Volunteers tour the site to inform plans for a community-centered space to support local businesses, foster connection, and provide vital resources during climate emergencies.
LPA LEADERS JOIN EFFORT TO ADVANCE SACRAMENTO RESILIENCE HUB
Volunteers contribute design and research expertise to support development of climate resilience in Del Paso Heights.
LPA managing director Kelly Angell and Director of Sustainability & Applied Research Ellen Mitchell recently joined a community initiative to study options for transforming an under-utilized commercial property in one of Sacramento’s most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods into a community-centered space that blends shaded open areas with commercial uses.
Funded by a grant from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and conducted by its Sacramento chapter, the study for the Greater Sacramento Urban League focused on a key intersection in the North Sacramento neighborhood of Del Paso Heights. Extreme heat, limited tree cover, and wide swaths of impervious surfaces are creating dangerous heat islands in the area, making environmental equity and community resilience urgent community priorities.
Kelly Angell, LPA Managing Director
Angell was part of a ULI Sacramento committee that secured $45,000 in funding from ULI’s Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate to study options for the site. An eight-member technical assistance panel brought together expertise in housing, commercial development, urban planning, equitable design, and community engagement to explore the potential for the project to become a model for equitable and climate-resilient development.
Mitchell contributed to the panel’s interdisciplinary review as a design voice, helping to create a roadmap for developing the site.
Panel participants collaborate on ideas for Grand Gathering.
Ellen Mitchell, Director of Sustainability & Applied Research
LPA Managing Director Kelly Angell and Director of Sustainability & Applied Research Ellen Mitchell.
The proposed project, Grand Gathering, located at Marysville Boulevard and Grand Avenue, envisions a community-centered space that offers residents opportunities to gather, grow businesses, and access critical resources during climate and economic emergencies. The panel focused on practical, high-impact strategies that can be quickly activated. Immediate improvements such as adding trees, shaded seating and space for food trucks would create the social outdoor space envisioned in the design by Salazar Architects.
The space could serve many roles. Plans to renovate the retail building include a commercial kitchen, shops, and makerspaces. Community members could use these spaces and resources to launch, support, and elevate local businesses.
"It was refreshing to be a small part of a project with such lofty aspirations regarding community impact, sustainability and resilience,” Mitchell said. “So often those conversations are divorced from each other, which is a missed opportunity.”
The panel’s findings are available to all ULI members as part of the institute’s growing resources library.
Read the ULI Sacramento report.
