1,535 acres to be developed in first phase near south Roseville
By: Graham Womack, Staff Writer
One of the largest development projects in South Placer could be getting closer to breaking ground.
The Placer County Planning Commission voted 6-0 on June 8 to approve infrastructure plans and seven large lot maps for the first phase of the Placer Vineyards project, a 5,230-acre development that could take 30 to 40 years to be fully built out.
The first phase of the project, according to a May 31 report from the county’s Design Review Committee, will cover 1,530 acres owned by a consortium of private developers.
“They’re looking at it from a standpoint of what the market will bear and what the market needs right now,” said Jack Duran, District 1 representative for the Placer County Board of Supervisors.
Duran continued, “I think the way that they’ve done it over these years (that the project has been in early stages of development) is actually quite smart from the standpoint of being able to take a look and develop this as things (change) over time.”
Located near the Placer and Sacramento county line just beyond the southwest limits of Roseville, the first phase of the project covers a wide range of uses. Roughly 60 percent of the acreage in the first phase will be used to build just shy of 5,000 new residential units, in a mix of densities, according to the county design report.
“It’s going to provide an opportunity for people to live locally in this particular area which always, for the most part, leads to economic development in other areas,” Duran said.
Doug Elmets, a spokesman for the numerous developers in the project, said they would be focused on developing “backbone infrastructure” in 2018 and covering the costs of this, a routine move. Elmets said home sales would likely begin sometime in 2019.
“The projected population growth of this region is substantial,” Elmets said. “Placer County in particular has developable land and it’s a county … that is definitely ripe for development.”
Plans in the first phase also call for more than 400,000 square feet of commercial space. Elmets envisioned commercial development beginning sometime in the early 2020s.
“It’s going to go from big box to small entities, retail,” Elmets said. “You’ll have everything that one might imagine in a community — grocery stores, gas stations. But of course, a lot of this is at build-out or through the building process.”
Placer Vineyards isn’t the only major, master-planned community in the works in South Placer, as Duran said maps for sprawling Placer Ranch to the north could be released by the end of the year.
He noted that Roseville has become an infill city — meaning it has mostly reached the limits of what can be developed save for vacant or under-served land in already-built neighborhoods.
Duran touted the possibilities with Placer Vineyards and Placer Ranch.
“I think for the future, we’re looking at these two developments actually being the center of what’s to come, going toward Lincoln and beyond,” Duran said. “This is kind of going to be the gateway to the future.”