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Volume 170 • Issue 65 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Friday, June 4, 2021
New Central EDH proposal not really new Sel Richard Staff writer
Mountain Democrat photos by Andrew Vonderschmitt
Food Bank of El Dorado County operations associate David Morla loads food donated by Safeway on Bass Lake Road in El Dorado Hills. The food will be sorted for human or animal consumption in an effort to keep it out of landfills.
Waste not, want not Teaming up to find use for surplus food
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Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer
See Proposal, page A9
COVID-impacted businesses to see lower assessment
A
n ew initiative already in the works uses surplus food from local restaurants and grocers to help food-insecure families while reducing greenhouse gases. The El Dorado County Environmental Management Department and CalRecycle teamed up with the Food Bank of El Dorado County to create a surplus food program aiming at using wasted food in a number of ways to keep it out of the landfill. Food waste is estimated at between 30-40% of the food supply in America, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Approximately 133 billion pounds of food is wasted each year, which amounts to roughly $161 billion in food waste costs annually. In the U.S. food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills. Once there it emits methane while decomposing, which is a powerful greenhouse gas, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Local restaurants and food distributors, while working to reduce food waste, continue to have unsellable food products that end up in the landfill but some of the food is fit for human consumption. It just can’t be sold to consumers for myriad reasons. The surplus food program connects restaurateurs and grocers who do not want to see this surplus food go to waste. The rescued food is brought to the Food Bank of El Dorado
Parker Development’s proposed project of 1,000 units along El Dorado Hills Boulevard was, for the fourth time, the main topic at the El Dorado County Planning Commission meeting. Serrano Associates Director of Governmental Relations Kirk Bone on May 27 presented the second recirculated draft environmental impact report for the Central El Dorado Hills Specific Plan. The amended report now contains vehicle miles traveled data, a recently implemented traffic evaluation and two new alternatives for the unused land that was once a golf course — an option for land use pursuant to current zoning and a 1,200-unit senior living facility. The project as it stands hinges on a county General Plan amendment to allow the rezone of the defunct golf course from recreational facilities-high intensity to residential. In 2015 more than 91% of El Dorado Hills voters advised against a zoning amendment. Four years later nearly 500 residents turned out to protest the project at a public hearing held at District Church in January 2020. Last week Bone made it clear the new alternatives are merely a response to commission requests. “We’re not proposing any changes to the project. We just had four or five boxes
Mountain Democrat staff
Food bank staff and volunteers organize salvageable food destined to be distributed to 25 local nonprofits. County’s Shingle Springs distribution facility where staff and volunteers sort through and identify foods still worthy of the dinner table. That food is then distributed to nonprofits that provide emergency food assistance in the county. Other food is donated to local farmers as livestock feed. Mike Sproull, executive director of the Food Bank of El Dorado County, has been in the food bank business for more than 20 years. Creating and maintaining community partnerships that benefit all involved is all part of his job. When county officials approached him with this opportunity it was a no-brainer. Sproull said Jeff Warren from Environmental Management
E OAKS SENIOR CARE VILLAG
approached him about the program. “They said they had the funding and would help us with trucks and other equipment.” The Food Bank of El Dorado County works with upward of 25 nonprofit organizations. “They come here every week and get their food and take it back to their communities,” Sproull said. “When I built this I didn’t know how I was going to serve the whole county so I had to have partners.” That partnership is key to making the surplus food program work, Sproull added, and enables the food bank to distribute roughly $3 million worth of food annually. Warren, director of Environmental Management
Brand New!
Our There’s No Place Like Home
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See surplus food, page A8
El Dorado County Assessor Karl Weiland announced Tuesday his office is applying reductions to the assessed values of many businesses to recognize the economic impacts to certain industries resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Proposition 13 real property is required to be assessed at the lower of the proposition’s trended value, or the fair market value (Proposition 8), as of the lien date Jan. 1. Business property does not fall under the Prop. 13 umbrella and is required to be assessed at the fair market value as of each lien date. The county follows assessment guidance provided by the California Assessors Association and develops business valuation factors in conjunction with publications developed by the California State Board of Equalization. “The pandemic has significantly impacted business revenues, costs and the value of property used for business,” said Weiland. “Recognizing the loss in value is the whole purpose of Prop. 8.” Given the economics of the pandemic and especially the impact on small businesses, both the assessor and the CAA have acknowledged that the economic impacts translate to a potential decline in value in business equipment for many trades. “Based on industry data, as well as labor statistics from 2020, value reductions will be applied to nearly half of the county’s business and vacation home rental n
See Assessed value, page A7
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