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June 15, 2005

A hypothetical "Old Town Rancho"


A hypothetical "Old Town Rancho", originally uploaded by scupper.

This is an idea I cooked up after driving through several "downtowns" of central valley and bay area cities. I was looking at what I saw as wasted space in Rancho retail centers, and Mills Shopping Center is king of waste. Reducing the lot spaces for parking to allow for more structures would require a multi-story parking structure to be built, probably like the one the City of Davis constructed.

It will never happen, as the city council now is more like their predecessors of 35 yrs ago than the Board of Supervisors we voted to emancipate ourselves from. But, in a sim city view of Rancho, Mills Center could accomodate a row of retail/restaurants facing the existing retail in the center, and allow for an alleyway between storefronts facing Folsom Blvd. and the new contruction with storefronts facing the existing mall.

I would also want to demolish the sin of a motel located on Folsom Blvd. near Mather Field, and use the parcel to accomodate a road into the new "old Town". It could be aligned so that traffic could turn into the new street from Mather Field, probably best as a one way, with a parking structure located where there's an empty lot behind the old Beacon gas station.

It would be absolutely ped oriented, and it would be tight, but that is what old downtowns that can bee seen in Marysville, Dixon, Folsom, Placerville, Martinez, Yuba City have. It's high and tight, and in many places, it works. Too bad we'll never find out.

I'd also thought it would be interesting to have reduced Folsom Blvd. to a two lane, from Dawes to Olsen, and have an adjacent greenway surrounding the light rail right of way, with a bike/ped trail, using the lane space. I believe the City of Folsom will have this at least along a portion of the light rail corridor in their city.

Must be nice to have city council and staff that have greater visions and expectations for a streetscape than a storefront remodel of an old Molly Malones now serving as a dart shop.

Posted by cystdog at June 15, 2005 11:06 AM

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