The Sacramento Bee

Law enforcement in Sacramento, California are using urban design to reduce crime in the city.

A proposal to update the streetscape of a historic Gold Rush-era street in California has local preservationists on the defense.

After years of trying to get more properties built for sale downtown, new urban infill projects are springing up in Sacramento's core.

A bill being pushed in the California State Senate looks to ease the approval of developments that reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- part of an effort to help the state reach its goal of 25% in reductions by 2020.

In what is arguably the most important environmental bill in California since last year's Global Warming Solutions Act, SB 375 attempts to reduce global warming by addressing land use and transportation through better regional planning.

With ambitious environmentally-conscious building requirements and the cooperation of the state government, the California Capitol city Sacramento is looking to edge past Chicago as the nation's greenest city.

A ruling in California is expected to greatly reduce the amount of water the state can pump from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta -- a water source for nearly half the state's residents and much of its farmland.

U.S. cities such as Chicago, San Francisco, and Sacramento are becoming more energy efficient in an effort to attain the title of the nation's greenest city.

Small city public officials in the Sacramento area are using public money to support a bid to turn an unincorporated plot of land into a new city -- a move they hope will help to distribute regional planning power more equitably to smaller towns.

Despite scientific findings that trees along levees help improve their effectiveness, federal regulations may require that trees lining levees in Central California be removed.

The City of Sacramento is looking to change its growth pattern as it prepares a new version of its general plan.

Housing advocates in Sacramento are up in arms over proposed changes to the city's housing policy that would shift responsibility for building affordable units from the developer to the city -- changes they say will limit the policy's effectiveness.

Joining the ranks of Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego, the city of Los Angeles has approved a ban on smoking in public parks.

Developers are hoping that by putting private colleges and universities within new developments, communities will be more likely to loosen land use approvals.

A recent editorial argues that the successful model of regional planning in the Sacramento region known as the "Blueprint" provides an alternative to sprawl that needs to be applied statewide, and identifies current state legislation to do just that.

Rail buffs hope to run a tourist train on an unused rail line in the Sierra foothills outside of Sacramento, but there are concerns that it would prevent the corridor from being used as a recreational trail for hikers, bikers and equestrians.

In an effort to development more moderately priced housing, developers around Sacramento are squeezing more homes per acre and moving garages to the back alley, pleasing some planners and conservationists.

Munitions, toxic chemicals, and even radioactive wasts at current and former military sites in California pose a serious environmental risk. The extent and scale is unknown as sites predate environmental standards.

Conservative lawmakers are using climate change as a political issue. Environmentalists are not happy.

Residents of leafy suburban communities are alarmed that the crime they thought they left behind in the city has followed them into their new neighborhoods.