Rural Roots Sunday - The Value of Rural Elk Grove is More Than Open Space

"…The Rural Area is valued in our community for its aesthetic and cultural significance, as well as the economic and educational opportunities that agriculture provides. Our commitment to maintaining the Rural Area is clear and codified in core planning documents…” Elk Grove General Plan, December 2025*

Like many others, I look forward to reading and enjoying each new installment of Rural Roots Sunday (RRS). The history, lifestyle and reasons for locating or living here tell a wonderful story. These stories have accomplished, individually, what no one person or single story could relate about the joys and benefits of a rural lifestyle.

Rural Elk Grove is a place people choose to live. Folks choose to live here for many reasons. There may be one particular reason initially but, over time, you come to realize it’s more than a single reason.

As time passes, you plant a garden or orchard, then add a shed, chickens, horses, sheep or goats. It’s learning the land and changing seasons. It’s the wild life: hawks, turkeys, ducks, owls, coyotes, possums and, yes, skunks. Even a fox or deer now and again. It’s the ebb and flow of prey and predator.

Children have the opportunity to learn the responsibilities in planting and maintaining a garden or helping care for newborn livestock. It’s a slow process, but you come to realize, it’s for all these reasons people choose and enjoy a rural lifestyle.

Residents from across the city can also enjoy the rural area. Whether it's taking a short Sunday drive, wine tasting and lunch or opportunities to participate in 4-H, FFA or riding lessons. These activities can all be accomplished within the city limits….adding to the quality of life for all residents.

These are the reasons residents successfully advocated for and the city established and codified Rural Elk Grove in the first General Plan, adopted over twenty years ago. These are the same reasons the city has continued to support and protect the rural area.

To amend the General Plan would place the entire rural area at risk….for what? The desire of a single developer to build up to 499 homes, surrounded by Agricultural/Residential (AgRes) properties? Folks living in the rural area have invested time, energy and financial resources in creating lifestyles and livelihoods around the policies codified in the General Plan.

The rural area consists of more than large lots, it’s a large diverse community consisting of Elk Grove citizens with a single goal… to maintain the rural area and the protections contained in the General Plan.

The City of Elk Grove realized long ago the rural area is a link to Elk Grove’s history and heritage, most of which has been lost. Rather than placing the rural area at risk of further development, city decision makers must take seriously the long standing commitment to protect, support and celebrate the rural area.

George Murphey

Rural Area resident, former Elk Grove Planning Commissioner

Visit the Rural Elk Grove page: https://www.saveruralelkgrove.com/