News

September 30, 2019: Lake Tahoe’s beauty is also its curse. The year-round playground draws millions of visitors who make 25 million vehicle trips within the Tahoe Basin a year, generating significant congestion for both visitors and the 50,000 permanent residents. 

September 30, 2019: After 13 years of falling sales at Sunrise Mall the City of Citrus Heights has begun a “visioning process” to reimagine the future of what was once the region’s dominant mall. 

Since 1996, sales at the mall have declined by 50 percent and about a quarter of its retail space is vacant. The 25 acre mall building is surrounded by another 75 acres of vastly underused parking. 

August 27, 2019: Yuba County has leveraged future SB1 dollars to fix almost four times as many miles of roads as it had planned to this summer. 

August 27, 2019: The Olli autonomous shuttle that circles the parking lot at White Rock Corporate Campus moves at a stately pace but it is a symbol of a city that is trying to move fast. 

“In Rancho Cordova, we like being first … and this is the first city in the country to test a business use for Olli,” said Vice Mayor David Sander before he hopped on the Olli for the shuttle’s first lap around the large office park.  

July 25, 2019: July 3 was a banner day for the Placer County city of Colfax. Both the Little Patriots and the Lions waved the flag during their Independence Day parades and the city celebrated the groundbreaking of its first roundabout.

July 24, 2019: The EPA’s proposed rule to freeze federal fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles at 2020 levels will be a disaster for air quality.  

The world of transportation planning and delivery could be thrown into chaos as soon as the rule to replace the existing CAFE standards is finalized, which would also neuter California’s longstanding ability to have tougher fuel efficiency standards and undo its zero-emission vehicle programs. The California Association of Councils of Governments (CALCOG) estimates that just under 2,000 projects throughout the state, totaling over $130 billion, may face project delivery delays or loss of funding, casualties of a rule change that not only impacts air quality, but also has rippling effects into other sectors.  

July 17, 2019: “Manage the land or it will manage you.” El Dorado County Supervisor Brian Veerkamp shared his grandfather’s wise words with the House Committee on Natural Resources in May 2019 while speaking on the importance of wildfire resilient communities.  

The last several years have brought California many devastating wildfires that have destroyed acres upon acres of land, people’s homes, and taken many lives. To an extent, there are certain factors that we can not control, such as climate conditions. But as Veerkamp shared, there are many things that we can take control of to reduce the chance of such catastrophic events, which include land and forest management, supported by policy. 

June 26, 2019: Two projects in Sacramento’s downtown field of dreams got a big boost on Friday. 

When the California Strategic Growth Council board approved both of the Sacramento region projects that had applied for Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program funding, they pumped more than $34 million into the downtown Railyards/River District.  

June 19, 2019: Whether it is called a granny flat, a carriage house, an in-law unit, a backyard cabin, or even a Fonzie flat, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) offer an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to boost housing. 

California effectively made ADUs legal throughout the state in 2017 but legal does not always mean easy. Local regulations such as mandating parking spaces, large set-backs, or lot coverage requirements can, intentionally or not, make it difficult for ADUs to be built or approved.