SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A potential safe ground site at Sutter's Landing has been called off.
"We have decided to stop pursuing Sutter’s Landing as a potential safe parking site," wrote Councilmember Katie Valenzuela in a Facebook post. "Even if we were able to work through the challenges we’ve identified with this site, we wouldn’t be able to move forward before the City opens the newly acquired Job Corps site for safe parking."
The proposal initially came to light at the end of January. At the time, a Reddit post pointed out the proposal, which led to heated reactions from residents in the area.
If the safe ground site had been approved, according to Valenzuela, the site would have been actively monitored 24 hours a day. Only cars and RV's would have been allowed and the site would have been fenced.
The challenges Valenzuela alluded to include:
- What impacts would the methane emissions nearby have on occupants?
- What would be our evacuation plan in case of an emergency?
- How would we manage any camps that would spring up outside of the safe site, potentially along the parkway?
- Would the county agree to partner with the city to help manage the site?
"It is more strategic for us to focus City staff efforts on that site, and on other new sites that might have more potential long-term than Sutter’s Landing would have provided," Valenzuela said.
The councilmember said the Sutter's Landing site was proposed to be a temporary site until the city opens a larger site in south Sacramento at the Job Corps.
