Belinda Torres was a 2026 Ronald O. Loveridge Summer Fellow for the League of California Cities. She can be reached via LinkedIn.

For over 30 years, West Sacramento officials have been working to revamp a dilapidated area along West Capitol Avenue. The area, once home to vacant properties and motels, will soon become the site of hundreds of new homes, expanded transit options, and retail.

“I like to call it the story of West Sacramento taking little pieces of what the city had inherited … and having to kind of reimagine what we could do,” said Mark Polhemus, the city’s community investment manager.

The Grand Gateway project is part of a larger effort to create a denser, more walkable community where residents can access amenities without a car. West Sacramento started buying properties in the area in the 1990s, a few years after it was incorporated. At the time, West Capitol Avenue was home to hourly motels, adult stores, and other businesses that city officials say contributed to a negative image of the area. The city also began turning former highway ramps — often contaminated by lead and other pollutants — into developable land.

The work has been gradual, but each step built the foundation for the Grand Gateway project. The plan is to bring about 450 residential units, including a 114-unit affordable housing project, along with a hotel and new ground-floor retail to the area by early 2029.

“People have a misconception that people live in these affordable housing developments and sit around waiting for the next government check, and that’s just not the case,” said Reese A. Jarrett, president of E. Smith & Company, an affordable housing company helping with the affordable housing component. “Most of the families are working families trying to make ends meet, and this makes a big difference in their ability to survive and to thrive as a family.”

The affordable housing development will also include a community room, a children’s play area, bicycle storage, parking, landscaping, and electric vehicle chargers. The units will have all-electric appliances, including washers and dryers.

“The city of West Sacramento has been very collaborative and supportive, and a great partner to us,” Jarrett said, noting the city provided land for the project.

Grand Gateway is funded through a $43.35 million Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grant, a state program funded by Cap-and-Invest dollars. SacRT, the regional transit agency, helped start the grant partnership after identifying Grand Gateway as an opportunity to connect new housing with a planned transit extension. West Sacramento, SacRT, and development partners then worked together on the application.

Most of the grant funding will go toward affordable housing, with the rest going toward transit improvements and enhanced walking and biking infrastructure. Planned improvements include five miles of new bike lanes and pedestrian pathways with better lighting and signage. According to Jarrett, the expanded transit will help working-class families access opportunities normally outside their reach.

“We’re trying to do these in high-density infill areas that hopefully people will be able to live either car-free or, I would say, car-light lifestyles,” Polhemus said.

The grant also includes funding for eviction and foreclosure prevention and landlord anti-harassment education. These services will be available to all West Sacramento residents.

The affordable housing portion is getting closer to construction. The city plans to demolish a former motel site recently used by the city for emergency housing services. Recently, the affordable housing development team was awarded tax credits and a bond allocation by the state. Construction should begin around the second quarter of 2027. Residents could move in by late 2028, assuming no weather or finance-related delays. 

For Polhemus, Grand Gateway is about more than building new housing and transportation. “It’s really about trying to build the social infrastructure and the economic infrastructure that connects people to each other and connects people to opportunity,” he said.