{"id":72407,"date":"2025-09-01T11:51:35","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:51:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/?p=72407"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:51:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T18:51:35","slug":"sept-4-2025-ohmvr-commission-meeting-prairie-city-svra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/sept-4-2025-ohmvr-commission-meeting-prairie-city-svra\/","title":{"rendered":"SEPT 4, 2025 OHMVR COMMISSION MEETING Prairie City SVRA"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEWS RELEASE<\/span><\/p>\n

Contact: Don Amador<\/span>
\nEmail: damador@cwo.com<\/span>
\nDate: September 1, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n

OHV AND CONSERVATION GROUPS VOICE STRONG CONCERNS ABOUT SOLAR PROJECT<\/span>
\nSACRAMENTO, CA – On August 28, representatives from OHV and conservation organizations gathered<\/span>
\nat the Wilton Community Center to voice strong concerns regarding the siting of a 2,704 acre solar<\/span>
\nproject directly adjacent to the California State Parks Prairie City Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Area (SVRA)<\/span>
\nnear Folsom, CA. The public meeting was hosted by D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI), an<\/span>
\nenergy development firm.<\/span><\/p>\n

DESRI highlighted several proposed mitigation measures developed in response to concerns raised<\/span>
\nduring the public comment period that ended on May 5 for the Coyote Creek Agrivoltaic Ranch Project<\/span>
\nDraft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) to address significant and unmitigatible impacts to public<\/span>
\naccess, scenic vistas, wildlife corridors, destruction of oak woodlands, well water supply, and park<\/span>
\noperations.<\/span><\/p>\n

With new energy projects being proposed adjacent to other State Park units such as Ocotillo Wells and<\/span>
\nHeber Dunes SVRAs, a question was raised about an apparent policy change by State Parks to shift away<\/span>
\nfrom its historic strategy of protecting SVRAs and other parks units with open-space buffers vs. to<\/span>
\naccepting energy facilities or solar farms becoming the Department of Parks and Recreation\u2019s new<\/span>
\nindustrial facility buffer strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

An environmental group representative with decades of CEQA experience reviewing solar and other<\/span>
\nindustrial projects said this is the 1st solar project the conservation community at large has opposed in<\/span>
\nthe state because it is in the top 1 or 2 of the worst projects they have ever seen.<\/span>
\nDon Amador, former Chair of the CA State Parks Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR)<\/span>
\nCommission, states, \u201cI think Sacramento County Planning made a huge mistake by failing to notify the<\/span>
\nOHMVR Commission about this solar project sited next to Prairie City SVRA per Public Resources Code<\/span>
\nSection 5090.24 that requires the commission to (a) Be fully informed regarding all governmental<\/span>
\nactivities affecting the program.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, the project proponents committed a major planning error by not reaching out to the OHV<\/span>
\ncommunity and competition organizations in 2021 pre-scoping efforts and during the 30-day public<\/span>
\nscoping comment period that started on January 19, 2022. That omission of outreach continued until<\/span>
\nlate April of this year when OHV organizations got an alert by a 3 rd party about this project just a few<\/span>
\ndays before the DEIR May 5 public comment deadline,\u201d Amador continues.<\/span>
\nThe next step in this process is for OHV groups, local businesses, conservation, and competition<\/span>
\norganizations to attend in-person or virtually the September 4, 2025 OHMVR Commission meeting in<\/span>
\nRedding, CA where this issue is on the agenda as an ACTION ITEM.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important for the OHMVR Commissioners to hear from the greater OHV stakeholder community<\/span>
\nabout their concerns regarding the project\u2019s short and long-term impacts to public access, park<\/span>
\noperations, and even questions about the SVRA\u2019s future,\u201d Amador concludes.<\/span><\/p>\n

If this project is withdrawn by the county, it will be because they failed to do the initial pre-scoping of<\/span>
\nkey stakeholder groups who would have most likely supported the project at a more suitable site away<\/span>
\nfrom this deeply treasured State Park unit with its high quality off-road trail and track network, safety<\/span>
\ntraining programs, nationally recognized powersports competition events, and scenic views of nearby<\/span>
\noak forests and native grasslands.<\/span><\/p>\n

DEIR COMMENTS FROM OHV, CONSERVATION, AND AGENCIES<\/span>
\nhttps:\/\/planning.saccounty.gov\/Documents\/Coyote%20Creek%20Agrivoltaic%20Ranch\/DEIR\/Updated%<\/a><\/strong><\/span>
\n20All%20Comments%20Received%20on%20the%20Draft%20EIR.pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 OHMVR COMMISSION MEETING<\/span>
\nhttps:\/\/ohv.parks.ca.gov\/?page_id=27160<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Don Amador<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEWS RELEASE Contact: Don Amador Email: damador@cwo.com Date: September 1, 2025 OHV AND CONSERVATION GROUPS VOICE STRONG CONCERNS ABOUT SOLAR PROJECT SACRAMENTO, CA – On August 28, representatives from OHV and conservation organizations gathered at the Wilton Community Center to voice strong concerns regarding the siting of a 2,704 acre … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":64893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72408,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72407\/revisions\/72408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ama-d36.org\/archive\/d36\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}