In 2019,Placer County approved the controversial Sunset Area Plan development, which would encompass more than 8,500 acres in western Placer County near the cities of Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln. The massive project would generate 900,000 vehicle trips per day on regional roadways, degrading air quality and undermining California’s climate goals, and threatened to destroy sensitive vernal pool habitat in the area. After a leading conservation group brought suit under CEQA, the parties entered a far-reaching settlement agreement that will reduce the project’s air quality and climate impacts and safeguard affected wildlife. The agreement, approved in April 2021, provides local subsidies for electric vehicles and rooftop solar, and a host of onsite measures. It also guarantees $500,000 for future conservation projects in Placer County; $1 million to fund nonprofit groups working towards the preservation, restoration and research of imperiled wildlife and ecologically valuable habitat; and $4 million for the acquisition and permanent protection of biologically important habitat.
Source: Center for Biological Diversity (2021), “Legal Agreement on Placer County Project Requires Climate Pollution Cuts, Secures Funding to Project Wildlife Habitat.” biologicaldiversity.org/Placer-Ranch-agreement