Arden Arcade

Arden Arcade 0

The population of Arden Arcade, California, is over  93,000 people, and occupies ZIP codes 95864 and 95825  in Sacramento County.  It is located east of the city of Sacramento and west of the community of Carmichael. Arden-Arcade is a principal locality of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville.

The history of Arden Arcade is documented in the “Sacramento ALC Historical Study 82”, Ranch Del Paso, Office of History, Sacramento Air Logistics Center, McClellan Air Force Base, California, March 1983, by Raymond Oliver. Originally part of a Mexican land grant deeded to John Sutter, the Rancho Del Paso grant was negotiated from the Mexican governor by John Sutter on August 10, 1843. Then, Sutter deeded the Rancho Del Paso to Eliab and Hiram Grimes and John Sinclair. Samuel Norris was the next owner of Rancho Del Paso, then James Haggin. The Rancho Del Paso was purchased from Mr. Haggin’s corporation, “The Rancho del Paso Land Company” in 1910 by the Sacramento Valley Colonization Company for $1.5 million.

Subdividing started in earnest in 1910. Under owner James Ben Ali Haggin, the Rancho was famous for its horse breeding; one of the horses bred on the Rancho won the Ben Ali Stakes. The “arcade” was the old name of a large meadow of oak trees once located on the Arcade Creek, northwest of the present “Marconi Curve” on the Capital City Freeway, I-80. The natural occurring oak trees near the horse loading area were used to tie up hundreds of horses going east to Kentucky by rail. Some trains had more than a thousand horses loaded at one time from Rancho Del Paso. The oak trees were lined up like an architectural arcade (a number of arches supporting a wall), hence the name of the area, “Arcade”.

The Arcade Meadow of Oak Trees was used as a staging area to load by rail transport all horses out to Kentucky, and beyond, from about 1880 to 1905. There were 24 barns with 64 stalls each and out buildings to support the manpower needed for the horse racing business. Among the oldest surviving buildings in the area are the Arden Middle School, built in 1914, and the Del Paso Country Club, from 1919, named for the original Rancho on which it was built. The first residential neighborhoods in the area were constructed in the 1920s and 1930s, as the city developed over the river, but many more were built later.

Transportation

Arden-Arcade is served well by three major highways. Interstate 80 runs on the northern part of community and also serves as a northern border. Just to the west of the CDP is the Capital City Freeway and just to the south of the American River (the community’s southern border) is Highway 50. Major east-west thoroughfares include El Camino Avenue, Marconi Avenue, Arden Way, Alta Arden Expressway, and Fair Oaks Boulevard while major north-south thoroughfares include Fulton Avenue, Watt Avenue, Howe Avenue, and Eastern Avenue.

Many of the major arterial streets that criss-cross through Arden-Arcade are named for the major inventors of the Industrial Revolution.

Shopping

With a central location to many of the northeastern suburbs of Sacramento plus being very proximate to many areas of the City of Sacramento, Arden-Arcade is a major shopping area for the greater Sacramento area. First, along with the Sunrise MarketPlace in Citrus Heights, Arden-Arcade is the one of the main commercial areas for the northeastern suburbs of Greater Sacramento. Fair Oaks Boulevard is one of the major commercial corridors for Arden-Arcade. The tony Pavilions Shopping Center which is anchored by a Coldwater Creek and a Williams-Sonoma and a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse is the original lifestyle shopping center in the Sacramento area. Loehmann’s Plaza which includes a Loehmann’s store along with many restaurants is also located along this corridor. Nearer the Del Paso Country Club on the northside of Arden-Arcade is Town & Country Village, which has been around since the 1940s and is located at Fulton and Marconi Avenue. Trader Joe’s is the main anchor right now as Goore’s recently closed. An Orange County developer recently bought it and has plans to tear down many of the structures at the center and conduct a major overhaul.[4]

Country Club Plaza is an indoor shopping mall located in Arden-Arcade. It is anchored by Macy’s and Ross Dress For Less. It also houses a Bed, Bath, and Beyond, a Sports Chalet, and an Off Broadway Shoes along with some smaller tenants. It was opened in the 1960s but was recently renovated. It has struggled with occupancy levels in recent years due to competition from Arden Fair Mall, Sunrise Mall and the Roseville Galleria but after reducing their debt in the early part of 2012, the mall owners have a renewed plan to increase the number of tenants at the mall. It has 700,000 square feet (65,000 m2) of gross leasable area.[5] It was also formerly anchored by Gottschalks which filed bankruptcy in 2009 and now out of business.[6]

Car dealers are another major shopping attraction in the Arden-Arcade area. Despite upped competition from auto malls in Folsom, Roseville, and Elk Grove, Arden-Arcade has retained many high-end dealers that are unique to the Sacramento area. The epicenter of the auto business is on Fulton Avenue but some dealers have taken up on Auburn Boulevard so that they can be seen from the Capitol City Freeway. Other dealers extend out as far west as Howe Avenue which is closer to the Arden Fair Mall. The Niello family’s Niello Auto Group owns many of the car dealers in this area including Audi, BMW, Land Rover, Jaguar, Maserati, Mini, and Volkswagen. Von Housen owns the Mercedes Benz dealer at Howe Avenue and Alta Arden Expressway. He also sells Smart Cars on the same site. Kuni sells Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GM on the same site on Fulton Avenue. Turner Volvo is located on Arden Way in between Fulton Avenue and Howe Avenue. Mel Rapton Honda is located on the main Fulton corridor. Harrold Ford is located on Howe Avenue near Arden Way. Maita sells Hyundais, Nissans, Subarus, and Toyotas. Lexus of Sacramento and Sacramento Kia are also located along Fulton Avenue.

