Meanwhile , he was in regular communication with Agenus , a large biomanufacturer being courted by a number of states , to convince the company to locate in the city . He got good news in July 2021 , when Agenus announced it was buying 120 acres in the city ’ s California Biomanufacturing Center .
How Woodland got the public to care
The City of Woodland was trying to keep plans for a big development of its own on track : the Woodland Research & Technology Park , envisioned as a new ag-tech center for Northern California . The city ’ s general plan had set aside 350 acres for the project at the city ’ s southern boundary .
Getting public input is a key requirement on all such projects , particularly from those in adjacent neighborhoods . Post-pandemic , that was the part of the project that most worried Erika Bumgardner , the city ’ s business development liaison . Her team had planned to have booths at farmers markets and community events , meetings with stakeholder groups and more . Could they get meaningful community feedback virtually on such a complex project ? Would people show up ? The project plan alone runs 230 pages , the environmental impact report more than 530 .
They scheduled two webinars in February 2021 and doubled down on mail and social media , sending postcards with QR codes linking back to the project website , putting out messages on Nextdoor and Facebook , and more . Initial community meetings after the project was launched in 2017 had drawn about 30 people . But in that first webinar , the city hit its attendee cap of 100 and had to turn some people away . The next webinar two days later drew another hundred .
Those ended up being two of the best-attended community planning presentations Bumgardner has seen , and they used the questions that came in to put together project FAQs that have drawn a lot of web traffic . Going forward , she anticipates the city will consider alternative meeting formats to give residents more options .
Streamlined construction services
By the third week of March 2020 , more than a quarter of contractors nationally were reporting that they ’ d halted or delayed work on projects because of the pandemic . But several cities in the Capital Region retooled to keep construction going on critical health care facilities and economic revitalization projects .
In September 2020 , Dignity Health came to Folsom with a plan to build two medical office buildings south of
How Elk Grove Is Growing Local Startups
In August 2018 , Elk Grove launched its Startup Elk Grove Incentive Program to create local anchor companies that employ residents . It offers grants to support startups based in the city during their launch , scaleup or build-out phases . Grants run as high as $ 250,000 , with amounts based on the phase and the money delivered in tranches based on performance . Participation is by invitation only , and the city uses a third-party consultant to assess startups just as a private-equity firm would , says Luis Aguilar , the city ’ s economic development specialist .
“( Cities ) are always sort of going after the corporate relocation ,” Aguilar says . “ We thought we had a better chance identifying innovative small startup companies early on , investing in them and supporting their growth here locally .” Entrepreneurs like the program because most investors take equity in exchange for their investment , while the program doesn ’ t , he says . There ’ s a catch too : If a company leaves , the grant becomes a loan .
So far the program has awarded three grants . One went to tech firm EyeRate , whose platform lets businesses connect positive online reviews with rewards to employees . Two of its three founders grew up in the city and moved to the Bay Area but wanted to come back home to start their own firm .
In August 2020 , they got $ 75,000 in incentive program funding when it was just the three of them working from a garage . Now they have 20 employees , have raised $ 1.7 million in outside seed funding and expect to grow to 50 staff within a year , according to EyeRate cofounder and CEO Ray Weisberg .
Next up the city is looking to launch a startup pitch competition with cash prizes awarded to winners , Aguilar says .
Highway 50 in the new development of Folsom Ranch , which will eventually have 11,000 new homes . In May 2021 , Dignity added a 100-bed hospital to the mix .
Dignity representatives and staff leads from each relevant city department were on Zoom or phone meetings at least every other week to get through the review process and take the plan to Folsom City Council for approval , spotting and addressing thorny issues like traffic and circulation , says Folsom Community Development Director Pam Johns . Nine months in and the plan was ready to take to the city council for approval in June 2021 — about half the time plan review for a project of that size generally takes , she says .
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