Growth spurs college boom
Sacramento Bee 2/22/07
The $80 million project by the Los Rios Community College District will feature schools in Davis, Elk Grove, Natomas, Placerville, Rancho Cordova and West Sacramento along light-rail and bus lines.
On Wednesday, the Los Rios board of trustees approved a land deal for a West Sacramento center on West Capitol Avenue. It would help anchor a city development project featuring a library, community center and transit hub. Construction could begin by the end of the year.
Although California's college-age population is expected to flatten out over the next decade, demographic researchers say droves of older and returning students will head to community colleges for retraining or to complete their education.
In the sprawling Sacramento region, the Los Rios district decided to bring permanent classroom buildings closer to the students, from east to west, north to south.
"It's not like we're growing in one direction," said Susie Williams, spokeswoman for Los Rios, the second-largest community college district in the state.
Up to 10,000 students could take basic-education courses at each of the satellite centers. Students would take higher-level courses, labs and specialty classes at the main Los Rios campuses at American River, Cosumnes River, Folsom Lake and Sacramento City colleges.
A Natomas branch on Del Paso Road opened in 2005. The Placerville center, which used to operate out of portable buildings on the county fairgrounds, opened at its current location in 1994 and recently underwent a major facelift.
Construction is expected to begin in June 2008 for the Davis center, which will be located in UC Davis' West Village faculty housing and retail project. Property has been secured for the Elk Grove center, at Poppy Ridge Road at Big Horn Boulevard, with a fall 2011 construction start.
The Rancho Cordova center has proved more vexing. Deputy Chancellor Jon Sharpe said the district has been shopping for a site along Folsom Boulevard for the last two years but hasn't found a willing seller.
The district already offers classes in Rancho Cordova, in leased space on a Rockingham Drive office complex.
"We're good there for a few years," Sharpe said. "The plan is to acquire a permanent site. We're talking with anybody that will listen."