DEVELOPMENT
Even amid the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertain economic times , Rancho Cordova Community Development Director Elizabeth Sparkman has witnessed a boom in her city . “ Our builders just can ’ t build fast enough ,” Sparkman says .
It ’ s not just business or office space that ’ s being constructed . The city is building around 600 new homes a year , twice the historic rate , and has multiple major projects in the works that reflect a new normal : No longer can cities like Rancho Cordova be onedimensional . “ I can ’ t just have a place that has tons of businesses and no housing ,” says Mayor Garrett Gatewood . “ We have to have a place that ’ s equally yoked across our entire city . We ’ re looking for the full experience .”
Rancho Cordova incorporated in 2003 when it had about 60,000 residents and is now at 75,000 . “ It ’ s not a lot of growth , it ’ s crazy growth ,” Gatewood says , adding that his city is among the fastestgrowing in the Capital Region .
The city has long been what its Economic Development Manager Amanda Norton terms “ a strong employment powerhouse ,” with between 65,000 and 75,000 jobs located there at any given time . But there ’ s been a shift toward adding a lot more homes as well . Rancho Cordova ’ s Rio Del Oro project at the former Aerojet Rocketdyne site is one of the largest development projects in the Capital Region . It is a mix of residential , commercial and industrial development on 3,828 acres and is expected to add more than 12,000 homes , a business park , nine new schools , parks and trails . Rancho Cordova city leaders are also in early stages of developing another mixed-use project for an area covering 1,695 acres through the Westborough Specific Plan and could go public with more definitive efforts in early 2022 .
Rancho Cordova is just the latest small city to focus on local development and features to attract and keep residents . “ Everyone wants to be able to have all the amenities near the home ,” Gatewood says . These amenities include 6 miles of the American River , 26 miles of bike trails , tap rooms , and a collection of breweries and distilleries . Some of the amenities are transportation-related as well , with the city working on a long-planned highway to connect Elk Grove and Folsom and also having spent $ 42 million on streetscape
“ I can ’ t just have a place that has tons of businesses and no housing . We have to have a place that ’ s equally yoked across our entire city . We ’ re looking for the full experience .”
GARRETT GATEWOOD Mayor , Rancho Cordova
improvements for Folsom Boulevard . Some cities like Rancho Cordova might have historically been focused on employment , while others around the region , such as Roseville , Folsom and Elk Grove , once had the opposite problem , primarily focused on housing . Each could reasonably have been called a bedroom community at some point in its past : a residential area where people mostly sleep and commute to larger urban areas by day to work and on weekends to recreate . No longer , though . Around the region , cities such as Roseville , Folsom , Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove have grown , through deliberate planning and development , to become more self-contained — places where people barely even have to leave city limits for housing , work , shopping and entertainment .
Roseville : From railroad roots to a city in its ‘ own right ’
Some people measure municipal growth by census data or land that gets annexed into cities . Bill Hill tracks it by tattoo volume . Hill has operated his business , Wild Bill ’ s Tattoo , for 46 years in downtown Roseville . When he arrived , the city had about 20,000 residents . Now , it ’ s more than 141,500 residents , with Wild Bill ’ s tattooing more than 4,000 people in 2020 , even with the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated shutdowns . “ We stayed really busy , and it is because Roseville ’ s getting bigger ,” Hill says . “ I have to look at it that way .”
For decades , between its incorporation in 1909 and somewhere between 1980 and 1990 , Roseville was a small enclave . Developer Nick Alexander began working in the city 31 years ago and knew a much different Roseville . “ There was one nice restaurant here , and it was an Asian place on South Harding ( Boulevard ),” he says .
Things changed deliberately when Roseville began pursuing a large-scale development process in the 1980s through the use of specific plans . “ The one thing that the City of Roseville has done is ... through the specific planning process , they cover all the bases : They make sure that there ’ s an adequate jobs-housing balance , meaning people that work here also have the opportunity to live here ,” says Alexander , who played a role in the development of the Northeast Roseville Specific Plan and North Central Roseville Specific Plan , among other projects . He ’ s also been active in West Roseville developing Baseline Marketplace , which is still in progress .
54 comstocksmag . com | September 2021