Home / Archive / Rancho Cordova: Balancing Act
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Regional Focus: April 2006
Balancing Act
As Rancho Cordova grows, blending the old and the new is a top priority
Story by Jennifer Corkery
The stars are aligning for Rancho Cordova. This fast-growing city, incorporated in 2003, has an unusual and enviable job-to-housing ratio of 3-to-1, with Fortune 500 corporations providing ample employment opportunities and rapidly rising residential neighborhoods providing housing balance.
“We clearly needed housing choices,” explains Economic Development Director Curt Haven. “We lost many residents when Aerojet cut back and Mather AFB closed and Folsom, Elk Grove and El Dorado Hills were building new homes. Young people with incomes wanted what those surrounding communities could offer, so we lost that market for a long time. One of my goals was to bring new housing to Rancho Cordova, not only for big salaries, but clean, safe housing for all income levels.”
New communities such as Anatolia, Rio Del Oro and Westborough are bringing much-needed housing opportunities to a city with more than 70,000 jobs. “We want that ratio closer to 1-to-1,” explains Haven. “We’re building many single-family homes because we’re missing that market right now. However, we want to grow as a city, not a suburb; therefore we need all levels of housing, and market-rate apartments, another strong need, are also under way.”
Many new residents are choosing Rancho Cordova to be close to their jobs. “Most employees of these big companies in town haven’t been viewing our city as a place to spend time; they drive in and right back out after work,” continues Haven. “Now they’re considering buying homes here, and soon they’ll have many more opportunities to shop and dine here too.”
Mayor Robert McGarvey notes, “Our current population is about 57,000, and according to SACOG studies, new residential growth should more than triple that in 15 years. Our challenge will be to keep a balance and help manage the growth. The majority of residents are pleased to see the growth and are looking forward to improvements in established Rancho Cordova that growth will bring.”
Rancho Cordova is growing into open land to the south and the east. “The land east of Sunrise Boulevard is where we see the most potential for new development over the next 15 to 20 years,” notes Bill Campbell, principal planner for the city of Rancho Cordova. “Approximately 35,000 new residences and the support commercial for that are projected for eastside development, which includes several specific plans.”
Building is under way in the Sunridge Specific Plan, adopted by the county and inherited by the city at incorporation, with approximately 2,300 single-family homes in the Anatolia community under construction or already occupied.
Anatolia, to be completed in four phases, is one of the largest community subdivisions being developed in the Capital Region. The first two phases are under construction and the third is approved. Anatolia, most of which is in the Elk Grove school district, will include schools, parks, emergency services, recreational facilities and miles of parkways and trails.
“Just about every company that builds houses around Sacramento is building out there,” comments Campbell. “There are other projects in addition to Anatolia within that Sunridge Specific Plan, with about 8,700 homes proposed in all.”
The Capital Village infill development, located along Zinfandel Drive south of Highway 50, within walking distance of many of Rancho Cordova’s biggest employers, will offer single-family, townhouse and condominium-style living in addition to parks and an outdoor amphitheater.
“Capital Village is a transition of housing styles, with greater density and a more urban feel,” says Campbell. “It offers an affordable housing product that gives the many young people working here the opportunity of homeownership.”
Sixty percent of the project’s 117 acres are designated for residential development and 40 percent for commercial development, which will
provide residents with car-free shopping opportunities. The development’s housing construction is under way, while the commercial portion is in the approval process.
Blending the existing city with new developments will be a challenge for Rancho Cordova. “The concern with that much new development, literally tripling the size of the city,” says Campbell, “is that we don’t want two separate cities, the old and the new. So efforts to revitalize the existing city have led to adoption of a redevelopment agency.”
Folsom Boulevard, a longtime thoroughfare that was formerly Highway 50, is targeted for redevelopment. “The county originally launched Folsom Boulevard as a specific plan, and now the city has taken it over,” says Campbell. “Folsom Boulevard has some old highway commercial that isn’t surviving well but lingers on. Ultimately we’ll see consolidated commercial entities and more housing because of the recent extension of light-rail to Folsom.
