West Sacramento's 3,000-home development 16 years in the making finally moves forward
WEST SACRAMENTO -- A building boom is coming soon for West Sacramento's Southport neighborhood as a new development of 3,000 homes is finally expected to break ground as early as next year.
The Yarbrough Project was actually approved back in 2008 by West Sacramento's city council.
The recession delayed the project from the start and developers recently untangled some other issues and a lawsuit that now no longer stand in the way of the project moving forward 16 years later.
West Sacramento's city planning commission got a refresher on the plans for the new development at its August 1 meeting.
"Last night was the first time the planning commission was seeing the project in quite some time," City Manager Aaron Laurel told CBS13.
It's the first step forward on the project that promises not only 3,000 new homes but new parks, trails, retail space and even an 18-hole golf course that will be accessible to all.
"That's an amenity the city of West Sacramento has not had since the closure of the Lighthouse Golf Course back in the late 1990s," Laurel said.
The project reimagines the area of Jefferson Boulevard and Southport Parkway that borders the existing Bridgeway Lakes neighborhood.
The first phase of development is expected to roll out with about 520 homes before expanding to the full capacity of the new community. The homes will range from high dollar to affordable.
"The city has a policy where affordable housing has to be included with each development. In this case Yarbrough will accommodate a portion of that with an apartment development for affordable housing," Laurel said.
West Sacramento's Mayor Martha Guerrero says when it comes to city growth, building the development would likely come with a boost for the surrounding area.
"More grocery stores, more retail such as restaurants and shopping locally. We need more people for that to happen, we need to continue to expand," Guerrero said.
Adding 3,000 new homes could translate to a population increase in West Sacramento of 7,000 to 10,000 people. That's an 18% increase in the city's population which is about 55,000 residents right now, per the 2022 census.
With more people of course comes more traffic. One of the city's requirements to the developers is that they expand Jefferson Boulevard as they build the new community where the road has only two lanes.
"I think the main feature of this project is it will help the city develop the full extent of Jefferson Boulevard through the project and even beyond to the north," Laurel said. "With four lanes of traffic, bike lanes, sidewalks, landscaping."
The planning commission did not take any action at Thursday night's meeting but is expected to vote at its next meeting on August 15.
Laurel said that he believes the commission will vote to recommend that the project move forward for city council approval.