Business View Civil and Municipal | June 2022

35 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 6 L INCOLN, CAL I FORNI A Sharing the city’s vision statement –America’s Hometown: City of Opportunity – Paul Joiner, Mayor Pro Tem offers, “We’ve heard two phrases from visitors and from folks who are new to Lincoln, they say it’s like Mayberry, or it’s like Hallmark. Yes, the architecture and our history play a role in that, but it’s the people that make Lincoln great, and it’s the people that you want to be around.” Sean Scully, City Manager, and new to the community, describes, “What I think is really different about Lincoln is that it is a blend between rural lifestyle and modern convenience. We’re not a center point of all commerce in Placer County, but if you live in the community, most of the things that are really important to families exist here and are really nice. It’s a very diverse place, and it really does feel like Hallmark or Norman Rockwellian Americana.” Lincoln was the fastest growing city in California for two years in a row, prior to the 2009 recession, when development stopped. “There was very slow growth for the next decade,” Joiner explains, “Now, that growth is coming back in a more measured and deliberate way. We’ve had an opportunity to make sure that all future development includes a 40% open space minimum to preserve that small town sense and that connectivity to the land.” Creating a 50-year plan, the city has designed a ‘village concept’, planning seven individual villages within the community. According to Joiner, “Each one will have a commercial center, surrounded by high density residential, surrounded by medium density residential, surrounded by low density residential, and estate lots. All of that will be interconnected with bike and ped trails. The hope is that folks will do their commerce within their own village, and presumably, if they’re able, walking or riding their bikes or neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs).” Each of these villages will link to Lincoln’s historic downtown, creating a central cultural gathering place for the community. As for the timeline, Joiner adds, “Village one is fully underway right now. Each village will take about 20 years to actually build out. It is a very slow, deliberate, measured growth.” To address the immediate housing shortages in the city, Regis Homes/Sares Regis Group of North Carolina and Tricon Residential recently broke ground on an innovative new project, Altair of Twelve Bridges. This development will offer 161 housing units which will be an own-to-rent model. “It’s the first in the region and we are really excited to see how it works out in Lincoln,” Andreatta says. “People need homes, and they want to live in Lincoln, but we have a shortage right now. We are building all over the place, but that takes time.” Gladding McBean has remained a major employer in Lincoln for more than 140 years, as a leading producer of clay pipe, tile products, and is a world-renowned manufacturer of architectural terra cotta. Sierra Pacific