Block Buddy
From April 2006
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Bright Minds, Better Building
By Jeanne Winnick Brennan
Development in Sacramento used to behave like the bully on the playground: New growth and newcomers weren’t wanted in these parts. Now that old script needs a rewrite. It’s no longer business as usual in the city’s building and planning offices, and that’s mighty welcome news.Area developers, architects and contractors who once received the bureaucratic runaround when trying to get their projects — large or small — through City Hall didn’t ask for their turn on the seesaw. Instead, they just left town disgusted and went to build where they were welcomed, in the suburbs and other cities. Faced with the obvious eyesores of aging buildings and stagnant commercial blocks in the central city, Sacramento officials realized something was seriously wrong.
But living in the shadow of California’s more-famous, world-class destination cities, and with no particular need to envision itself as anything beyond being the state’s capital, Sacramento had become accustomed to its slow-growth policy.
However, in the late 1990s, when it became obvious that the city needed to prepare for continuing growth, then-Mayor Joe Serna traveled out of state to attract a nationally renowned, award-winning development company. Post Properties of Dallas, a well-respected firm known for its large infill projects and mixed-use philosophy, accepted an invitation to visit Sacramento and identify possible projects.
Out With the Old
With its focus on creating new neighborhoods to serve as colonies of rebirth in blighted downtown areas, Post Properties identified a two-block area for renewal that included the Capitol Towers apartments at 1500 7th St. But the new-urbanist firm departed when met with residents’ resistance and a city unable to negotiate. Brian Holloway, a former Sacramento city planner and redevelopment commissioner now with the lobbying firm of Holloway, Rasmusson & Molodanof, represented Post Properties in Sacramento and remembers that period.
Continued...
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