Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  Thursday, November 4, 2003

Contact:  Phyllis Miller   (916) 340-6224

Sacramento County to Examine its Future in Blueprint Workshops

By 2050, Sacramento County is projected to grow from an estimated population of 1.2 million in 2000 to as much as almost 2.5 million by 2050. How that growth could affect the people who live and work in Sacramento County now and in the future will be the subject of three community-planning workshops, starting in November in the newly incorporated City of Rancho Cordova. Anyone who either lives or works in Sacramento County may attend any of the Sacramento Countyworkshops.

The workshop will address how Sacramento County will meet the challenge of planning for population growth during the next 50 years and is open to everyone who either lives or does business in Sacramento County. Content of the three workshops will be identical.

The Blueprint workshops are being sponsored by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) and Valley Vision (a full workshop schedule is attached). Refreshments will be served. Free bus transportation to the events, provided by Sacramento Regional Transit, will also be available.

The Blueprint study was commissioned by the Directors of SACOG in 2002 to examine the relationship between land use and transportation patterns as part of its long-range planning. SACOG funds transportation projects throughout the region.

“These Sacramento County-wide Blueprint workshops will allow participants to help shape the future of their counties for generations to come,” said SACOG Board Chairman and Citrus Heights Mayor Bill Hughes.

“We’ve started at the neighborhood level and are now asking people to help us determine the best plan for their counties,” Hughes said. “ I hope everyone will take this opportunity and become involved.”

Questions to be discussed during the event include: How much of the six-county region’s growth should occur in Sacramento County? Should growth by 2050 occur outside the current Sacramento County Urban Services Boundary? Should growth occur in a way that generates ridership for Sacramento Regional Transit's light rail and bus transit system?

How much future growth should occur in and around existing urban areas (e.g., the downtown Sacramento rail yards, Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, downtown Folsom), versus newly developing areas, such as the edges of Elk Grove, North Natomas, and south of I-50 near the City of Folsom?

The Blueprint project uses state-of-the-art, public domain, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Web-based planning software program called PLACE³S (‘places three’), which stands for Planning for Community Energy, Economic and Environmental Sustainability (the ‘3’ refers to the three Es of Energy, Economic and Environment). The software will allow participants in the workshop to see how changes in land use affect traffic, employment, and housing availability, among other indicators, and give planners data about county residents growth preferences. The workshops will build upon information developed during six months of neighborhood workshops in ever county in the Sacramento Region. More than 30 workshops were held, with a total of more than 16,000 acres examined using smart growth principals. The workshops included broad representation from throughout the region, including community residents, businesses, and social equity interests.

The workshops will essentially be ‘scenario-planning’ exercises, where participants will be able to discuss three different potential growth scenarios and a ‘base case’ scenario, that looks at what would happen if growth proceeded as it is doing today. The alternative scenarios will offer differing and escalating degrees of growth in each county.

People who live or work in Sacramento County who would like to attend the workshops may do so by contacting Valley Vision, at 916-925-0130, or by e-mail at mail@valleyvision.org. The RSVP form is also available at the Blueprint Web site: http://www.sacregionblueprint.org.

The Blueprint project is made possible by funding and support from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), Valley Vision, the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, California State Treasurer Phil Angelides’ Office, the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), Caltrans, Bringing Regional Issues for Discussion and Group Effort (BRIDGE), the Urban Land Institute (ULI), the Great Valley Center, the James Irvine Foundation and KVIE6, among others.

For further information, please contact Phyllis Miller, Communication Manager, Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), at 916-340-6224 or pmiller@sacog.org. More information on Blueprint also can be found at www.sacregionblueprint.org.