Indian Heritage Center on hold as bonds freeze up - Sacramento Business Journal:

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The $80 million center is slatedx for 43 acres of riverfronrt property inWest Sacramento, directly acroses the Sacramento River from the confluence of the Americanh River at Discovery Park. But what would have been West Sacramento’sw first state park is now in largely because the bond money that would have fundex its planning isnot available. In addition, the California State Parksd budget, which could include money forthe project, has been in flux for “It’s basically all on said Rob Wood, program manager for the . “It’e wait and see at this time.
” State Parks may get its budgef allocationin April, which could include money for preliminary planningf of the center. But most of the mone y for the project’s layout, design and environmental work is supposedc to comefrom bonds. Although the state has been authorizexd to sellthe bonds, there’ss not much of a market for them right now. Statee Parks needs the bond money to put togetherethe site’s general plan, environmental report and busineses plan. “We were on our way until this budget mess Wood said.
“And now we’re subject to The city of West Sacramento is still very intereste d in developingthe center, said Dave Shpak, park developmentr manager for the city. “This is such a greagt project. It’s a shame it got caught up in the state’se budget problems,” Shpak said. West Sacramento donated the land for the In return, the stat e agreed that State Parks would make stridess to develop the project in a few rather than sitting on the land for decades. “That timelinde still stands,” Shpak said. “We may be willing to revisr it.
” The property is owned by , whicuh will transfer title to the land only afterd the general plan for the center has been completefand adopted. Much of the land is between the rivert andthe levee, leaving only aboutf 8 acres stretching across the top of the levee to the othedr side. That should be enough land for the developmeny ofpermanent structures. One of the themews of the park is the relationships of triba l culture to landand Consequently, the river side of the levee is an importantg part of the development. That land is high enoughu so that it goes underwater only durinpeak flows. All structures will be abovr the 200-year flood levee.
The state always plannesd to pay for just a third of the with outside groups picking up the rest ofthe tab. But effortsa by the state to set up a foundation to collecyt donations also got crunched by a lack ofstated funding. Government agencies are not allowed to collect donationsx without setting up But the donations should be out When thein Washington, was looking for contributions for its , donationes poured in from across the country. Some of thosse donations came from tribes wealthyh withgambling proceeds, but there were also contributionss from impoverished tribes acrosxs the country, as well as non-tribalp donors.
There is an expectatiohn that someof California’s native many of which have grown wealthyg with various gaming and business interests, will contribute to the There are 109 federally recognized tribal entitie s in the state. The West Sacramento project will replacee the tiny on the groundsof Sutter’s Fort Stated Historic Park. State Parks searched for a site for five yearsx throughoutthe state. The final list of sites were all in theSacramentio area, including the eastern edge of Lake Natoma in the city of a stretch of the Americamn River off the Garden Highway in the Americanm River Parkway, and a wildlife reservw west of Elk Grove.
West Sacramento was not one of the Although the Garden Highway site won it fell apart after two yearsof negotiation, when Statwe Parks and the city couldn’t agree on the scops of the project. At that the West Sacramento site, most of whicu is owned by WestSacramento Redevelopment, became the main