Laguna West-Lakeside, Elk Grove, California

Laguna West-Lakeside is an area located on the west side of the city of Elk Grove in Sacramento County, California. Formally a census-designated place (CDP), Laguna West-Lakeside was annexed by Elk Grove in 2003. [http://www.elkgrovecity.org/whatsnew/press-releases/2003/pr-12-12-03.htm] The population of Laguna West-Lakeside was 8,414 at the 2000 census, before annexation.

Geography

Laguna West-Lakeside is located at coord|38|25|5|N|121|28|9|W|type:city_region:US-CA|display=it GR|1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 5.8 km² (2.2 mi²). 5.5 km² (2.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (4.93%) is water.

Demographics

As of the censusGR|2 of 2000, there were 8,414 people, 3,032 households, and 2,277 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 1,532.4/km² (3,971.3/mi²). There were 3,127 housing units at an average density of 569.5/km² (1,475.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the CDP was 54.43% White, 10.42% African American, 0.32% Native American, 20.99% Asian, 0.45% Pacific Islander, 5.23% from other races, and 8.15% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 13.20% of the population.

There were 3,032 households out of which 43.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.4% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.9% were non-families. 17.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 3.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 3.20.

In the CDP the population was spread out with 29.0% under the age of 18, 5.4% from 18 to 24, 43.3% from 25 to 44, 16.9% from 45 to 64, and 5.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 92.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.3 males.

The median income for a household in the CDP was $76,404, and the median income for a family was $82,992. Males had a median income of $56,078 versus $43,341 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $30,272. About 3.1% of families and 3.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.0% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.

Laguna West - a Master Planned Community and Model of New Urbanism

Laguna West was designed by Peter Calthorpe and using New Urbanism principles. Design features in Laguna West include features such as the following:
*Pedestrian friendly neighborhoods that encourage walking
*A town center
*A nature/riparian zone
*Houses that have small front yards and driveways that are short or behind the house, use of alleyways.
*Streets that are designed to create calm and encourage slow driving by creating narrower streets or putting tree planter boxes on one side of the street, to discourage high speed thoroughfare-type driving.

However Sir Peter Hall, who had previously hailed Calthorpe's plans in a 1994 paper [http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=b21s079] , was quoted in 2005 as suggesting that "the development fails the sustainability test because it is not served by public transportation and is as completely car dependent as any other suburb." [http://host.asla.org/land/archive/2005/1219/sirpeterhall.html] It appears that light rail links were originally expected, but the planned extension of Sacramento's Blue Line will now apparently veer east towards Elk Grove at a point some 2 to 3 miles to the north of Laguna West [http://www.slp2.org/alignment.html] , which, as of summer 2007, is only served by an hourly bus service [http://www.sacrt.com/schedules/current/routes/R065.htm] , [http://www.sacrt.com/systemmap/B1.stm] .

Politics

In the state legislature Laguna West-Lakeside is located in the 5th Senate District, represented by Democrat Michael Machado, and in the 10th and 15th Assembly Districts, represented by Republicans Alan Nakanishi and Guy S. Houston respectively. Federally, Laguna West-Lakeside is located in California's 3rd and 5th congressional districts, which have Cook PVIs of R +7 and D +14 respectively [cite web | title = Will Gerrymandered Districts Stem the Wave of Voter Unrest? | publisher = Campaign Legal Center Blog | url=http://www.clcblog.org/blog_item-85.html | accessdate = 2008-02-10] and is represented by Republican Dan Lungren and Democrat Doris Matsui respectively.

References

External links

* [http://www.calthorpe.com/built_images/lagunaw_built.html Ground Photos]
* [http://www.capitolweekly.net/news/article.html?article_id=614 Article criticising Laguna West's lack of success in achieving its New Urbanism aims]
* [http://host.asla.org/land/archive/2005/1219/sirpeterhall.html Report of Sir Peter Hall lecture in Land Online]