New Development on the Way?

[SDHornet]

As of the last meeting the old dorms will be the “cheaper option” for students wanting to live on campus. This new one will go south of Desmond and will have a parking garage on the lower levels. So I’m guessing the structure itself will be close to 5 or 6 stories tall.

The previous renditions of the master plan shows similar styles of dorms all over campus, we’ll see if anything has changed when the final draft master plan is revealed on Monday. I’m curious to see if the event center will remain on the master plan or if it will be pulled off all together since is has been killed by Gonzo.

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

As of the last meeting the old dorms will be the “cheaper option” for students wanting to live on campus. This new one will go south of Desmond and will have a parking garage on the lower levels. So I’m guessing the structure itself will be close to 5 or 6 stories tall.

The previous renditions of the master plan shows similar styles of dorms all over campus, we’ll see if anything has changed when the final draft master plan is revealed on Monday. I’m curious to see if the event center will remain on the master plan or if it will be pulled off all together since is has been killed by Gonzo.

Rhetorical question to myself, "why would Gonzo pull the Events Center off the MP knowing that the Nest is untenable, especially over the next decade?" If the school was just going to languish with sub-par facilities why has the overall athletic budget increased significantly to represent a more committed program?

Is everybody waiting to see what the Kings will do Arena wise before anything is committed? I sure hope so for our sake. Perhaps football has some news and based on politics only one program can expand at a time?
Otherwise, they have flatly failed in Objective #3: http://www.csus.edu/faculty/p/sjperez/docs/Athletics%20Strategic%20Plan%20Summary" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am surprised they are being allowed to dig underneath the integrity of the levee. Looks like the new dorms/parking garage will surely abut up against the levee. All is fine and dandy now, but I remember the late 80's when they were seriously thinking of flooding the campus because of a swollen American River.

 

[SDHornet]

Rhetorical question to myself, "why would Gonzo pull the Events Center off the MP knowing that the Nest is untenable, especially over the next decade?" If the school was just going to languish with sub-par facilities why has the overall athletic budget increased significantly to represent a more committed program?

Is everybody waiting to see what the Kings will do Arena wise before anything is committed? I sure hope so for our sake. Perhaps football has some news and based on politics only one program can expand at a time?

I am surprised they are being allowed to dig underneath the integrity of the levee. Looks like the new dorms/parking garage will surely abut up against the levee. All is fine and dandy now, but I remember the late 80's when they were seriously thinking of flooding the campus because of a swollen American River.

The same question has gone through my mind, sadly I think the only hope for hoops int he near future is some kind of deal to get a handful of games int he new downtown arena. Other than that it is just Gonzo throwing in the towel.

They won't dig under the levee for the new dorm. My guess is the "first level" will be at grade or maybe dug into the ground a few feet and will serve as the parking garage. Maybe they go another level for parking on top of that followed by 3 or 4 stories of dorm levels.

Issue with that is I recall being at a meeting with CE faulty while they were discussing the history of Riverside Hall. They limited the height of that building (it's 5 stories) based on some stupid hippie concept of keeping infrastructure from view if you were in a kayak in the American River. I guess the idea is you won't see a building towering over the river so you would somehow forget that you were int he middle of a sprawling city...so typical hippie logic. :dunce:

 

[superhornet]

The previous renditions of the master plan shows similar styles of dorms all over campus...

Wouldn't that sort of make the dorms a bit harder to administrate? Having previously lived in the dorms at our "friends to the south," I know what having dorms all over God's Creation can do. While Sac's dorms are sort of isolated from the rest of campus, they're concentrated, therefore making administration (RA's, school oversight, one cafeteria, etc.) a WHOLE lot easier.

 

[SDHornet]

No. The goal is to turn the campus into a 24 hour mixed use type of atmosphere. Keeping all the dorms in one area does not do this. Also the RA’s need not worry what happens outside the doors of their dorm; that is what the campus PD is for. As time goes on, spreading dorms throughout the campus will get rid of the “dead zones” we have during “non business hours.” This will fit in nicely with the commercial/services buildings that are also on the master plan.

