SEPA Part II - Elk Grove's Build The Homes and The Jobs Will Follow Paradigm - Video

August 14, 2015 | While we saw Mayor Gary Davis make a bold proclamation that SEPA will bring 25,000 jobs in Part I, he never answere...

August 14, 2015 |

While we saw Mayor Gary Davis make a bold proclamation that SEPA will bring 25,000 jobs in Part I, he never answered exactly how he and Council Member Steve Ly intend to bring all those high-paying jobs they promised.

Will it be from the efforts of the city's economic development director or will it be from the individual laser-focused efforts of Davis and Ly? Or perhaps Barry Broome will be able to work some of the magic he did in Phoenix and those 25,000 jobs will suddenly flood into Elk Grove.

Whatever the case might be, there is one paradigm the entire Elk Grove City Council has fully invested itself in - jobs will come once rooftops and retail - and the infrastructure they fund -  are in place.

One of the council's two new members has fully invested into this philosophy. See Council Member Darren Suen's comments on the City of Elk Grove's economic development paradigm in the video below.

The one question we need to ask is if this is the paradigm that leads to job development, why are there numerous prime empty parcels suitable for job development in Elk Grove? Consider the empty parcels adjacent to Apple on Laguna Boulevard.

Why is it that Elk Grove has the rooftops, retail but no job development when there are prime parcels next to one of the world's most successful businesses? Those parcels, which have direct access to the West Coast's main north-south Interstate artery, have been untouched for over 20 years.

What is going to motivate employers who might be interested in Elk Grove want to go in SEPA when there are already better parcels available for development?  More rooftops and retail?

Part III cont. here. 

Click to enlarge. 





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7 comments

Anonymous said...

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12 acres = 1,700 to 2,000 jobs at a 4 to a 1,000 square feet, 80% net land ratio.

(12 acres x 43,560 square feet per acre x 80% land use efficiency divided by 1,000 times 4)

Where are the 25,000 jobs coming from?

Do you believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus?

The job / housing imbalance is so out of kilter even with the token number of jobs that MIGHT be created at the project site.

Elk Grove will become a crime ridden dump because the vast majority of the parents have to drive out of town to get decent paying jobs, leaving their "precious little snowflakes" an opportunity to wreak havoc during their absence.




.

Capt. Benjamin Willard said...

Even though the fate of this project is pre-determined by the powers that be, at least Mr. Suen showed a degree of curiosity with Mr. Burness. He was willing to engage him in a conversation unlike Mr. Davis who was dismissive. So much for being the peoples' house.

Anonymous said...

Looks like Detrick got a pass on this series!

Someone Who Used to Care said...

This portion of the article brings up a very obvious yet mostly overlooked (especially by the council) elephant in the room.

Why has there been no industrial/commercial building along the I-5 corridor near Apple? Apple is one of the world's top corporations, employing thousands of Americans and creating the state-of-the-art technologies. It is located along the main thoroughfare connecting three countries and running north and south through the entire United States.

Why wouldn't up-and-coming industries be fighting to house their facility on our undeveloped open space bordering these two wonderful assets?

Why wouldn't our city be promoting the hell put of these wonderfully situated open spaces to the rest of the world?

This city and it's leaders are just too short sighted. I think they believe the world is square. There is no new thinking, no innovation, no thinking outside the box. Developers do the thinking and our electeds follow along approving whatever every cookie-cutter housing development.

We need new ideas and new a new way of doing business. Time for wholesale changes in our local government. Business as usual hasn't been working for this city since its inception.

Anonymous said...

Well said 7:20...The city needs to hire a good Urban Planner. Someone who has no connections to the land owners, developers or city staff...a free thinker! Maybe then we can, for once, get it right. At this point it appears the city is focusing on housing, leaving land available for commercial. The only problem is there are no plans in place for what the commercial will be. Will it be compatible with the housing development? I realize the city does know what commercial will locate in the area, but that doesn't mean all options can't be left open to accommodate whatever it is. Our council says they want to get it right, so why not use every source they can to see that happens. Is it the money....well they threw away $500,000 on P31 when they knew, or should have, all along they didn't have the expertise to do the project, so suck it up!

Anonymous said...

The last what...1900 acres in Laguna Ridge (Jewel of EG) during a boom time brought how many high paying jobs? Hopefully the city is not using the same formula with SEPA. To the best of my knowledge we do not have anyone in Planning with the expertise to see that JOBS happen and we certainly don't have it in our electeds. They feed off of the Developers who do not have JOBS in mind either. Just sell those houses with Mello Roos hanging over the buyers heads for years to come while the present council walks off into the sunset to big and better things.

We can't even get a hospital built for 20 years, that could be a clue of what a failure we have become in bringing anything to this city. All we see is another couple of pizza joints and a shooting range plus a few lawsuits due our negligence. Higher wage earners still have to leave town for their shopping and entertainment. BTW, where is TOWN anyway?

Anonymous said...

Elk Grove is starting to sound like a third tier American city that would be a perfect sister city to a city in.........Pakistan.

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