Natomas: The New Gold

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When she needed milk and butter, Wendy Garrison would ride her white Welsh pony, Sugar, four miles past the farmhouses and rice fields to a drive-in dairy on a two-lane road now known as Northgate Boulevard. That was Natomas in the 1970s B.C. (before construction).

Fast-forward three and a half decades. McMansions and condominiums have supplanted farmhouses, and a grocery store is a stone’s throw from homes in Natomas, where 13,500 acres have been developed (so far) and street after street of starter castles rub elbows with crumbling bungalows. Families from all over have flocked to Natomas in the past decade, coveting its proximity to the interstates, the airport and downtown.

About 87,000 people now call Natomas home. And longtime residents like Garrison have had front row seats as developers swooped in, flattened land and planted 35,000 dwelling units in what was once their rural back yard.

“I’ve watched each house being built, and I was, like, ‘Ugh!’ ” says Garrison, 60, who still lives in Valley View Acres, in the 1,600-square-foot house she bought in 1971 for $19,000. “It’s not that I don’t like people. I just wanted to be out in the country.”

In Natomas, land is the new gold. Developers such as Alleghany Properties plot to build on it; environmental groups such as Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk fight to preserve it; residents look to live on it; and the city hopes to appease all parties.

The boom began in the 1980s with the completion of the freeways and the construction of Arco Arena, home to the Sacramento Kings and Monarchs. But the older communities in South Natomas hit some roadblocks. Residents have complained to the city for years about the graffiti, broken-down vehicles left on the street, illegal garbage dumping and a limited police presence, which has led to crime.

In 1999, as development pushed into what is now North Natomas, “smart growth” was the name of the game. City planners sought to anchor each of the 14 neighborhoods with an elementary school and shopping center and designed homes to be built within 800 feet of a park or trail. Planners scrapped the so-called “snout houses” and instead put garages behind the houses to “make the streetscape more friendly and make people feel safer,” says Scot Mende, the city’s new growth manager. Three neighborhoods were designed around a newer concept of detention basins, or lakes created by storm water and drainage runoff.

“They’re like little peninsulas,” says Candice Traeger, a lobbyist who moved from a beach town in Southern California in 2000 and bought her 2,500-square-foot home in Sundance Lake for under $350,000. “Now that I’m here, I can’t imagine moving back.”

In came the restaurants (BJ’s, Mimi’s Cafe, Logan’s Roadhouse), the government offices such as the Department of Consumer Affairs and retail heavyweights like Sam’s Club and Target. The Natomas Chamber of Commerce, which started in 2001 with 35 members, now has nearly 300. Ultimately — in 10 years or more — office will occupy 26 million square feet in Natomas.

“Now we’re starting to see more of the services coming in, and we’re seeing the retail grow,” says Heinz Ludke, the chamber’s executive director. “We don’t see it slowing down.”

Meanwhile, Garrison — who has four ponies, two chickens and a llama — now has only a four-minute drive in her car for groceries at the nearest Raley’s.

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