Welcome
Let’s start exploring your
opportunities at Braden.
;)
Thanks for your info
We'll be in touch
Sacramento County is getting a major new planned community. Officials held a groundbreaking Thursday for Braden, a development that could bring more than 8,000 new homes along with new commercial and retail construction southeast of Rancho Cordova.
The 2,667-acre project, long known as Cordova Hills, was first proposed more than 15 years ago. It is being developed by Somers West. The first phase of the project will focus on a town center along Grant Line Road. About 900 homes will be built initially.
“Everything is designed and meant to be people first and cars second,” said Somers West Chief Operating Officer Rachel Bardis. “Everything is human scale so you can walk to get your coffee. No more than 10 minutes away for your work, schools, entertainment and restaurants.”
Development of a new community in Sacramento County is slated to begin after 11 years. The community of Braden is on its way.
Braden is a planned community in Sacramento County near Rancho Cordova. At buildout, there’s expected to be about 8,000 units in the community. Rachel Bardis, Chief Operations Officer for Somers West, said the project is considered a major masterplan community, including plans for homes and more than 2 million square feet of commercial retail.
The project itself dates back 2003 and was approved in 2013. It’ll have its groundbreaking Thursday. Bardis said it’s taken a while to reach a point where development could actually begin.
Once complete, Braden will be a “human first, cars second” type of community, according to Bardis. She said the hope is Braden creates opportunities for walkability and bikability to become the first way of going through the area. Employment and schools on site along with mixed city housing types and grocery stores will also contribute to less vehicle miles traveled.
“It’s a really a bold and significant change to the manner in which typical communities or subdivisions are built,” Bardis said.
Homes are still a ways from being built for now, but the vision for the community is a clear one and one developers hope will be held in high regard.
“I think the most important thing is more than being part of a golf course community and seeing a pretty view, more people really want to just to be able to walk and see open space and be a part of that,” Bardis said.
She also touted the amount of trees that’ll be planted and Braden being an all electric community.
A community services district would also be set up that’ll contact various agencies like police and firefighters.
A rural area is about to change as work begins to build the Braden community in Sacramento County. Braden, known as Cordova Hills up until this year, has been in the planning stages for nearly two decades.
“From 2013 to today, it has gone through various approvals, ideation sessions, changes and pivot, and a lot of it driven with where our economy, where our residential, where things should live,” said Rachel Bardis, chief operating officer of Somers West.
The project will be located in an unincorporated area of Sacramento County and includes plans to improve the two-lane Grant Line Road for better access to the community.
“The vision is extremely strong with this project, but there are issues to work out. Obviously, we need to bring infrastructure out here. We have a very large preserve through the middle which will be an amenity both for the residents of the preserve as well as the future residents of the homes here” Sacramento County Deputy CEO, Dave Defanti.
The project will have 8,000 housing units in its 2,600-acre community, which will also host a K-8 school, 75 miles of trails and bike lanes, an amphitheater, and an opportunity for affordable housing on-site.
The first phase of the project includes a Town Center and is expected to be completed by 2026, with the first move-ins also anticipated for that year.
Braden is developer-funded which means that they didn’t receive grants or seed money for the site.
Construction crews broke ground Thursday on a new town known as Braden that is coming to Sacramento County. Braden is located just outside of Rancho Cordova along Grant Line Road in an unincorporated area of Sacramento. Local developer Somers West has been working on the project for nearly 20 years and it was approved by the county in 2013.
“It is the most bold change to what development should and can look like,” said Chief Operating Officer for Somers West Rachel Bardis.
Somers West is calling the new town a “10-minute town.” Renderings reveal the futuristic-looking community that will feature a multi-use area with businesses, schools, entertainment, 75 miles of trails and bike lanes, parks and a whole of housing.
“How we can have all the mixed densities the housing types, anyone from janitor to CEO together on one site,” said Bardis. Bardis believes this will be a possible solution for the housing crisis with 8,000 residences for all income levels. Over 900 of these residences are projected to be ready to move in by July 2026.
“As we look to make our next transition, I think not only are you looking for a place to live but that sense of community,” said Jordan Green who just moved to Sacramento from Michigan two months ago. Green is already curious about Braden that is being built across from the neighborhood where his family currently rents. “Having a space where everything is confined, everyone hangs out in the neighborhood so to speak and we add to that community,” said Green.
Developers believe the new town will take big steps towards meeting California’s sustainability goals with renewable energy and a network of EV shuttles connecting the new community. “People like myself with small children just excited to see more opportunities come their way that may live one day and raise their families,” said Deputy County Executive of Community Services Dave Defanti.
The new town will be over 2,667 acres with 1.3 million square feet of commercial space. It anticipates to create three elementary schools and one middle/high school. It will also require expansion of Grant Line Road so the new town can connect to major highways. This $25 million road-widening project will be federally funded.
Phase One will be the construction of the Town Center, the first of six mix-used villages. These 180 acres will include a school and over 900 residences. The housing types will include medium and large single-family homes, cottage homes, green court homes, live-work homes, townhomes, paired homes, condominiums and apartments.
Sacramento County is growing and a local company intends to develop thousands of homes in an area southeast of Rancho Cordova. The Sacramento-based company, Somers West, says their development will be walkable and bikeable.
Phase one broke ground on Thursday morning and will include about 180 acres and 900 homes along Grant Line Road. This is a fraction of the 8,000 homes that will fill the space once construction is complete. Phase one is more than just homes though. It will include the construction of the town center, the heart of Braden, and the first of the six mixed-use villages. Somers West says phase one will be a mix of residential, retail and civic spaces that will prioritize people, not cars.
The company will do mass-grating for some 900,000 square feet, putting in park blocks and planting thousands of trees.
The goal is to get the town center and retail spaces developed early on to attract business. Retail construction will coincide with home construction so those moving into the community already have all those walkable features from day one. Mass-grating is already underway for phase one and will likely go to the end of the year. From there construction will begin on the roads and housing lots.