Surrounded by Sacramento, a county project is thumbing its nose at the city | Opinion
Sacramento County is proposing to build a 25,000-resident community in Natomas that is surrounded on three sides by the city. So when neighboring city councilmember Karina Talamantes recently requested a public meeting for her residents, a responsive county should reflexively say yes.
The county said no.
“The last time there was an open house on this project was June 2019,” Talamantes said. “We need to get back to the table and work together like we promised to years ago.”
Instead, Sacramento County is thumbing its nose at the city when it comes to the Upper Westside project. It is pretending as if its largest city and its elected leaders like Talamantes simply do not exist or matter.
Today’s county is retreating from a smarter way to plan for Natomas, when 23 years ago it wanted the city to take the lead going forward. While supervisors never rescinded the agreement, they are acting as if the pact does not exist as they look to create a massive unincorporated community ringed by Sacramento.
“The project has gone through a very robust public outreach process that started in 2019,” said Todd Smith, Sacramento County’s planning director. There is no current plan to brief the Sacramento City Council before supervisors are expected to make a decision on the project later this summer.
The city’s eerie silence is broken
The council’s eerie silence about this project appears to be on the verge of ending. Talamantes, who represents South Natomas, has “serious concerns” about this project. So does Lisa Kaplan, the council representative of North Natomas. “Extreme concerns,” she said.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty so far is much more circumspect.
“I’m kind of withholding comments and judgment as it goes through the process,” McCarty said. “I am…just kind of letting it play out, and we’ll engage when it’s time.”
Sacramento’s worsening homeless crisis that exploded during the COVID pandemic years strained relations between city and county staff as well as their elected leaders. Relations were particularly icy between the city’s mayor, Darrell Steinberg and the supervisor representing downtown, Phil Serna.
Now Serna is leading the charge for the county to strip the city of what had been its agreed-upon role to decide the fate of growth proposals in Natomas. Conflicts between the two jurisdictions have now spread from homelessness to land use. And the emerging contrast in approaches between the city and county could not be starker.
How close to grow toward the river?
So much of this has to do with how close to expand the region’s urban footprint towards the Sacramento River.
Upper Westside is bordered by the Sacramento River and a now-undeveloped stretch of Garden Highway to the west (not far north of the Virgin Sturgeon restaurant, as a common frame of reference), I-80 to the south, Gateway West and existing Sacramento developments to the east and north.
More than two-thirds of this development is within a mile of the river. And here lies arguably the biggest city-county disagreement.
More than 20 years ago, in order to develop in portions of the basin, the city and Sutter County agreed to leave the river alone. Along with state and federal wildlife agencies, they created a no-growth mile buffer along the Sacramento River as a corridor for wildlife. The city has honored this agreement for more than two decades.
Sacramento County was not part of this agreement. But the city’s no-growth agreement along the river was for all the world to see.
The importance of this no-growth plan along the river, embodied in what is known as the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan, is front and center for Kaplan. Upper Westside “impacts forever and long term the farmland and land designated for protected species,” she said.
When it comes to this project, the city of Sacramento actually has far more skin in the proverbial game than the county, with an existing habitat conservation plan for balanced growth and nearby communities on three sides. That the county is essentially ignoring Sacramento leaders speaks volumes.
This is a key leadership test for Talamantes, Kaplan and McCarty in particular. While there is still time, Sacramento’s leaders are basically sitting on their hands. They (and their constituents) are getting rolled by the county, and none are standing up for a city that was supposed to be in charge.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM.