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Watchdog group forms in Elk Grove
By Cameron Jahn -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Sunday, March 30, 2003
A group of Elk Grove community activists, angry at what they believe is the city's rush to development, is forming an umbrella organization to challenge the way city business is conducted.
Calling themselves the Elk Grove Citizens Community Council, group leaders say they're tired of being ignored by city officials and City Council members. They want a say in how and where development occurs. And they plan to field a slate of candidates to run for the three City Council seats up in next year's election.
"We, the citizens, need to become the gatekeepers of power," Lynn Soto, a founding member of the organization, said recently at the group's second meeting. "We can't continue in this same vein. We have to start the reform process."
Community council members say the idea for the group has been kicked around for more than a year. But the final push came in February when the Elk Grove City Council rezoned 15 acres of office land on busy Laguna Boulevard to allow for a retail center. The new center, called Laguna Gateway 2, will have 11 tenants, including Sportmart and a Red Robin restaurant.
As part of the deal, the developer agreed to kick-start a business park across the street by building 60,000 square feet of badly needed office buildings.
Still, a number of residents opposed the rezoning. They want the city to hold onto its office land, even if that means passing up shopping centers like Laguna Gateway 2.
Elk Grove officials admit the decision to rezone was difficult. But they contend there is plenty of land zoned for offices left, and that the 150,000-square-foot shopping center will add to the city's tax base. The office workers who will one day occupy a business park need restaurants, dry cleaners and clothing stores, they say.
But some residents remained angry -- and they formed the Elk Grove Citizens Community Council in response.
The group, which has a core of at least 15 members who meet monthly, hopes to be a sounding board for residents whose ideas are then forwarded to city government. Soto said the organization -- made up of business owners, educators, state workers and retirees who have been active in Elk Grove since before cityhood -- wants to work with elected officials.
"We're not here to hang you and burn you in effigy; we just want you to listen to us," she said.
Elk Grove Vice Mayor Sophia Scherman said the City Council pays attention. Scherman said her calendar is filled with community meetings, including three recent workshops she conducted that were attended by nearly 300 people in all.
Still, Scherman said, if that's not enough, the way to make change is at the voting booth.
"If they figure that they can find someone to do a better job, so be it," she said. "You know what? Let the voters decide."
Besides finding candidates to run next year, the community council wants a say in land-use and transportation decisions. Group members plan to seek meetings with developers to review proposed projects. They say they need to influence proposals early on, because they believe they have little chance of changing the plans once they go before the city's Planning Commission or City Council.
Elk Grove became a city nearly three years ago. Council members say they now have the chance to direct the city's future, but in some cases, like the approval by Sacramento County of 10,000 new homes in south Elk Grove, they must deal with decisions made before incorporation.
They point to new programs to manage traffic, improve roadways and rebuild key bridges. They recently required developers to redo plans for more than 7,000 housing units to allow for more landscaped corridors, bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly upgrades.
Controlling growth was the overriding issue in last November's election -- Elk Grove's first since incorporation -- and some residents refuse to let the issue die.
Steve Barnett, head of the Laguna Riviera Neighborhood Association, said the city has not done enough to slow growth or create more jobs. Barnett said Laguna Gateway 2 should have stayed zoned for offices because the new shopping center will add more traffic to Laguna Boulevard. Barnett and his neighbors live near the newly approved project.
"For the long-term development of our city, we need the type of employment that office land brings," said Barnett, who is not part of the Elk Grove Citizens Community Council but says he would join.
"It's time to stop rezoning, because we need to develop the office space we have."
City Councilman Michael Leary disagrees. He said the offices and shopping in the Laguna Gateway 2 deal will benefit Elk Grove's residents in the long term.
In the meantime, he doesn't see the Elk Grove Citizens Community Council as a threat to the City Council. The council carefully considers its decisions, he said, and community members have plenty of opportunities to speak out.
"It's OK that they're doing this," he said. "I think it's a way to vent some of their frustration. We're trying to do the right thing. In the big scheme of things, I think we're making the right decisions."
Elk Grove City Manager John Danielson said the formation of such a group is to be expected in a new city.
"I think these are very predictable steps," said Danielson, who has worked in several other cities in California and Nevada.
New cities generally experience a dramatic leadership change before marking their fifth year, said Bob Waste, professor of public policy and administration at California State University, Sacramento. Sometimes it's a homegrown group of activists who force a shake-up in city government.
"The sense of 'us and them' becomes more complicated," Waste said. "Where the old enemy was the county, now the source of controversy becomes the City Council itself."
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About the Writer
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The Bee's Cameron Jahn can be reached at (916) 478-2653 or cjahn@sacbee.com.
