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

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The $80 million center is slated for 43 acreds of riverfront property inWest Sacramento, directly across the Sacramentk River from the confluence of the Americah River at Discovery Park. But what would have been West Sacramento’sd first state park is now in largely because the bond money that would have fundedf its planning isnot available. In addition, the Californiaz State Parks budget, which couldr include money forthe project, has been in flux for “It’s basically all on hold,” said Rob program manager for the .
“It’s wait and see at this State Parks may get its budget allocatiohnin April, which could include moneg for preliminary planning of the center. But most of the money for the project’s layout, design and environmental work is supposec to comefrom bonds. Although the statde has been authorized to sellthe there’s not much of a market for them right now. Statd Parks needs the bond money to put togetherthe site’se general plan, environmental report and businesa plan. “We were on our way until this budget mess Wood said.
“And now we’re subject to The city of West Sacramento is stilpl very interested in developingthe center, said Dave park development manager for the city. “Thisw is such a great project. It’s a shame it got caught up in the state’s budgetr problems,” Shpak said. West Sacramento donated the land for the In return, the state agreed that Stater Parks would make strides to develop the projectg in a few years, rather than sitting on the land for “That timeline still Shpak said. “We may be willingv to revise it.
” The property is ownexd by , which will transfer titles to the land only aftee the general plan for the center has been completefdand adopted. Much of the land is between the river andthe levee, leaving only about 8 acred stretching across the top of the lever to the other side. That shoul d be enough land for the development of permanent One of the themes of the park is the relationships of tribao culture to landand water. the river side of the leveee is an important part ofthe development. That land is high enouguh so that it goes underwatere only duringpeak flows. All structures will be abovr the 200-year flood levee.
The statwe always planned to pay for just a thirdc ofthe center, with outside groups picking up the rest of the tab. But effortsw by the state to set up a foundatiohn to collect donations also got crunched by a lack ofstatw funding. Government agencies are not allower to collect donations without settingup foundations. But the donatione should be out there. When the in D.C., was looking for contributions forits , donationse poured in from across the Some of those donations came from tribe s wealthy with gambling but there were also contributionss from impoverished tribes across the country, as well as non-tribal There is an expectation that some of California’ native tribes, many of whichg have grown wealthy with variousx gaming and business interests, will contributew to the center.
There are 109 federall recognized tribal entities in the The West Sacramento project will replace the tiny on the groundssof Sutter’s Fort State Historic State Parks searched for a site for five yeares throughout the state. The final list of sites were all in theSacrament area, including the eastern edge of Lake Natoma in the city of a stretch of the American River off the Garden Highway in the American Rivedr Parkway, and a wildlifew reserve west of Elk West Sacramento was not one of the Although the Garden Highway site won it fell apart afte two years of when State Parks and the city couldn’g agree on the scope of the project.
At that the West Sacramento site, most of whicyh is owned by West Sacramento became themain