In October 2025, several residents of the “River Ranch Neighborhood” received a notice from the City of Redding, letting them know that there was a development plan for nearby surplus land. This land, a heavily- grazed oak savannah along the Sacramento River, was chosen from several options of City-owned property as the hypothetical spot for an Alternative Custody facility, a Men’s Re-entry Program facility, and a 1,200 bed jail. Approximately 3 households of 96 homes received the mandatory notice because their land was within 300 feet of the proposed re-zoning and project development area.
The proposed project included a Men’s Rehabilitation Center (a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation program), which was proposed to be operated by Amity Foundation, consisting of 100 beds. The Alternative Custody program was identified as consisting of 200-500 participants, plus acreage for a farm and orchard. The jail, proposed as a 1,200 bed facility, would have spanned approximately 30 acres alone. Sheriff Johnson, and then Redding City Manager Barry Tippin, had identified 7251 Eastside Road as a suitable location for the large project and presented it to the Shasta County Board of Supervisors (BOS) on January 14, 2025. The project continued to be discussed in closed-door sessions on February 4, 2025, and February 11, 2025.
By the summer of 2025, leasing the City of Redding owned property to Shasta County was on the agenda, along with an approval by the Shasta County BOS to allocate $1 million to SHN Consulting Engineers & Geologists for environmental studies on the 94 acres of property. On August 26, 2025, the BOS approved the lease agreement with the City of Redding. On September 2, 2025, the City of Redding also voted on the lease agreement after voting to designate the zone as “Surplus Property”.
Residents of the River Ranch Neighborhood, a residential area directly adjacent to the proposed site, had their first chance for public comment at the Shasta County BOS meeting on November 18, 2025. During this meeting, an agreement with Nichols Melburg & Rosetto, AIA & Associates, Inc. was approved for architecture and engineering services for the proposed “corrections and rehabilitation campus”.
Petitioning and social media campaigns were enacted to get the word out to neighbors and Shasta County residents. Many were concerned about the environmental impacts, the construction and law enforcement logistics, the increased traffic to the area from vehicles and people, the safety of the public, and the viability of the actual Rehabilitation Center. While some countered concerns with comments encouraging an increase in alternative custody options for rehabilitation, others agreed that the chosen land was simply not the best spot for it.
Over months of proceedings, neighbors, community members, and environmental organizations attended City Council and Shasta County Planning Division meetings to voice their concerns about the project. The county continued with an EIR (Environmental Impact Report) to meet CEQA requirements. The results of this report led Sheriff Johnson to pull his support of the project in favor of a different location. The mitigation that CEQA would require to continue the project, as well as the heavy push-back from the community, ended the consideration for the 7251 Eastside Road property to be developed for the project.
On September 15, 2026, the Shasta County BOS unanimously voted to send a letter to the City of Redding, terminating the lease for the property at 7251 Eastside Road. As of the date of this article, there is no proposed development of this property owned by the City of Redding, and it remains surplus land with no grazing rights.
[Conflict of interest notice: this article was written by a resident of the River Ranch Neighborhood with details from a timeline provided by another resident. All information was collected from the City of Redding website and can be confirmed by visiting: cityofredding.org]
~Ren Redlich, Communications Chair