More than 76 acres of land on the south side of Elk Grove Boulevard will one day will be the home of a new Civic Center and Community Park for the City of Elk Grove. Located between Big Horn Boulevard and Laguna Springs Drive, the site includes 20 acres for a new Civic Center, and more than 56 acres for a park.

Planning has been under way since 2006, a process that began in earnest with the selection of renowned architects Zaha Hadid to work with the City on the creation of an overall design for the civic center.  The timeline below highlights some of the key events in the planning process, with links to information presented at the public meetings that have been held over the past three years. We invite you to learn more about the civic center planning process, and to take part in the continuing process of creating this iconic landmark for Elk Grove.

The future civic center site is dedicated to the City as part of the approval of the Laguna Ridge Specific Plan.

The City starts a worldwide search for an architectural firm to help guide the creation of a design for the civic center.

After reviewing 23 proposals from firms around the world, the City Council selected London-based Zaha-Hadid Architects to lead the design team. The City also selected local architectural firm Stantec to work with Zaha-Hadid.

City staff and the design team developed a comprehensive planning process that included extensive public outreach to involve the residents of Elk Grove in the design of the civic center ( view).

A citywide telephone survey is conducted to find out what types of facilities should be included in the civic center to meet the community's needs.  A followup web-based survey was also conducted to seek additional input.

Three public workshops were conducted, focusing on learning from the community about the types of facilities desired by residents of Elk Grove.

After hearing a report on the results of these workshops, the City Council directed staff and the design team to continue work ( view). Included in the Council's direction to staff was a call to seek an additional consultant to perform an economic analysis of the civic center and help find ways to partner with the private sector to build the center and its iconic buildings.

The City selected local firm AECom to perform the financial analysis.

Using the results from the 2008/2009 polling as a starting point, and the results of the financial analysis, the City Council selected a "program" for the civic center, listing all of the various uses that will be included in the center. The program was a highly important part of the planning process, guiding all of the more detailed planning to come ( view).  Uses identified in the program include:

An audience of more than 30 persons participated in a December 9 workshop led by Zaha Hadid Architects, the City’s architectural consultant for the design of the Civic Center.  Zaha Hadid presented the scenarios for arranging the buildings and uses included in the Civic Center’s “Program,” a detailed list of uses developed earlier in the design process. 

The scenarios differed in the way the public and commercial buildings to be located in the Civic Center are arranged. Scenario 1 clustered the buildings near Elk Grove Boulevard, while Scenarios 2 and 3 spread the buildings through the site (See illustrations below. Click on each illustration for additional information, including three dimensional volumetric renderings).

Based on the input received at the December 2010 workshop, Zaha Hadid Architects developed two refined alternatives, to presented to the public in workshops to be scheduled in early February, 2011.

At two workshops, Zaha-Hadid presented their updated two scenarios. These workshops - essentially, the same type of "client meeting" that would be held with any of the firm's clients to show progress - also provided a forum for community members to comment on the scenario. Click here to view or download the presentation from the February 2011 workshops.

At the workshop, two main ways of distributing the buildings over the civic center site were presented--one concentrates most of the buildings on the northern portion of the site, while the other distributes buildings throughout most of the site. Regarding the concentrated distribution scenario, a new scenario was developed where the height of buildings was reduced in the perimeter, gradually increasing toward the center of the building complex (Scenario 1-1). These scenarios are shown below.

These scenarios will, in turn, be further refined and presented to the City Council for their review and selection of a final layout for the Civic Center at the Council’s regular meeting of March 23, 2011. Click here to view the staff report. Later steps will involve the development of a finance plan and the release of Requests for Proposals for the design of individual buildings and the development of the Civic Center, a process that is expected to take several years.