 

[SDHornet]

So I attended the Maser Plan (MP) forum last night which revealed the final draft. Not much differed from the previous version. Here are the highlights:

Athletics
Even through Gonzo shat the bed on the SEC decision; it is still on the MP. My feeling is that it never gets built but who knows. The theme for that quad area between Tahoe Hall and the Well is for a place for students to converge and congregate. In fact that is a theme throughout the MP. Since that is the theme, they still highlighted how the SEC would make that area even livelier with activity.

Stadium renovation shown for Hornet Stadium (HS). There was not much detail but it showed a new west grandstand and a new east grandstand. The east grandstand wrapped around the beginning of those turns on the track…yes it looked like the stupid track was on the figures. Unfortunately that new track that is going in this spring will probably stay whenever a HS renovation/rebuild is done.

That lot south of parking structure 3 will remain open for tailgating. You’re welcome in advance; that was my recommendation (among many others). Alumni Center will remain as is.

Nothing shown for baseball, softball, or soccer. The last version considered moving some of those fields around. I didn’t ask about it as IMO the SEC and HS plans take priority. Safe to say the baseball, softball, and soccer fields stay where they are for the foreseeable future.

Showed more tennis courts to go in east of the Athletics Building. I think the goal is to allow a place for tennis to come back on campus.

Housing
On-campus housing didn’t have much change although they now want to demo the old ones (very long term plan) where as they kept them on the last draft. The big emphasis was to have “cafes” and other “quad” areas so students have a place to congregate and recreate such that a “sense of community” could generate. Undergrad housing would remain in the north side of campus (same vicinity of the existing dorms). Some of the newer dorms would have parking structures serve as the lower levels. This would also boost the height of the building so the river would be emphasized for views, interaction, etc. This concept was discussed previously in this thread so we will see first hand how it works out as Gonzo wants that style of dorm open by fall ’17.

The on-campus housing on the south side of campus (near University Dr & College Town intersection) would primarily serve as upper graduate and faculty apartment style housing. Again they plan is to emphasize quad areas for gathering/recreational purposes. All in all at build out it is estimated that over 3k beds would be on-campus.

Academic
Not much changed from the last version. The performing arts center was moved from the location south of parking structure 3 to the open space adjacent to the theatre just south of the dorms.
The science building that was planned to go next to the Guy West Bridge is still set. I think we will see movement on this building soon as I believe it was partially funded by a Federal grant and has since climbed up the ladder on the CSU facility funding priority list.
Some buildings will be renovated, but thankfully those old crappy original campus structures will get knocked down.

Greenery
“Hornet Creek” (a glorified drainage swale) will be put in place of the old demolished buildings creating a greenbelt that stretches the length of campus. This is also needed as the City cannot handle the storm water flow coming into their system from campus. The creek will allow as much storm water as possible to percolate into the ground before it hits the pump station that dumps the water into the river. I think it will be pretty nice having the greenbelt. If anyone has been on SDSU or SJSU’s campus you know how dreary it is walking around one big concrete jungle.

Campus Connectivity
The City of Sac is pushing forward with the Ramona Ave extension. This would connect Ramona Ave to Folsom Blvd at the south entrance of the campus. The MP shows a new road coming into campus from that new intersection.

The presenters showed a widening of Folsom Blvd (specifically sidewalks and bikeways) under HWY-50 to increase connectivity to the Folsom Hall Annex. There is already a sidewalk and a bike lane at this location, I don’t see this ever happening unless the State pays for it.

MP has an additional pedestrian tunnel under the RR tracks further north of the existing Hornet Tunnel. Also shows a shuttle tunnel under the RR tracks to connect the campus more directly to the Folsom-65th Street area. Personally I don’t think any of these ever get built, it’s just too costly.

Wildcard
The Ramona Ave property wasn’t discussed. I asked why and basically the University doesn’t know what they want to do with it. Initially they wanted to use that for housing but they moved that on-campus and they will wait to see what the surround companies/industry do in that area. I think the University wants to keep it open to see if any partnerships with private companies can be made that may result in development of that land.

This is where athletics might come in regarding this property. I wouldn’t mind if baseball/track/softball/anything else is moved there. Long term I kind of think that is how it will play out if no better ideas of use come into mind for that property. As it stands now its just open space with great proximity to HWY-50, LRT, and a major roadway (Power Inn) that connects to the urban sprawl of the southern areas of Sac. Lot’s of potential for this site.

