PLACER COUNTY, Calif. — The first residents are expected to move into Placer County's long-awaited Bickford Ranch development in 2024, according to the Bickford Improvement Company.
The Bickford Ranch Specific Plan is an approximately 2,000-acre master-planned community located between Lincoln, Newcastle and Penryn. Once complete, there will be about 1,890 homes.
The Placer County Board of Supervisors originally approved the plan in 2001. It was stalled after site development started in early 2005 but wasn't completed.
The plan was amended in 2015 to eliminate the golf course, high-density residential site and Village Commercial Site, as well as reduce the development footprint while keeping the same number of residential units, according to the Bickford Ranch Specific Plan.
Construction for the first phase of the project started in summer 2021. This included grading, off-site improvements for sewer and water, and road improvements like installing traffic signals at Sierra College Boulevard along with Penny Lane and Bickford Road.
Alice Atherton, a senior civil engineer for Placer County, says construction is generally happening in a west-to-east direction at the site.
Work has also started for beginning home construction in the first villages. As for the subdivisions, the Bickford Improvement Company says the first phase has included installing utilities, a treated water tank and pump stations, and paving along Bickford Ranch Road.
According to the Bickford Improvement Company, work over the next year will include improvements to the subdivision, roads and landscape. Residential construction will also continue with the first residents planned to move in next year.
Construction for the entire community including a park, public and private properties, a school and open space is expected to take 15-20 years.
