Applebee’s, stock photo. By Anthony92931 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia CommonsEver wonder when those empty lots in front of the Auburn Boulevard Costco and Walmart would be filled?
Plans to bring a new 5,400 square feet Applebee’s restaurant to the Stock Ranch Plaza in Citrus Heights are currently under way, with a company executive saying the new location should open by the end of this year.
“We are excited to open our Applebee’s in Citrus Heights as it offers excellent demographics for our brand,” said Monty Davis, the market president for Apple NorCal which operates 37 Applebee’s locations in Northern California.
City Manager Henry Tingle told a group of residents at an Area 11 neighborhood meeting last month he was glad to see development in the works for the spot in front of Costco. Asked about the other empty lots in front of Walmart, he said there are several current offers for the other pads available on the Stock Ranch Plaza, but was unable to disclose their names as “they are in negotiation with the owners of the property.”
Davis said applications for managers at the new location are currently being accepted, and the hiring process for staff will begin in October.
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Applebee’s “neighborhood bar & grill” markets itself as a casual-dining, family-friendly restaurant, and has grown to almost 2,000 locations since launching nearly 30 years ago.
A new multimillion-dollar traffic light project on Sunrise Boulevard received the go-ahead from the Citrus Heights city council last month, with work scheduled to begin in November, according to General Services Director David Wheaton.
A new traffic light project is expected to begin in November at the Sunrise Boulevard and Sungarden Drive intersection.
Located at the intersection of Sunrise Boulevard and Sungarden Drive, City Manager Henry Tingle said the project is expected to take until Spring to finish, and is needed to improve traffic safety at a location where he said people have been hit and killed in the past.
Asked about impact to traffic, Tingle said drivers “won’t see any delay in where they are going” after the project is finished.
The project will run between $2.4 to $2.6 million, according to Wheaton, and also includes gutter, curb and sidewalk improvements, as well as several bus stops.
Funding for the project is provided through a variety of sources, including a Highway Safety Improvement Program Grant, the Gas Tax, Measure A Capital fund, General Capital Improvement Funds, Transportation Development Act and Stormwater Utility funds, according to documents provided to the council by the City’s General Services Division. An estimated $86,600 will also be provided by Sacramento Regional Transit for the cost of the bus stops included in the project.
Although work on the signal project won’t begin until November, Wheaton said construction activity at the location may be observed starting this week, as the Citrus Heights Water District will be working on a three-week project near the intersection.
A conceptual view of the proposed 3-story medical office building at Greenback Lane and Fountain Square Drive, which some residents say doesn’t fit with the “small-town” character of the city. // Courtesy of Dignity Health
*Editor’s note: As this story is now several months old, a more up-to-date story can be viewed by clicking here.
Controversy erupted at a community meeting this week over a proposal to bring a new 3-story medical office building to the existing Citrus Heights city hall location, and move the hall to Antelope Drive.
In a full room of about 200 people, public comments from the audience were largely critical or skeptical of the proposal, although Board Chairman Evan Jacobs from the Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce announced the Chamber had recently taken a unanimous vote in support of the proposal.
The meeting was the sixth in a series of evening sessions designed by the City to inform the community about the proposal and invite feedback from residents — and during the evening’s four separate Q&A times, many residents expressed concern over building size, construction noise, traffic, location choice and cost.
Event Facilitator Wendy Hoyt sought to keep the meeting moderated and on schedule, but audience members shouted accusations of “cutting off” speakers when she tried to close comments while a few hands were still up in the room.
“Many assumptions have been made in the financial scenarios made by the City-hired consultant,” said Joan Bippus, during one of the evening’s question times. “There are still too many unanswered questions for these proposals to be accepted as gospel.”
The 40-year resident also said the 68,000 square feet medical building would not be in keeping with the City’s General Plan, which lists a community development goal of “Preserv[ing] the unique character of Citrus Heights” and its “small-town attributes.”
City Manager Henry Tingle responded to some of the concerns by calling the Dignity Health medical building proposal a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” where the City could get an $18.9 million new hall for an estimated net cost of about $5 million — primarily due to income from leasing land for the medical building, as well as projected energy and repair savings coming from a new city hall.
Built in the 70’s and previously used by a nursery, the City has said the existing hall buildings are in need of major repairs and upgrades. Additionally, City officials have emphasized that the current city hall was always considered to be a temporary solution when the City first incorporated in 1997.
If the City were to reject the Dignity Health proposal, it estimates a cost of $11.9 million to provide “necessary improvements” to the existing hall structures, although it had previously reported a lower repair and upgrade cost of $5.5 million earlier this year.
Reacting to the cost estimates, one resident called the numbers presented by the City “a shell game.”
“They only give the information they want to give,” said Susan Howell, who also lives nearby the proposed medical office building location. She also expressed concern about construction noise, and adding more traffic to an already-busy Greenback Lane.
Presenters from both the City and Dignity Health sought to calm tensions by calling the proposal a “win-win” for everyone involved, saying the new medical office building would help serve Citrus Heights’ aging residents, bring in jobs, help pay for a new city hall and boost business in the Antelope Road area.
A packet handed out to attendees also included a list of ways Dignity Health had responded to community input at past meetings, including decreasing the size of the building by 25 percent, adding more trees, and agreeing to retain most of the existing palm trees.
Varying reactions to the proposal have also been seen across the city.
Notably, both of the neighborhood associations representing residents around the Antelope Road and Fountain Square sites have avoided taking a position on the proposal, citing conflicting opinions of residents and unknown impacts.
The City acknowledged there are still unknowns about the proposal, with environmental and traffic impacts among those brought up and currently being studied.
Environmental unknowns will be reviewed, and findings will be released for public review in June, followed by a final decision on the proposal in July by the council, according to Citrus Heights Planning Manager Colleen McDuffee. She added that a final decision date is tentative, as it is dependent on environmental review findings.
A full traffic report is also expected to be available in June by Fehr & Peers, but a representative from the company said it was already “clear” that a new traffic light would have to be installed if city hall were moved to the proposed 7625 Antelope Rd. location.
The agenda for the evening also allowed for an “open house” one-on-one opportunity at the end, and Hoyt made it clear to attendees that city staff and architects wouldn’t be leaving until everyone had an opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Conversations continued until about 9 p.m., well after the main session was scheduled to close at 8:20 p.m.
Although the April 30 event was the final community meeting, residents will still have an opportunity to voice their opinion when the planning commission and city council take up the issue this summer.
The City welcomes questions and comments about the proposal via email at publicinfo@citrusheights.net, or by phone at (916) 725-2448.
