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Planning commission recommends board approve West Jackson Highway Master Plan, citing housing and climate goals
Summary
After lengthy review, the Planning Commission recommended the Board of Supervisors approve the 5,913‑acre West Jackson Highway Master Plan, which would expand the county urban policy area and allow up to 16,484 dwelling units, extensive parks, trails and employment uses; the commission vote was unanimous.
The Sacramento County Planning Commission on March 24 recommended that the Board of Supervisors approve the West Jackson Highway Master Plan, a comprehensive re‑use and master‑planned community covering roughly 5,913 acres in the Vineyard/Cordova area. The commission voted in favor of staff’s recommendation to recognize the draft Environmental Impact Report as adequate and to forward the required general plan, community plan, zoning and financing amendments to the board.
What the plan would do: the master plan proposes to expand the county’s Urban Policy Area (UPA) to include the West Jackson Highway area and establishes a land‑use plan that the applicants and staff say would enable roughly 16,484 dwelling units, about 11.5 million square feet of commercial/employment space, 2 million square feet of industrial space, and approximately 2,100 acres of parks and open space when fully built out. The plan includes a multi‑modal transportation framework (regional trails, bike lanes, transit routes), six elementary schools, a middle school and a high school, three urban farm sites and a major east‑west parkway and trail corridor tying into regional trail networks.
Staff and applicants: Emma Carico, the county project manager, summarized the plan’s policy compliance, concluding the plan meets General Plan policies for UPA expansion (LU‑1.19 and LU‑1.20). Carico said the project demonstrates compliance with the county’s climate action plan by meeting a project‑level vehicle‑miles‑traveled (VMT) threshold — staff recorded a VMT result of 13.99 vehicle miles per resident per day after mitigation — and identified mitigation for noise, air quality and other environmental topics. The draft EIR identified several significant and unavoidable impacts (aesthetics, agricultural resources, air quality, cultural resources, noise, transportation) and a mitigation monitoring and reporting program was being finalized for the board hearing.
Mike Isle of Stonebridge Properties (one of the applicants) described the property’s history as a series of reclaimed mining sites and the applicants’ outreach over many years. Isle and applicant team members emphasized that the plan aims to deliver a job‑rich, mixed‑use, transit‑oriented community intended to be carbon‑neutral through energy, building and transportation measures. The applicants and staff noted extensive agency coordination including water supply assessments for two water suppliers (California American Water Company and Sacramento County Water Agency Zone 40), a public facilities financing plan (PFFP) and an urban services plan (USP) designed to demonstrate neutrality to the county general fund and to identify funding mechanisms for backbone infrastructure.
Policy and next steps: staff said the master plan complies with the general plan’s alternative LU‑1.20 performance metric (alternative 2) requiring a VMT under 14 per resident per day; it also described the process for future rezones, subdivision maps and FPA‑level subsequent planning that will be required before urban development occurs inside the FPAs. The Planning Commission voted to forward staff’s recommended resolutions and ordinances — including general plan and community plan amendments, adoption of the master plan overlay and adoption of the PFFP and USP — to the Board of Supervisors for final action. The board hearing was scheduled after the meeting on the commission calendar.
Vote and record: the commission’s roll call recorded approval votes from all members present. The motion to recommend approval passed on the record; staff noted the final EIR and mitigation monitoring and reporting program would be finalized before the Board hearing.
Public outreach: the record shows multi‑year outreach, tribal consultation, CPAC briefings and two CPAC advisory recommendations during the DEIR public comment period. The Vineyard CPAC expressed support (no quorum prevented a formal recommendation at one hearing); the Cordova CPAC recommended approval. The county will review written and agency comments in a final EIR and prepare findings for the Board of Supervisors prior to its hearing.
