Members of WFFNA’s Planning Committee met with the new developers of the Placer Ranch property (“Placer Ranch”) on October 29, 2013. Present were Loren Cook, Sue Hallahan-Cook and Joe Van Zant of WFFNA, and Jeff Jones, John Tallman, and Aldo Pineschi for the Westpark Communities developers. Westpark Communities purchased the Placer Ranch property just the week prior to the meeting. Tat the time of the meeting, Placer Ranch has not yet been annexed to the City of Roseville. Currently there is a tax share agreement between the City of Roseville and Placer County, but the County has the ‘veto right’ at this time.

Mr. Jones gave a brief review of the history of Placer Ranch which was owned by Eli Broad (of KB Homes) for the past 30 years. Initially, plans included developing Placer Ranch in conjunction with the Stanford Ranch development, but those plans were put on hold in 2007/2008 when the housing industry slowed. The original development plans included commercial and light industrial properties along the northern and eastern perimeters (adjacent to the future Placer Parkway); and construction of 5,000 residential units (mostly high density residential [HDR] and medium density residential [MDR]) both east and west of a 300-acre university campus site (land to be donated by the developer).

Fiddyment Road would expand to four lanes north of Blue Oaks up through Placer Ranch; similar to Fiddyment Road south of Blue Oaks, it is expected to eventually expand to six lanes in the future. In addition to the future Placer Parkway to be constructed along its northern boundary, Placer Ranch would include at least two major east - west roadways across the development as alternate routes into the area. As with all future projects in West Roseville (excluding West Roseville Specific Plan started prior to the Placer Parkway Agreement), Placer Ranch will be subject to the $5,000 per unit fee towards the Placer Parkway project.

Sacramento State University (“Sac State”) was previously interested in the potential satellite campus site; Mr. Jones said the developers met with Sac State officials after purchasing Placer Ranch and the officials reported that they were still interested and excited to start the process. The cost of the first campus building is estimated at $20 Million, but once the enrollment is large enough to meet State of California requirements, the state would “kick-in” with expansion funds. Sac State is interested in having a less transient enrollment than it has currently, and the proposed campus and the Placer Ranch project should allow sufficient housing, both on campus and in the surrounding area, for students attending Sac State.