The Downtown Rio Linda Special Planning Area, which has been in the works since 2009, will go before the Rio Linda/Elverta Community Planning Advisory Committee on July 22nd for final approval. The plan will then go to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors before the end of 2015 for implementation and inclusion in the County zoning code.
The SPA ordinance will update and revise/replace the 1989 Rio Linda Business District Special Planning Area (SPA) and serve as the new ordinance regulating development and land uses in Downtown Rio Linda. An important part of a new vision for Downtown Rio Linda is implementing the vision plan for the M Street business corridor developed by the Rio Linda-Elverta Visions Task Force and establishing new zoning districts, including Village Commercial Mixed-Use, Neighborhood Mixed-Use, and Commercial Mixed-Use.
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This SPA will serve as the new ordinance regulating development and land uses in the Downtown Rio Linda Business District. The code provides development standards or performance criteria intended to facilitate development and will comprehensively address the following elements:
- Design of the public areas streetscape, landscape, and gateway entries common throughout the SPA
- Compatibility with existing development
- Details that define the character of the SPA and each of the contributing Planning Areas
- Conditions unique to the Rio Linda area
In 2008-2009, the Sacramento County Neighborhood Services Department in conjunction with the Rio Linda-Elverta Visions Task Force initiated a comprehensive outreach program to engage the Rio Linda community in developing a vision plan for the M Street, Downtown business corridor. The visioning process involved a community survey, stakeholder interviews, meetings with community groups to develop a vision plan for the Rio Linda business corridor, a community open house workshop, and presentations of the resulting Rio Linda Vision Plan (Vision Plan) to the Rio Linda Community Council and the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors. In 2010, with funding assistance from the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, the Neighborhood Services Department initiated the process of creating a new Special Planning Area (SPA) Ordinance that will replace the existing Rio Linda SPA and implement the Vision Plan.
The Special Planning Area (SPA) Ordinance will guide the revitalization of Downtown Rio Linda according to the community’s vision of establishing an attractive and vibrant Downtown main street environment that draws people, activities, and commerce while maintaining the community’s historic small town charm. The SPA Ordinance will strengthen and support continued revitalization of the M Street corridor through downtown Rio Linda while improving Rio Linda’s local economy by encouraging new housing, shopping, civic uses, and jobs; protecting historic, cultural, and natural resources; increasing opportunities for recreation and access to the Dry Creek Parkway; and supporting the County’s infill strategies targeting development in its existing commercial corridors. To this end vision, the SPA Ordinance will promote both the improvement and adaptive reuse of existing structures and help facilitate new development by removing cumbersome regulations that limit development opportunities and instead, allow more flexible mixed-use zoning and development standards that address the ever-changing market conditions and improves the economic base of the Rio Linda community. Community-wide and area-specific design guidelines will accompany the development standards to strengthen the community’s identity and to establish an attractive, pedestrian-friendly environment within the Downtown center, neighborhood commercial subareas, and the places in between the centers.
The Rio Linda Elverta Community Planning Advisory Committee will meet to finalize and approve the ordinance on July 22nd, 7pm at the Depot Building at Depot Park in Rio Linda.
Current Revision of the SPA Ordinance, May 2015
Sacramento County Planning Rio Linda SPA page
Rio Linda Elverta CPAC Agenda July 22 2015[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
