By the end of the year, the Sacramento City Council will have voted on a plan to transform major areas of the city, including the area around Sacramento State. The city hopes to create a college town atmosphere, linking Sac State to developments in the region.

Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez signed an agreement with the city earlier this year in an effort to bring greater collaboration of projects. The city has targeted Sac State as one of six focus areas in what the city calls the General Plan 2030. The plan is a roadmap for Sacramento.

City planners met with the Sac State community on Sept. 24, to show off the General Plan. It calls for sweeping improvements to businesses, industry and housing in the vicinity of Sac State.

“The over-arching vision is to integrate the Sac State campus and the community,” said Sacramento city planner Christine Hewitt. “The goal is to emphasize learning and professional development.”

Major projects along Folsom Boulevard and 65th Street, including medium high-rise buildings and tree-lined streets are a focal point of the plan. These buildings would blend in with the East Side Lofts project. Additional development would connect Sac State with the Granite Park business district on Power Inn Road and the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District.

Residents brought concerns of an increase in crime in the area as off-campus housing is established. The possibility of noise, partying and vandalism occurring due to college students in residential neighborhoods made some aspects of the project less than desirable to residents. Garcia said Sac State would do the best that it could to assuage these fears with the community as development gets underway.

Garcia said one of the best options for reducing these types of issues is to create more on-campus student housing. Citing several studies, Garcia said students tend to do better in school and get in less trouble when they spend the first year or two living on campus. Projected plans at Sac State call for up to 5,000 beds for students living on campus.

In addition to the new buildings, the city hopes to extend Ramona Avenue under the Southern Pacific railway and Highway 50, eventually connecting with State University Drive. The extension is intended to fuel a mixed-use development area and vitalize the region. A tram system under discussion will also connect the 65th Street light rail station to Sac State.

Phil Garcia, executive director of Governmental and Civic Affairs at Sac State, said the tram is a way of providing an alternative mode of transportation.

“Sac State is really committed to working on a safe, reliable and convenient system that will allow students, faculty and staff to change their behavior,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the tram will not be a railway-type tram. It will use busses or shuttles of some type, though the final plan has not yet been developed.

Porter said he can envision a different atmosphere around Sac State.

“I can see people coming into this area and getting rid of their car,” Porter said. “You have light rail, the shuttle system – once it gets going, you have the ability to have a unique lifestyle unlike any place in Sacramento.”

Porter said the city is using California State University, Pomona as a model. Pomona has created a mixed-use extension of the campus, tying several large businesses, including a 200,000 square foot blood research center operated by the American Red Cross, to the campus.

Total costs for development have not been estimated yet, and may be many years off. The city received a federal grant of $1.3 million to begin planning and designing the Ramona Avenue extension. The tram project is estimated to cost around $15 million. Porter said the Ramona Avenue extension is still many years away from being completed.

Porter admitted that the markets for construction are not good right now.

“We have certain amounts of money through the general fund to do some work,” Porter said. “Hopefully, some of the groups we are talking to can make play in this area and bring some capital. I’m not sure how far they want to go as development.”

There are currently discussions between SMUD and Sac State to find new ways to involve graduate students in projects relating to work done by SMUD, particularly in the clean energy market.

Alan Porter, senior city planner, said Sac State has one of the top two clean energy programs in the state.

“I know from personal experience, I would take Sac State graduates over any other,” Porter said. “I imagine companies want to flock to get close to Sac State students.”

The city hopes to involve technology companies in an effort to build the technology research center on campus.

“Research and collaboration with students and faculty is of the utmost importance to industries,” Porter said. “The days of research being tied to the (University of California schools) are long gone.”

Porter said clean energy, biotech and bio-med industries are very strong right now.

“California is the most attractive place to do this type of business,” Porter said. “Particularly in Sacramento. These are the business core of America right now.”

As evidence, Porter mentioned the engineering career fair in February in which 130 companies came to Sac State in search of engineers. He also mentioned the Clean Energy Showcase, an event designed to highlight new and emerging technology in the clean energy field. The showcase was held at Sac State on Friday.

At the Sac State meeting, Porter showed the changes in types of production that have occurred in Silicon Valley, particularly a shift from hardware-based manufacturing to a knowledge-based, software economy. Many of the Silicon Valley companies have continued to grow and be profitable, according to statistics Porter displayed. These same companies are being courted by the city in hopes of bringing investment funds into the project.

Aside from SMUD, no other businesses were mentioned by city planners as possible investors in the area.

Derek Fleming can be reached at [email protected]