“Residential growth should triple in 15 years.
Our challenge will be to keep a balance and manage growth.”
— Rancho Cordova Mayor Robert McGarvey
“Light-rail is a major transit link that opens up very new and different opportunities for future land uses along Folsom Boulevard,” Campbell continues. “Old highway-oriented commercial will be converted to more modern mixed-use development, the city’s preferred direction. We want to see housing, commercial and office uses. For example, Cordova Town Center, across from the Mather light-rail station, will be a mixed-use project with ground-floor retail, two stories of offices, and multifamily residences behind.”
“New retail requires a different standard and a different footprint,” says Haven, “so some older retail is leaving, but sometimes things have to get briefly worse before they can get better.” Beautification and landscaping will be some of the first visible Folsom Boulevard improvements.
“New development is exciting because we can leverage so many benefits from it,” says Haven. “For example, we have a unique park-renovation fee.
Currently, developers must give $750 per lot for renovating our older parks that haven’t seen any capital improvement in a long time. We already have more than $1 million in just a year and a half.
“We’re also offering a higher level of service to existing residents regarding police, public works, street sweeping, business licenses and building permits,” continues Haven. “This community saw a street sweeper maybe once a year, and now it’s once a week.
“When we first became a city,” says Haven, “we towed away about 3,000 abandoned vehicles, and our crime rate is noticeably down thanks to increased policing. Residents come to City Council meetings excited and grateful.”
Rancho Cordova is still missing a couple of key ingredients, however, and the mayor would like to fill the gaps.
“It’s my goal to bring a hospital to Rancho Cordova,” states McGarvey. “We have two hospitals for retired military right now, and offices for Kaiser, Mercy and UC Davis, and are surrounded by cities with hospitals, but we don’t have one. If we start today, it will take a good five years to build one, and if you look 10 years down the road to a population tripled in size, having at least one will be critical.”
McGarvey also wants to launch the city’s first museum. “Most of Rancho Cordova’s history is in people’s homes, and I want to collect all we can gather in a room in City Hall for now. Eventually, the city should have a real museum.
“We’ve put the word out that we’re seeking historical items and photos because it would be a shame to miss this opportunity,” McGarvey continues. “I also want to record vocalized memories from longtime residents and former military before we lose that chance too.”
Rancho Cordova has long been home to many well-established companies, including Zurich, NEC, State Farm, Franklin Templeton and Vision Service Plan. “These companies are here in large part because of our infrastructure,” explains Haven.
“We had fiber-optics before anybody else in our area, for example,” he continues. “However, some other key reasons they’re here are that we’re geologically sound compared to other parts of California, we’re above the floodplain, and the land was comparatively inexpensive. High-tech business parks are still taking advantage of all these things.”
With dramatically increasing population and the daily influx of employees to those large employers, traffic poses a challenge. Light-rail, extended to the city of Folsom in 2005 with a half dozen stations in Rancho Cordova, is considered a major asset.
“We want to make sure we connect light-rail to our business centers,” says Haven. “We also need to make sure that it’s very convenient and that it doesn’t impede our traffic.”
“Sunrise Boulevard north of Highway 50 is a congested corridor, and there’s very little we can do about it because of limited river crossings,” says Campbell.
“However, we need to analyze and complete road segments to maximize traffic flow and make it as efficient as possible,” Campbell continues. “The capital improvement program has been earmarked for projects that amount to $1.3 billion, and the city is working with the development community to identify key links in roadways that would ease traffic. It’s a 25-year capital program, so it will be done in phases.”
For decades, Rancho Cordova was merely a Sacramento County suburb. With new local government and concerned citizens, however, it’s poised to make the most of its city status. Improvements and ambitious redevelopment plans are bringing the city’s older neighborhoods the same excitement generated by new projects and are helping to create a dynamic, balanced city.
