Citrus Heights’ mayor, MariJane Lopez-Taff, if elected for another term, said she planned to prioritize neighborhood safety and cleanliness, youth programs, fiscal responsibility, economic development and blight.
Lopez-Taff’s challenger, Charles Stone, who previously ran in 2012, said he is running again in response to the recent changes made to the Citrus Heights Police Department.
Though District 2 does not include Sunrise Mall, Lopez-Taff and Stone each brought up the property in interviews with the Bee — as did every council candidate — and described it as economically important for Citrus Heights. Both said they supported the city’s ambitious specific plan for the site, passed in 2021, which would see it filled with housing, transform a “sea of surface parking lots into a green oasis” with walking paths and a “commons” for festivals and concerts. Still, Stone said he believed the city has at times been overly rigid about following that plan…