I’m sure all of you have noticed the many vacant and partially vacant shopping centers that line Watt Avenue. This is particularly true of the west side of the street. The closing of McClellan Air Force Base in July of 2001 also brought closure to a lot of the businesses that previously filled these now empty lots. The County of Sacramento Municipal Services Agency has adopted an Infill Program that will reutilize these properties to benefit the surrounding communities.
The North Watt Avenue Corridor, which begins at Interstate 80 and continues to Antelope Road, has been chosen as the Pilot Infill Corridor. North Highlands was chosen to be the pilot community in this program due to the many resources and opportunities that already exist here. This pilot infill is made possible in part by the receipt of two SACOG (Sacramento Area Council of Governments) grants and funding from Redevelopment and Tax increment sources.
The Infill Program will reuse and revitalize our community using “smart growth” and GREEN building principles. It will also make better use of the land. The smart growth principles will combine residential and retail properties with shops on the street levels with apartment homes and offices on the upper levels. We’ll be seeing better building designs with “walkable” neighborhoods. Judy Robinson, Infill Coordinator and Principal Planner, County of Sacramento Municipal Services Agency, stated that this Infill Program, combined with the recently approved Development Code, will give North Highlands “a sense of place.”
One requirement for a successful Infill Program is public transportation. Bus or light rail must be located within a half mile of the retail and residential areas. Some of the vacant buildings will be rebuilt, but most of them will be remodeled. They all will be having infrastructure changes as most, if not all, of them are on septic systems and need to be upgraded to public water and other services. These changes are critical to the success of getting businesses to move into and stay in these spaces.
In the past, the cost for tenants to improve and upgrade the space has been a deterrent. Also, some buildings are currently standing empty because of previous development restrictions in place due to the size of the planes that took off and landed at McClellan AFB.
With those restrictions removed, the new Development Code will revitalize McClellan Park. As Judy Robinson said, “Successful infill doesn’t rely on a single store, ballpark or office building to improve a community. Rather, it weaves a fabric of land uses that support each other - residences within a short walk to neighborhood-serving shops and businesses, with access to transit and nearby to jobs and open space.”