When West Sacramento-based Clark Pacific went shopping for a third location to expand its precast concrete business, it found a home with a familiar name: the former Spreckels Sugar Mill, just outside Woodland.

California is used to being the trendsetter. The state has led the way on everything from auto emissions standards to stem cell research, but when Assembly Bill 3754 was signed into law in 1994, California was the 40th state to allow the creation of Property and Business Improvement Districts.

As the first Property and Business Improvement District in California, the Downtown Sacramento Partnership has done much more than create the model. In 14 years of operation, it has also set the standard.

By the mid-1990s, it was fair to question whether downtown Stockton was on the path to decay. Crime and blight were major concerns that kept visitors and businesses away, and there was little to suggest a turnaround was in sight.

Rancho Cordova recently celebrated the annexation of a finger of land — Folsom Boulevard east of Sunrise Boulevard and south of Highway 50 — with the rest of the incorporated city.

In the late 1800s the township of Brighton, along what is now Folsom Boulevard and Power Inn Road, was bustling with a racetrack, pony express stop and the distinguished (if unrecognized) title of Sacramento’s first suburb.

Customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and other power providers could soon realize the benefits of living on a smarter grid.

Like zombies in a low-budget horror movie, commercial properties in the Capital Region are staggering along in the twilight between life and death.

During World War II, the U.S. Army put Depot Park on the map as a central location to collect and distribute war supplies to troops on the West Coast and across the Pacific. The military moved out in 1995, but government, nonprofits and businesses of all sizes have continued to leverage the site as a hub for green activities and technological innovations.

Although she can’t recall an aha moment that launched her interest, Julia Burrows says she has been passionate about all things green and sustainable as long as she can remember.