For many years, Sacramento has suffered from "Little Big City Syndrome." Despite being a metropolitan hub of over half a million people, it has often been overshadowed by larger cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles. But over the last decade, something has shifted. Instead of striving to be like somewhere else, Sacramento has embraced being the best version of itself.
We don’t wait for permission to make our city stronger. We see a need and we act. That spirit of grassroots momentum, combined with our deep historical roots and growing recognition of our own unique strengths, is what makes Sacramento truly special.
The R Street corridor is in the heart of Sacramento, has relatively low vehicle usage, and it invites pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy the streets and shops along the way. With one of the busiest light rail stops on its route, the 16th Street Station, this corridor is poised to be a shining example of pedestrian first infrastructure.
There was only one problem: the corridor is cut in half and difficult for pedestrians to cross because 15th and 16th Streets are major one-ways that been designed to move drivers out of the city and onto the freeways. The placement of these streets made it difficult for pedestrians to cross to either side of the R Street Corridor, even with the crosswalks.
In 2021, the city installed short, channelizing traffic posts on 15th & 16th Streets to reduce the speed of cars and the severity of injuries for pedestrians or cyclists. Speeds went from an average of 33 MPH before the posts, to 24 MPH after. This reduction halves the likelihood of a serious injury or fatality.
Several active transportation and pedestrian safety groups, such as Slow Down Sacramento, Civic Thread, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates, Strong SacTown and the Anti-Police Terror Project, have lobbied city council to provide residents with guidelines for quick-builds that meet city standards. Our Active Transportation Commission has also consistently recommended and supported this effort to the city council.
This effort culminated in a joint Clean Air Day event, the Breathe Easy Expo, between Tahoe Park Neighborhood Association and Strong SacTown. The event highlighted the challenges of air pollution in our city — some of the worst in America — in one of the most disadvantaged communities in Sacramento. This demonstrated practical changes we could make as individuals and as a community.
Supported by dozens of local businesses, activists and the district city council member, participants witnessed the first traffic calming demonstration in Sacramento’s history. Several activists and local youth volunteered to show what $100 of paint, a few hours and some elbow grease could do to slow down cars by visually removing a generous turn radius on a neighborhood street. The project was a huge success by several standards. The quick-build slowed vehicle traffic down by 6 mph, and its impact didn’t stop there.
After the project, community members visited the site to see its impact. While there, they saw a little girl grasped her dad’s hand shouting “Daddy, look! Flowers!” and pointing to the painting of a California Poppy on the street. In a neighborhood barren of trees and greenery, this is the quick community-building that makes an impact on both speed and the community’s sense of belonging.
Like many cities, several advocacy groups, working as coalitions, continue to show up for public comment to sway approval or denial of certain projects. Some advocacy groups, such as Strong SacTown, show up to city council meetings for any topic of interest. Even if a major vote hasn’t been held, these groups show support or opposition to the project and take special care to thank city staff for their efforts in creating the policies, and for incorporating the public into these policies.
But conversations with elected officials and residents happen even before projects come up for a vote. City staff and city council members regularly reach out to community groups when working on draft policies to seek early thoughts and input. Not only do they meet one-on-one with community leaders, but city staff regularly present at community meetings when requested and find new events to gather input. These community groups work to get the word out about programs, surveys, and other community input request from the city, and the city puts in special effort for translation services and outreach to residents who may not otherwise have a voice in city politics.
These conversations build trust between groups who want to see Sacramento thrive. This is evident in events like the Breathe Easy Expo, where residents, activists, and youth worked together to create a quick build demonstration in an underserved community, providing an effective data point for city staff to show how quick builds can be used.
To meet the needs of the city, Sacramento updates its General Plan every five years. It was through this process that city staff and local advocates worked together to make radical changes that will have significant impacts on the housing supply, including changing zoning standards to Floor Area Ratio (FAR) standards, eliminating single-family zoning in favor of “Neighborhood Zones”, creating a Missing Middle plan, and more recently, hosting small developer sessions.
In 2023, Sacramento introduced elimination of single-family zoning. The city designated these areas as “neighborhood zones,” allowing for some commercial uses within residential areas. At the same time, the city recommended increasing the FAR of residential areas to 1.0 within a quarter mile of major transit stops (15 min frequency). Several advocacy groups and community members wrote letters, spoke with city staff, and showed up at the city council meeting addressing the FAR. The final recommendation was increasing the FAR to 2.0 within a half mile of major transit stops. Over 30 people spoke at that meeting, nearly every speaker was in support of this change or calling for increases to the change.
After this significant policy change, Sacramento has continued this work by enshrining missing middle housing, or housing that falls between single-family and high-rise apartments, standards into policy as well. The community support for these changes was overwhelmingly positive.
With over 17% of the downtown grid covered in surface parking lots, and much of the downtown land being used for State office buildings, the city has been starved of tax revenue on its most profitable parcels.
Parking minimums were removed in the central city in 2012, and in 2017, the City instituted parking maximums for certain non-residential land uses for the same area. In 2018, the City ended parking minimums for properties within ¼ mile from a light rail station. These properties are almost 9% of the city’s land. The City also reduced parking minimums by 50% for properties between ¼ mile and ½ mile from a light rail station. In 2021, the City dropped parking requirements for accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Most recently, in 2023, the City is working on establishing parking maximums and bicycle parking minimums.
Using the research completed by Strong SacTown, a Local Conversation of Strong Towns, Sacramento has continued to reevaluate its parking requirements. In August 2023, a city planner reached out to Strong SacTown specifically to request the data we had gathered on land use in the central city dedicated to off-street parking.
Updating parking policies is an ongoing conversation between city staff, elected officials, and community members, and the city has made some significant strides in listening to community needs and taking steps to prioritize place making over the storage of privately owned vehicles.
