Can RLE Be Another Loomis?

By Jerry Trautman

President of the Rio Linda Elverta Incorporation Committee

Often, when you are trying to describe a vision to others, it helps to use an existing situation as an example of the vision that you are trying to portray. Loomis, just north of us in Placer County is an incorporated rural community of 6,500 people in an area of 7.3 square miles. That is a density of approximately 900 people per square mile. RLE has a population of 22,000 in an area of 20 square miles or approximately 1100 people per square mile. On the Town of Loomis' web site, they state "The Town of Loomis is a quaint, family oriented community. Established in 1850 and incorporated in 1984, Loomis retains its rural character and charm with its large residential lots and custom homes, an old fashioned downtown, and woodlands with natural streams and rolling hillsides." Further history from Wikipedia states "Loomis remained part of unincorporated Placer County until December 17, 1984, when the Town of Loomis officially incorporated. The town was in danger of being annexed by its neighbor Rocklin and the residents voted to incorporate to preserve local control, partly on the issue of preserving the small town character and historic structures". Does all of this sound familiar?

Loomis has stayed small when Roseville, Rocklin and Lincoln were all exploding around it. According to a recent Bee article, Loomis has issued only 179 building permits since 2000. It has only ten city employees with most of its municipal services including police and fire contracted out, much the way RLE plans to run our town upon incorporation.

But here the similarities begin to diverge. What has almost twenty five years of incorporation done for Loomis? What has self control allowed them to accomplish? Their planning has resulted in residential property values that are seventy five percent higher than RLE. Their business development has resulted sales tax revenues per resident that is almost five times as high as RLE. They have attracted residents whose median household income is 35% higher than RLE. But they still have had to step up to preserve their community. Last year the residents of the Loomis Fire District which includes all of Loomis voted in favor of a parcel tax of $173 per parcel to keep a safe level of fire protection. RLE is now considering a parcel tax to provide Community Police to bring up our police protection to a reasonable level. Is RLE going to invest in their community as Loomis has? Time will tell.

Hopefully RLE can look back twenty five years from now and be proud of what they have saved and what they have accomplished along the way. We have the raw materials to create an incorporated rural community similar to Loomis. What will our finished product look like? It is up to the residents of RLE to make the right choices. Please join us in developing the vision for Our Town. Visit our web sit at http://www.riolindaelvertatown.org/ and make a donation of time or money.