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To: Professor Susan Handy

CC: Amy Lee
From: Larissa Lee L.L.
Subject: Demographic Report
Date: 16 May 2019
Introduction:
Elk Grove is a growing city that has developed more overtime. The city’s overarching vision is to
preserve cultural aspects of the community and agricultural lands; Maintain a diverse city
where residence can live, play, and work; Several issues that are of concern or must be
considered in the city of Elk Grove are economic vitality, community identity, community
service, growth management, regional role, mobility, open spaces, parks, trails, healthy living,
rural and agricultural heritage. However as a prior residence of the Elk Grove community, I feel
that the most pressing issues of the city are mobility, economic vitality and growth
management.
Mobility:
The city wants to guarantee residence, workers and visitors an efficient means of travel.
Currently, Elk Grove residences heavily rely on private vehicles rather than public
transportation to travel around the city. Table 1 below is a comparison between California and
Elk Grove area of the means of transportation to work. The data is a 5-year estimate using the
data from the annual American Community Survey. It is estimated that about 78% of workers
will commute unaccompanied, about 12% of workers will carpool, and about 2% of workers will
use public transportations to commute to work.
Table 1: Means of Transportation to Work, Elk Grove vs. California
California Elk Grove, California
Estimate Total number of Workers 17,589,758 74,157
% Workers Commuting by Car, Truck, Van 73.63% 78.08%
% Workers Carpooling by Car, Truck, Van 10.41% 12.15%
% Workers Commuting by Public Transportation 5.17% 2.16%
Source: [ACS 2017 5-year Estimate]

Mobility becomes a greater issue because public transportation services are more than likely to
be underutilized. Planners may lower incentives to use private vehicle uses by lowering
required maximum parking spaces or providing greater access to public transportation near
residential and business areas. Other problems that could possibly occur in the future is the lack
of coordination with the various existing transportation companies. (City of Elk Grove 2019).
This will affect the efficiency between the various public services available because the various
transportation companies would end up wanting to place bus stop location in the same area.
Planners can avoid coordination problems by become the main coordinator between the
different existing transportation companies to ensure that there will not be overlapping
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provision of services. Planners can also create more accessible transportation features that
provides more efficient and safe travels within the community.
Economic Vitality & Growth Management:
Economic and population growth are mutually inclusive. As a result local government of Elk
Grove must have a plan to increase housing development at a close ratio to the number of
business that are being developed in the area. Currently there are a variety of occupations
available to residences of Elk Grove like business, health care, education, legal services, science,
etc. All cities want a one to one housing to job ratio because having a lower of higher ratio can
induce undesirable issues. In Elk Grove, the current jobs to housing ratio in Elk Grove is 0.86: 1.
(City of Elk Grove 2019). This ratio demonstrates that for every one unit of housing there is a .
86 jobs available in the area. Having a lower job opportunity means that there are people have
to look outside of the city to look for jobs. This becomes a problem because it can increase the
carbon footprint an individual will have because they would have to commute a longer distance
rather than if there was a local job available within the city. Other problems that may occur
would be that if a city focuses more on providing numerous job opportunities but does not
provide sufficient amount of housing people that are interested in the job would have to find
housing elsewhere.
Table 2: Median Earning by Occupation, Elk Grove vs. California
California Elk Grove, California
Management, Businesses, & Financial Occupations $71,710 $70,112

Computer, Engineering, and Science Occupations $87,259 $74,077

Education, Legal, Community Service, Arts, & Media

$46,660 $48,016
Occupations

Health Care Practitioners & Technical Occupations $70,122 $93,692

Service Occupations $20,042 $21,600

Sales & Office Occupations $30,952 $35,968
Natural Resources, Construction, and Maintenance
$31,703 $50,738
Occupations
Production, Transportations & Material Moving
$28,475 $34,246
Occupations
Source: [ACS 2017 5-year Estimate]

Ways that planners can stimulate economic growth in a city are by establishing regulations,
policies, developmental programs and incentives to attract businesses into the area. Creating
developmental plans that make it easier for businesses encourages businesses to retain and or
develop new businesses in the area. In table 2, it provides an estimated mean earning of
residents in the area for the various occupations available in the area. Elk Grove has a higher
average salary of $5,190.75 when compared to California. The higher income level and
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attraction of businesses to the area will help to retain more businesses and residence in the
area.

Table 3, displays and estimate 5 year population growth of California versus Elk Grove. It
estimates that 166,228 people will live in Elk Grove and there will be an estimated 53,164
housing units available for use. Of the total housing units about 70% of the units will be
occupied by the owners, about 26% of the housing will be occupied by renters while, and about
3% of housing will be vacant. Vacant housing can be solved by attracting more businesses into
the area. However, with an increasing businesses development attraction to the Elk Grove area
could pose housing issues in the future.
Table 2: Population, Elk Grove vs. California
  California Elk Grove, California
Total Estimate Population 38,982,847 166,228
Total Estimated Housing Units 13,996,299 53,164
Owner-Occupied Housing 50.20% 70.26%
Renter-Occupied Housing 41.90% 26.33%
Vacant Housing 7.90% 3.41%
Source:[ACS 2017 5-year Estimate]

Planners need to develop a housing growth plans to ensure the ratio between housing and job
are equivalent. Elk Grove planners know when the ratio between housing to job ratio is lower
than 1 that means that there are more housing than there are jobs available in the area. As a
city increased the number of jobs in the area the number of housing created should equal the
number of jobs that is provided in the area.

Conclusion:

Elk Grove planners must considered current conditions of the area to know what steps needs to
be taken. Issues such as economic vitality, population growth, and mobility poses great threat
to the overall well-being of individuals. Planners can correct issues by decreasing or increasing
regulations, improving access or providing greater incentives to use facilities, and or make the
developing processes for developer much easier. I find that if planners are able to correct all
issues regarding mobility, economic and population growth, Elk Grove can flourish and
residence can benefit from purposeful planning.
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References
City of Elk Grove Planning. (February 27, 2019). General Plan. Retrieved April 15, 2019, from
www.elkgrovecity.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_109585/File/Departments/Planning/Pr
ojects/General%20Plan/GPU/Adopted_2019-02/GP/GP_Complete_web_2019-02-27.pdf
United States Census Bureau / American FactFinder. “B24011: Occupation by Median Earnings
in the Past 12 Months (In 2017 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) For the Civilan Employed
Population 16 Years and Over.” 2013 – 2017 American Community Survey. U.S. Census
Bureau’s American Community Survey Office, 2017. Web. 13 May 2019
<http://factfinder2.census.gov>.
United States Census Bureau / American FactFinder. “DP04: Selected Housing Characterisics.”
2013 – 2017 American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community
Survey Office, 2017. Web. 13 May 2019 <http://factfinder2.census.gov>.
United States Census Bureau / American FactFinder. “DP05: ACS Demographic and Housing
Estimates.” 2013 – 2017 American Community Survey. U.S. Census Bureau’s American
Community Survey Office, 2017. Web. 13 May 2019 <http://factfinder2.census.gov>.
United States Census Bureau / American FactFinder. “S0802: Means of Transportation to Work
by Selected Characteristics.” 2013 – 2017 American Community Survey. U.S. Census
Bureau’s American Community Survey Office, 2017. Web. 13 May 2019
<http://factfinder2.census.gov>.