Now What?
I thought the plan brings a lot of things together for the campus. Athletics wasn’t highlighted but I didn’t expect it to be. Like we have seen in the past the more noise the pro-athletics crowd makes, the more noise the anti-athletics crowd makes in response. I was talking with one of the architects afterwards and he said the athletics buildings will most likely be student fee funded so IMO there is basically little to no chance those ever get built unless some donors step up to the plate. The majority of the academic buildings are funded by the CSU whereas housing fees make up the majority of the housing project funding.

The final draft will now have some minor tweaks made before it is submitted for CSU approval this summer. Then in 10 years we get to talk about this all over again. Eventually a link to last night’s presentation will be made available so it can be posted here.

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

http://www.statehornet.com/news/sacramento-state-presents-draft-master-plan-on-future-construction-projects/article_391c34ae-93b3-11e3-9cc6-0017a43b2370.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[josephpoint]

Thanks for the recap SD. Very appreciated.

May our Hornet athletic teams do the best they can given the overall priorities and concerns of our beautiful university. And may we keep hope alive for the SEC as crumbling Hornet Gym turns 60 yrs old and a football stadium someday without a track around it.

Go Hornets!!

 

[SDHornet]

Feb 10th Final Draft presentation is online (right hand side, bottom):

http://www.csus.edu/masterplan/

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Has anybody considered with all this bioswale and water retention suggested the amount of mosquitos that will be plaguing everyone? Might have to change the mascot to the mosquitos.

 

[SDHornet]

No more than what is currently coming off of the drainage ditch that runs along the railroad tracks. There won’t be water in this year round, only when it rains; it’s nothing more than a hippied out culvert.

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

http://www.statehornet.com/news/sacramento-state-remains-without-arena-despite-recent-initiatives/article_cd3649c2-aef2-11e3-9692-001a4bcf6878.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

http://www.csus.edu/universitystrategicplan/documents/StrategicPlanDraft.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"approve and build an events center by 2020"

 

[SDHornet]

New dorm announcement:

Sacramento State will break ground this summer on a 416-bed residence hall with spectacular views of the American River. The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees approved the $54.9 million project today.

The four-story structure, to be built alongside the river levee on a parking lot south of Desmond Hall, will house 252 freshmen and 164 sophomores. It will join the existing American River Courtyard as centerpieces of the University’s newly named North Housing Village.

Construction is scheduled for completion in May 2017, with the first student-occupants moving in for the fall 2017 semester. This will be the first new construction on campus since The WELL, Sac State’s recreation and wellness center, opened in September 2010.

Also $4M for lab improvements in Sequoia Hall.

 

[SDHornet]

Official Sac State page of the CSU approval of the master plan.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u7a6PVKRG4[/youtube]

 

[SDHornet]

A lot of shovels turning over dirt on campus these days. The new dorm is underway, and as mentioned in the baseball thread the student fee for the Union/Well expansion kicked in this fall.

Here is the site for the Union/Well expansion. The fee increase is $99 per student per semester (an increase of $2.97M per semester), and bumps up to $129 when the expansion is complete in spring 2019. That doesn't include the annual consumer price index adjustments. I think that will make the Union fee a total of $349 per student per semester starting in spring 2019 (not including any CPI adjustments).

 

[SDHornet]

Nelsen had his spring address yesterday. Upcoming projects (18:50 mark of vid):
• New science building scheduled to break ground next year (2017)
• 1,300 spot parking structure out to bid this year
• South entrance to campus to be redesigned and a bus depot constructed (no time frame given)
• Plans to get AC in The Nest and bathrooms at the soccer fields
• (57 mark) Comprehensive fundraising campaign launched, “Events Center is going to happen”

Those are on top of the new dorm that is currently in construction and the pending Union expansion and lights for baseball.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVKu7eOVFjw[/youtube]

 

[josephpoint]

Looking forward to seeing the new resident hall being built right now and opening up this fall to bring the total students housed on campus to a bit over 2,000. A nice addition to our university as Sac State is now 70 years young. Founded in 1947.... Hope to see Sac State continue to build even more on campus housing as it will surely attract more students and all residents halls current and in the future will be filled to capacity. A commuter school that continues to become a school with students living on campus. Sweet.