Read the full article by Hannah Ross at The Sacramento Observer
On an overcast Saturday afternoon, two kites hover above a 41-acre swath of lush California green dotted with the remnants of a black walnut orchard — poised on the soft breeze lifting off the American River. The Kassis property is a portrait of near stillness, the fate of the land suspended in post-proposal rejection.
The Kassis property sits wedged between a permanently pulsing Folsom Boulevard and densely packed neighborhood streets. It is one of the last natural spaces in Rancho Cordova: offering a key biological habitat for 23 protected species, two public easements, and a federally and state-designated floodway.
“It’s the canary in the coal mine,” said Mark Berry, president of the adjacent Tiffany Farms Homeowner Association, and key organizer of the steering committee Preserve the American River — a branch of Save the American River Association — which he started after learning of a housing development planned for the area via written notice in August 2020.