
Two days after the affirmative vote for the PCCP, McKinley and SACOG Executive Director Mike McKeever were in Washington, D.C. meeting with top officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They briefed Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) John Woodley, and his top deputy, Chip Smith, on the action taken on the PCCP and updated them on the RUCS project.
Secretary Woodley reaffirmed both policy and fiscal support for these efforts in the Sacramento region. Smith will be visiting the region on October 23, where he hopes to meet with SACOG Board members, receive a full briefing on the RUCS projects and HCPs/SAMPs, and to tour some key sites in the region.