“When you have a community that is on track to get a level of flood protection, to cripple us economically in the process is absolutely dumb,” -Heather Fargo in January of 2008 to KCRA in response to the Federally mandated building moratorium in Natomas.
Ben Adler of Capital Public Radio did a fantastic spot this morning on the building moratorium in Natomas, and how Sacramento officials like City Manager Ray “Rainman” Kerridge (and Heather Fargo and the Council), are going absolutely bananas green-lighting every possible Natomas building permit application they can before the Fed-imposed deadline this December.
In case you missed Ben Adler’s great piece, here are some bullets (reprinted without permission) and commentary…
“..the federal government is effectively barring all new development [in Natomas] from early December until the levees get fixed. But rather than halt all Natomas growth right away, Sacramento is actually encouraging it. And critics say the city is putting its financial well-being ahead of public safety. ”
What does Jeff Mount, Geology Professor at UC Davis, alma mater of Heather Fargo, say about Sacramento levees?
Mount: “There are two kinds of levees. Those that have failed and those that will fail. And the Natomas levees will eventually fail.”
Mount’s a geology professor and levee expert at UC Davis, and he says Sacramento has no business building in Natomas right now. Fix the levees first, Mount says, before you let new residents and businesses move in behind them.
Mount: “Look, we learned plenty of lessons. We’ve learned them on the Mississippi River; we learned them in our own system; we learned them in New Orleans. The point is, levees fail. And it’s very hard to predict when they will fail. If you’re rushing to develop and put more people out there before you fix the problem, then we know what’s being put first. And it ain’t safety.”
But city manager Ray Kerridge couldn’t disagree more. Sure, the Natomas levees need upgrades, he says. But they’re nowhere near as bad as the federal government says they are.
Kerridge: “I think people gotta be realistic about this. There’s been no flood in that area since 1911. That’s a hundred years. The levees are in much better shape now than they were all those years ago.”
[Joe Sac note: "gotta be realistic" huh? Apparently he doesn't live in Natomas. You see why I call him "Rainman" now? Apparently Rainman is not aware that it's the HUNDRED YEAR FLOOD we are worried about!! If it last flooded 97 years ago... aw forget it]
And as Sacramento’s top administrator, Kerridge knows how much it needs Natomas to grow. The city’s budget is out of whack – a $58 million deficit this fiscal year, and going up. And new development equals new revenue – in the millions of dollars.
On December 8th, the feds will cut off all new growth in Natomas until the levees reach the bare minimum standard of protection. And Kerridge wants the city to continue approving building permits in the flood basin right up until that deadline.
Kerridge: “Here’s an opportunity for us to do some good things for the city, to do some good things for the people in Natomas. Also, there’ll be property taxes, sales taxes, jobs. And I think we absolutely need to take advantage of that opening that the federal government has provided us with.”
[Joe Sac: Opening? It's not an "opening" Rainman! it's a DEADLINE!! And there won't be more jobs or tax revenue Rainman, because you can't even fill the millions of square feet of commercial brick and mortar you put here already!!]
That’s exactly what the city has done. Since the feds first announced their intention to cut off growth back in January, Sacramento officials have issued several hundred new building permits in Natomas. Bob Chase is the city’s chief building official. He’s leaving the politics to others, but says his job is to treat Natomas applications normally until the deadline.
Chase: “We certainly don’t want to do anything to put anybody in the way of danger. But legally, right now, we operate a building department. There’s absolutely nothing that prevents us from issuing permits to somebody that wants them, prior to Dec. 8.”
[Joe Sac: This "logic" reminds me of someone who thinks just because they have blank checks, they have money in the bank. Der, I got blank checks, I must have money. Der I got blank permits, I might as well issue 'em Vern!]
As for Jeff Mount? He’s got some advice for the city:
Mount: “When you put jobs over public safety, what you’re essentially doing is concentrating the disaster in the future. So you need to fix your levees before you start putting people behind them.”
The levee upgrades are under way, but they’re moving more slowly than originally expected. It now looks like the federal government will probably keep the ban in place until at least 2011. And the levees won’t meet the federal government’s minimum safety standard until 2012. So for the next few years, Sacramento will have to balance its budget without new revenues from Natomas.
[Joe Sac: You'll hear Rainman and Fargo's cocky comments about the strength of our levees again some day, likely in a congressional hearing.. and the interim, the city will keep building more homes, more offices, and more warehouses with the express fantasy that the resulting revenue will dig them out of the $58 million deficit they created for us]
Thank you, Ben Adler and Cap Public Radio. You guys ROCK!
Source: http://www.capradio.org/articles/articledetail.aspx?articleid=5556
Fargo, you’re doing a heck of a job.
Way to go Fargo and Kerridge!! Keep on piling the bricks up in Natomas even though the federal government has told you the levees are seeping and vulnerable to breach in a 100 year storm and the last 100 year flood was 97 years ago! You guys are brilliant!
“new development equals new revenue – in the millions of dollars”
Joe..this could be the case, if we didn’t have to pay for the public infrastructure required of the new developments.. but what I see happening in the Natomas area is new development = more of our taxes going to pay for the infrastructure those new developments need. (Streets, utilities, police, fire, schools, libraries etc etc.)
A cursory look at the City’s budget shows that the taxpayers pay for almost all of the required improvements needed for developments to go forward…like we are with the railyards…Therefore…we are forced at gunpoint to pay for the infrastructure so the same old fat cat developers, friends of Kerridge and Fargo’s, can make hundreds of millions in profits off our community. Its no different than welfare…it’s developer welfare. I don’t see the revenue generated from new taxes supporting the new individual developments…it is a shared burden across our community through our property taxes, utility taxes, increased fees, reduced services and special tax districts.
This City is in a never ending cycle…new developments = new infrastructure = increased tax burden = need for new revenue = new developments? This is unsustainable, and is clearly not Smart Growth as they are selling it as…in the end, looking at the budget in detail, it simply does not pen out.
We need new developments, for the most part, for a vibrant economy and to meet a state mandated growth burden, but the developers need to pay for their own infrastructure, and they need to stop their uncontrolled urban sprawl and paving over the great Sacramento Valley.
Amen
I should also add that Cap Pub Radio did a follow up and asked KJ about this. He TOO is in favor of continued building! Get this:
Johnson: “I think you should be able to do anything that’s allowed to happen in the Natomas area up until the deadline. You shouldn’t have to stop things before a deadline if people are still saying it’s OK to do certain things. So if the deadline that we’re all operating with is a December deadline, then to me that’s the time that things need to stop.”
Wha–? If “people are sill saying it’s ok to do things”? Really? Are you suggesting that everything built prior to the magic deadline will somehow be immune to flooding if the levees fail, Kevin?? Wow. I thought public safety was your number one priority!