An ‘agri-hood’? Placer County shares updated plan for walkable development in North Auburn
Placer County unveiled a plan last week for what county leaders hope to be a destination for Northern Californians – an indoor-outdoor marketplace and housing development in North Auburn with a focus on agriculture.
Known as an “agri-hood” by architects, Paul Breckenridge, the county’s deputy director of facilities, said the county is looking at a housing development that thematically celebrates agriculture. That means nature would be a “vital” part of the residential area, in the form of community gardens and landscaping.
Drawing inspiration from Tin City in Paso Robles and the Public Market in San Luis Obispo, the pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly community was designed to highlight the agricultural character of Auburn and feature shops, wineries, restaurants, parks and flexible commercial spaces.
The Board of Supervisors shared concept art at the meeting which shows the “vintage shed” commercial design and agricultural-focused housing.
“The idea is to create a marketplace, or farmer’s market type destination that is eclectic and charming – and where local artisans and businesses can produce and sell products that celebrates Placer County’s heritage,” Paul Breckenridge, the county’s deputy director of facilities, said in a news release.
According to the conceptual plan presented in Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, a pedestrian promenade called Strand would stretch the length of the community, which would span First Street between Bell Road and F Avenue, southwest of Home Depot.
The county is also committed to building 406 affordable housing units, a need identified by Placer. Overall, Breckenridge said at the board meeting, housing at the site is intended to be mixed-income.
Strand will be sandwiched between the agri-hood and commercial spaces, which will take the form of flexible sheds and a producer-consumer hub that can feature a number of businesses and events.
“When we find fun spaces where people want to go and good vendors I think that that starts to become a recipe for success and catalyze further development,” Gloria Sterns, Placer County’s economic development and housing director, said at the meeting.
The project intends to develop the non-county portion of the Placer County Government Center, which was once the DeWitt General Hospital during World War II and now houses the Auburn Justice Center, the Finance Administration Building and the Community Development Resource Center facility.
Original plans to redevelop the site goes back as far as 1993, where a 20-year plan was made to replace portions of the WWII barracks with county buildings. A renewal of the plan in 2015 mapped out the next 20 years, including a plan to build a Health and Human Services Department building and a 79-unit affordable housing complex.
The board certified this most recent update to the campus in 2019 and was awarded two funding grants through California’s Housing and Community Development Block Grant program in 2020.
To preserve historical sites, the new development will save a cut-out heritage center that includes four buildings, including the DeWitt chapel. The DeWitt Theater, which was previously a focus of community concern and subject of a lawsuit, is not included in the heritage area; the Board of Supervisors has separately approved a request to study the viability of renovating the theater.
The grants funded a feasibility economic analysis to see what makes sense for the region, Breckenridge said in an interview. The analysis was done by Griffin Swinerton LLC with help from Gensler, an architectural and design firm.
To implement this project, Breckenridge said the team intends to use the design plan as a roadmap and put out requests for proposals to come up with housing development partners, and that the board went through a lengthy rezoning effort for affordable housing.
For the commercial aspects of the private zone, the plan recommends a producer-consumer application that would give local wineries, breweries, bakeries and more a large production area in the campus and a partnered consumer area where residents, campus employees and visitors can shop.
Going forward, Breckenridge said the next step is to find partners that can fill Placer’s vision for the project.
“The idea is to celebrate Placer County and what we do best and turn that into a draw,” Breckenridge said.
