Last week, Region Builders held an informative Q & A discussion with the Sacramento County Planning Division. We were very pleased to be joined by Interim Planning Manager Leighann Moffit, County Principal Planner Tricia Stevens, and Senior Planner David Defanti to hear a presentation on County planning processes and discuss several items of importance to the regional building industry.
County Re-Organization: County planners discussed that the division will shortly be re-organized into a Community Development Department, which will consist of the following divisions: Planning & Environmental Review, County Engineering, Building Permits and Inspection, and Code Enforcement. This change was proposed by County leadership to create a “single-point of contact” for the development community.
Establishing a Commercial PACE Program: Planning staff explained that the County will be embarking on creating a County-Wide PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) District, in which incorporated Cities can opt-in to take advantage of financing for retrofitting commercial properties. This will expand on the City of Sacramento’s existing effort and will have a tremendous job-creating potential for our regional building industry.
General Plan and New Growth: County staff reflected on their recently adopted General Plan. The plan did not expand the Urban Policy Area (UPA) for new growth, but set performance criteria for upcoming developments to be amended into the County’s General Plan. Project applicants in the areas of Natomas, Jackson Highway, and Cordova Hills have already begun moving forward with the general plan amendment process.
Planning Processes & More: The audience was informed that larger development planning efforts have been successfully completed in recent years. These projects include the Aerojet Re-Use Project, Vineyard Gap Community Plan, the North Vineyard Gap, and the Elverta Specific Plan. County staff explained that their public response times have been bolstered recently (2 day timeline) with the arrival of new County executive leadership. Staff also reported that a comprehensive update of the zoning code was greatly needed, and their division is currently looking for grant funding for this effort.
We would like to thank County staff again for their presentation and outreach, as well as all who attended this quality discussion between building industry professionals and local government.