Schools

High schools

Loretto High School, which opened in 1955 and closed after the 2008-2009 school year was located in Arden-Arcade. It is now operated as an elementary school by Aspire Public Schools.

Del Paso Country Club

Del Paso Country Club is a private country club located within Arden-Arcade. The Club was founded in 1916 on what had once been part of Rancho Del Paso. Membership is by invitation. The Club includes newly renovated 18-hole golf course, state-of-the-art fitness center and other facilities.

Housing

Arden-Arcade has some of the more posh neighborhoods in the Sacramento area. There are neighborhoods along the American River and the American River Parkway with million-dollar home prices. However, there is also significant amounts of housing that are priced more affordably. Neighborhoods with ritzy homes include Wilhaggin, Sierra Oaks, Sierra Oaks Vista, Arden Park, Arden Oaks, and some of the areas surrounding the Del Paso Country Club.

The closest thing that California has had to a governor’s mansion since 1967 was located in Arden-Arcade from 1984 until 2004. Governors George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, and Gray Davis all occupied a home on Lake Wilhaggin Drive in the Wilhaggin area. The house was sold in 2004 after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger decided not to live in the home and instead occupy the penthouse at the Hyatt in Downtown Sacramento when he did not commute back to Brentwood which he did most nights.

Government

Local

Incorporation plans

On November 2, 2010, area residents voted on Measure D.  The measure was defeated by a margin of 76% to 24%. If approved, the area bounded by Auburn Boulevard on the north, the American River Drive, Ethan Way on the west, and Mission Avenue/Jacob Lane on the east would have become the City of Arden-Arcade.

The city would have been governed by a council-manager form of government. Twenty-two candidates ran for the seven-member city council. If Measure D passed, seven would have become city council members, including residents Matt Gray, and the top vote-getter would have become mayor. A city manager would have been hired by the council to implement goals, policies and ordinances approved by the city council. The defeat of Measure D rendered the results of the election a moot point.

According to the fiscal analysis completed under the auspices of the Sacramento Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo), the city as proposed “may be fiscally feasible” (p. 7). LAFCo assesses the feasibility of a new city according to three standards: it is likely to be feasible; it is not likely; or it may be feasible. The financials for the proposed new city were not strong enough to warrant finding the proposed new city likely to be feasible.

The fiscal analysis includes “revenue neutrality payments” that the city must pay Sacramento County to be in compliance with California Code section 56815. City taxpayers would be required to reimburse Sacramento County over $6 million a year, and $219 million over a 35 year period for loss of sales tax revenue.

According to the, the new local government would have cost $37 million each year by year 10 of the analysis (Table E.3). At that point, the city would have been expected to spend $32,086,600 on general fund expenses for the city manager’s office, attorney services, city clerk’s office, the development office, animal control, etc. Road maintenance expenses are expected to cost $4,948,000 by year 10. The analysis does not include an assessment of capital requirements such as the cost of financing and building a city hall. According to the salary survey released in September by the League of California Cities, salaries for city managers in the region range from $181,135 (Woodland) to $353,000 (Roseville), with most earning compensation over $200,000.

Proponents claimed that the new city would have improved services and created community pride in the City of Arden-Arcade without any new taxes. Opponents believed that revenue assumptions were risky and, if wrong, could lead to higher taxes.

Revenues would have largely come from property taxes and sales taxes. LAFCo’s projections of property taxes are based on this assumption about area property values: “The fiscal model assumes a nominal annual property appreciation rate of 5.2% excluding the additional value from new development” (p. 45). Property sales and retail sales are closely tied to the unemployment rate, and Sacramento ranks 326 out of 372 cities according to the most recent information available from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

No Further plans to annex Arden-Arcade

As of August 24, 2010, the City of Sacramento posted on their website that they have no plans to annex Arden-Arcade.[df. Only the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) has the regulatory authority under state law to approve or disapprove of the annexation of territory by a city (Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Act of 2000, California Government Code Section 56000). LAFCo requires cities to keep up their general plan and look at overlapping jurisdictions. In that context, the City of Sacramento has collected information about Arden-Arcade but has not taken any steps toward incorporation, the first of which would be identifying Arden-Arcade as within its sphere of influence.

Incorporation proponents have repeatedly claimed that the city could take over the area in as little as six months with no opportunity for residents to vote. The City of Sacramento’s process includes a dozen steps that would conservatively take three to five years to go through the lengthy and expensive process required. The most recent piece of land to be annexed was several hundred acres of fallow agricultural land, Greenbriar. The process took four years for this small, non-controversial annexation at the request of the developer after four rounds of Environmental Impact Reviews, municipal service reviews, organization plans, finance plan, taxation agreements and more.

As the city describes on its website, residents of an area may request annexation, or the city may investigate it. “With inhabited areas, annexation must also be supported by a majority of voters within the area proposed for annexation.”

If the city undertook the lengthy road toward annexation and ultimately voted to approve, it would then have to file an application with the Local Agency Formation Commission. The many factors that LAFCo considers when reviewing applications are listed in detail on its website as are its powers and authority. It includes the opportunity for public testimony.

The City of Sacramento’s last annexation of an inhabited area, College Greens, was in the late 1950s. While it discussed interest in Arden-Arcade in the 1960s, the City of Sacramento did not initiate formal steps toward incorporation.

In its analysis of the area as part of its general plan update, city staff noted that Arden-Arcade is “mostly built out” (see Part III of the General Plan, Community Plan and Special Study Areas, Arden-Arcade Community Plan, p. 3-AA-5 at http://www.sacgp.org/). The city has also noted that the area has significant infrastructure needs and the likelihood of community opposition to incorporation.

Arden-Arcade Community Planning Council

The Arden-Arcade Community Planning Council is a nine-member council that helps make decisions for the community of Arden-Arcade. These nine members are appointed by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.