SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Placer County officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking Friday for the major Placer One development.
Once complete, the new master-planned community near Roseville will include thousands of new homes, a satellite campus for Sacramento State and Sierra College, along with retail and recreation.
Placer One is a 2,200-acre project near the northern border of Roseville in the Sunset Area. The project used to be called Placer Ranch.
Grading is already underway for about 800 single-family homes as well as for a road network that will connect Highway 65 to Fiddyment Road, according to Clifton Taylor, the president of Taylor Builders.
Work for roads, water, sewer, and electrical is planned to start in 2023. The first phase of developing infrastructure is set to take about 18-24 months, Taylor said. Construction for the homes could start as early as 2024.
"Placer has, you know, kind of emerged as a standout community already where it absorbs between 30% and 35% of the new home volume for the region even though it's probably not that percentage-wise from a population standpoint," Taylor said.
Taylor said this is the largest all-electric master plan community in the region.
"I think the electric utility companies know that that's the direction the world is headed and are making investments to get ahead of it," Taylor said. "The fact that California has a solar mandate where all the homes will be required to produce a certain amount of energy and battery storage is becoming more prevalent."
Most residents in Placer County are excited about the new development, but some question whether the power grid can handle the all-electric plan.
Taylor says utility companies are working through microgrids and other methods to prevent problems before they arise.
“We’ve developed over 1,000 units within SMUD and Roseville Electric territories, and we’ve not had a single issue of power outages,” Taylor said.
Planning for this project has been decades in the making, Placer County Supervisor Robert Weygandt said.
"The collaboration needed to bring this project to a groundbreaking has been tremendous and the county is thankful for having had such excellent partners," Weygandt said in a statement. “It’s extremely rewarding to see the decades-old vision on paper evolve and take shape into a master-planned community that will one day serve our residents’ education needs, housing needs and job needs.”
Plans for thousands of homes and apartments
The community will consist of about 4,000 single-family homes and 1,500 apartments.
The first phase will include seven neighborhoods with single-family lots ranging from 4,500 square feet to 9,500 square feet.
"We understand that there's going to be some near-term impacts associated with the construction activity, but we believe that the value of this project for the region is going to be significant," Taylor said. "It's going to create opportunities for [residents], going to create opportunities for their neighbors, it's going to create new opportunities for their children that's going to really define our community."
Satellite campuses for Sacramento State and Sierra College
Expected to take about five years for initial development are the Sacramento State Placer Center and the Sierra College Transfer Center.
Once at full capacity, after about a 15-year development process, these centers should serve about 12,000 students annually.
“Placer One will expand access to four-year degrees by giving students a campus that is closer to home, and our partnership with Sierra College will help to make the transition from community college to Sac State seamless,” Sacramento State President Robert Nelsen said in a statement. “Expanded access to higher education is critical to meeting the needs of employers in this rapidly growing region.”
The centers will be located on about 300 acres close to the planned Town Center, which would include retail, office spaces, and apartment, loft-style homes.
“Increasing higher educational opportunities is one of the best investments a community can make in growing its economic resources,” said Willy Duncan, Sierra College’s superintendent/president in a statement. “Together with our cities, Placer County, and Sac State, we look forward to creating options for students to stay here, learn here, and succeed here.”
Find out more about the master plan HERE.
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