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Citrus Heights, CA
Incremental Infill Development Offers Solution for Reclaiming
Suburbs in Citrus Heights, CA
The concept plan for a major intersection in Citrus Heights, California,
an older suburb of Sacramento, offers an innovative solution for
repairing the suburbs by creating a mixed-use urban village. The
plan proposes to take one of the busiest intersections in Sacramento
County underground and, over a twenty-five year period, reclaim
the area with office space, housing, open space, retail and transit
using regional transportation funds.
Citrus Heights is a second ring suburb in eastern Sacramento County
— the tenth fastest growing county in the nation. Home to almost
90,000 residents, Citrus Heights is experiencing unprecedented amounts
of new housing and big box retail growth but little job growth.
According to the City's general plan, eighty percent of residents
commute outside of the city for work. Sunrise Boulevard funnels
tens of thousands of vehicle trips each day between two suburban
job centers — the City of Roseville to the north and Rancho
Cordova to the south. The intersection of Sunrise Boulevard and
Greenback Lane is one of the busiest intersections in the County,
with an average of 90,000 vehicle trips per day. Newly incorporated
in 1997, city officials are responding to the complex challenges
of suburban revitalization through a variety of projects, including
adaptive reuse of old shopping centers and street façade improvement
programs. Revitalization of high volume commuter arterials is a
particularly vexing challenge for city officials and regional transportation
planners alike.
 During
the preparation of the most recent Citrus Heights General Plan —
which calls for the creation of a new downtown — consultants
Mogavero Notestine and Associates introduced the concept of creating
a dense, urban village at the intersection of Sunrise Boulevard
and Greenback Lane. Given the high levels of traffic along the two
8-lane arterials, they argued that this could only be accomplished
by taking the two roadways below ground at the intersection through
bi-directional tunnels and building a pedestrian village environment
at grade. The designers contend that this plan would allow for an
increase in traffic capacity along the major regional corridor and
create a thriving jobs and housing center.
According to David Mogavero, principal architect with the firm,
"[Other urban designers] have told me to give up on suburban arterials,
that they are a lost cause. I don't share their sense of fatalism."
Mogavero believes this plan demonstrates how regional transportation
funds can be used to solve traffic capacity issues while enhancing
the existing community. The concept plan also calls for the evolutionary
adaptation of an existing mall to support smart growth in an auto-dominated
suburban area. While the plan supports a universe of Smart Growth
issues — regional housing and job needs, transit and pedestrian
orientation, and provision of open space — the focus of the
plan is twofold: to preserve parking access for the client (the
owner of the mall) and to preserve the viability of the retail anchors.
The plan offers an alternative to auto-dominated strip development
without compromising existing retail — the economic lifeblood
of the community.
As proposed, the plan includes five phases of development over
25 years. At build-out, the district would include underground parking
for at least 1,800 cars, one million sq. ft. of office space with
ground floor retail, a central park, and approximately 4,000 residential
units, all located within walking distance of transit and retail.
The first phase of construction would take through-traffic below
ground and install express transit on dedicated right of ways. This
would provide for non-auto access and create a pedestrian-friendly
environment while demonstrating the city's commitment to long term
rehabilitation of the district.
The second phase focuses on development of "best opportunity" infill
sites. Compact housing and/or office with ground floor retail would
start to fill in the parking lot of existing retail and support
a "24-7" atmosphere. Surface parking would be relocated to 2 –
3 levels of underground parking. Phase three would expand the office
space and parking by adding one million square feet of office space
and structured parking for 1,800 cars.
When the transformation is complete, original department store
anchors will remain and the mall will be open to a new central park,
lined by ground floor retail with office and residential uses above.
While the City has not incorporated the concept plan into its General
Plan, the 2002 Metropolitan Transportation Plan calls for further
study of moving arterials underground as a strategy to enhance capacity
along commuter routes.
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