October 22, 2008

Please Join Me for a Discussion About the North Natomas Finance Plan

Dear Natomas Residents:
 
I want to invite you to a meeting for Natomas residents to share with you the details of the North Natomas Finance Plan update and what they mean to the greater Natomas community:  We will be meeting on Saturday, October 25 from 3 to 5 PM at the Natomas Middle School Cafeteria.  
If you can not make this meeting I would like to offer to email you a packet of information that describes the proposal.

The city is scheduled to hold a hearing and vote on the North Natomas Finance Plan update (its fourth update since its adoption in 1994) on Tuesday, October 28.  Extensive meetings and workshops over the past year with city staff, my office, the development community and Natomas residents have resulted in an innovative and collaborative solution to funding a second fire station/police complex and the first community center for North Natomas.

The fire station/police complex will be immediately fully funded out of the North Natomas Finance Plan at an amount not to exceed cost of $14.1 million.  The Finance Plan will allocate $24 million for a future community center at an increase of $16 million above what is currently allocated.  

The update will adjust developer contributions to some roads and bridges in order to align these projects with how the community plan has built-out over the past ten years, or to make sure that developers are contributing the maximum amount allowable under state law. No street or bridge projects will be eliminated from the North Natomas Community Plan and no amendments will be made to our Cal Trans Cooperative Agreement.
  
Last winter the Natomas residents that attended our early workshops wrote a letter to the City under the signature of North Natomas Community Coalition which read in part, “the need for essential facilities in North Natomas has become urgent…our priorities are listed in order, highest priority first: second fire station, police substation, first community center, phased development of Regional Park”.

In July 2008, the Natomas Community Association wrote to the Natomas Journal, “This month we can report that thanks to a broad based effort on the part of a number of vocal residents the City has found a way to deliver on some of the most critical promises spelled out in the Plan, a fire station to serve the area north of I-80 and west of I-5, and a legitimate community center for the North Natomas Regional Park. In fact there is even icing on this cake: the current thinking is to make the west area fire station a combined fire and police station, with the possibility of some sort of community meeting facilities. A lot of credit has to go to City Treasurer Mark Griffin and Councilperson Ray Tretheway, who listened to citizens’ concerns and took a hard look at reprioritizing some of the elements of the Plan.”
 
I want to publically thank the Natomas residents that have worked so hard on behalf of their neighbors and community to help me deliver these essential facilities. And look forward to answering your questions this Saturday.
 
Sincerely,
 
Ray Tretheway
Councilmember, District 1
City of Sacramento
(916) 808-7001
RTretheway@cityofsacramento.org