Rural Roots Sunday - What happens in Elk Grove’s rural area affects the entire city
"Why should I care what happens in that area?"
"…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
For the last several months, I have enjoyed reading the weekly Rural Roots Sunday. As a 35-plus-year RD5 Elk Grove resident, I found that the stories reminded me of our family's first few years here.
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Years ago, when our family was young, we would use Sheldon or Bond roads to take the Sunrise route to El Dorado Hills, Folsom, and Apple Hill. Without fail, my wife would tell the kids some version of, "Remember the open spaces in the rural area, because before long there will be houses all over the place."
I never countered her because I knew the city's original General Plan committed to preserving this unique part of the municipality. Lo and behold, the mother of our children might have been right all along because a land developer is challenging the current five-member Elk Grove City Council to break that commitment.
That challenge comes in the form of the proposed Summer Villas project. That project would allow several hundred RD5-type parcels in an area where parcels are measured in acres, not fractions of acres.
Now, it is understandable for someone who lives in any of the thousands of houses in Elk Grove subdivisions, particularly in the newer developments, to ask, "Why should I care what happens in that area?"
The key word here is commitment. Since the city's founding in 2000, the city has promised to preserve the rural area.
If the mayor and city council decide to break that promise at a developer's behest, which dates back to the city's founding, what else can change?
Perhaps that 100-acre parcel for the proposed zoo will be subdivided and become home to a data center or another noise and traffic-generating project inconsistent with the surrounding area.
The point is this: even though the rural area might seem like an abstraction to us subdivision residents who dominate the city, how the mayor and city council treat this General Plan amendment request to build the subdivision in the rural area sets a precedent.
If the city can easily back out of a promise made at the time of the city's founding, how easily will it make drastic changes to other neighborhoods?
What happens in the rural area matters to your neighborhood.
Anthony G.
