City Council actions set early framework for future corridor; nearly two-thirds of roadway tied to development improvements with construction progressing over time
Long cited as a road in need of a bigger future, the southern stretch of Prairie City Road could eventually grow from its existing two lanes into a major four- to six-lane arterial between White Rock Road and Highway 50. That future came into sharper focus before the Folsom City Council Tuesday night, though what was presented marks the first steps in a much longer process, not the start of immediate construction.
City officials presented the council with plans developed through extensive coordination with Sacramento County, quarry operators, developers and other stakeholders. The council considered a memorandum of understanding establishing how the two jurisdictions will approach the future design, funding, construction and maintenance of Prairie City Road. In a separate but closely related item, council members also addressed the first steps toward eventually cleaning up the irregular jurisdictional boundary between Folsom and Sacramento County along the corridor.
“The item before you tonight represents approximately 18 months of extensive coordination between county and city staff, along with engagement from the development community and permitted quarries, as well as other stakeholders,” Public Works Director Rebecca Neves told the council.
The agreement, brought before the council as a resolution, established a framework for future work. It did not authorize immediate construction of the widened roadway or commit city funds to building the overall project. Future improvements will come in stages as development occurs and individual projects, requirements and funding sources are identified.
Mayor Justin Raithel characterized Tuesday’s action as an important beginning while acknowledging that it is too early to put a firm timeline on the overall transformation.
“I may be premature to come up with a timeline for this, but this is a great first step, getting everybody on the same page,” Raithel said.
Prairie City Road south of Highway 50 is a shared transportation facility between Folsom and Sacramento County, providing a north-south connection to the freeway while also serving as a primary truck route for several quarry operations in unincorporated Sacramento County. The jurisdictional boundary between the two agencies runs through the corridor but does not consistently follow the existing road’s centerline or right-of-way.
What is now a two-lane roadway has long been planned for significant expansion as development progresses south of Highway 50. Sacramento County’s General Plan identifies Prairie City Road as an eventual six-lane arterial from White Rock Road to Highway 50, while Folsom’s adopted Folsom Plan Area Specific Plan calls for four lanes between White Rock Road and the future Alder Creek Parkway/Easton Valley Parkway intersection and six lanes from that intersection north to Highway 50.
Under the concepts presented Tuesday, the northern segment from Alder Creek Parkway to Highway 50 would ultimately become a six-lane arterial. The southern segment between White Rock Road and Alder Creek Parkway would initially be constructed as a four-lane roadway, but the design would preserve room for an eventual expansion to six lanes.
That approach resolves one of the significant differences between existing city and county planning documents. Neves explained that an earlier concept included a six-lane roadway with a separate, depressed two-lane quarry truck route, an arrangement that presented challenges, particularly at intersections.
Under the newly developed concept, the depressed truck route would be eliminated. Instead, the four-lane southern section would include a wider median capable of accommodating two additional travel lanes if future demand warrants expanding the road to the six-lane configuration envisioned by Sacramento County.
“The depressed truck route was eliminated, but the future two lanes will come from the widened median and the four-lane option in order to create the county’s preferred ultimate six-lane configuration,” Neves said.
The proposed design reserves a 90-foot-wide right-of-way along Prairie City Road from White Rock Road to Highway 50. At Sacramento County’s request, the corridor would use signalized intersections rather than roundabouts. Standard travel lanes would generally be 12 feet wide, with 11-foot lanes adjacent to the landscaped median in the ultimate configuration.
The future road would also look considerably different for those traveling outside a vehicle. Plans call for a 12-foot-wide paved, off-street multiuse path on both sides of Prairie City Road, separating bicyclists and pedestrians from vehicle and quarry truck traffic.
“Staff collectively felt that given the road’s designation as a quarry truck route, it became imperative to move bike lanes and pedestrians into their own dedicated and separate area, taking into consideration ultimate connections to proposed future trail connections,” Neves said.
The west-side path would also provide maintenance access for SMUD’s power lines. The southern section would require extensive relocation of SMUD’s 69-kilovolt overhead power lines, according to Neves, who said SMUD participated in the planning process and supported the proposed cross section.
Another significant piece of the plan centers on the Prairie City Road and Alder Creek Parkway intersection. It would be built 98 feet wide, with utility connections prepared for the future extension of Easton Valley Parkway to the west. Ultimately, the corridor is intended to accommodate residential and commercial traffic, walking and bicycling and continued quarry haul traffic.
While Tuesday’s actions did not launch construction of the entire corridor, portions of the future Prairie City Road are already tied directly to development requirements.
A major driver behind the coordinated planning effort was the Toll Brothers at Alder Creek development, which the City Council approved in June. City staff needed an agreed-upon design for Prairie City Road so roadway improvements could be appropriately assigned to the development based on safety, circulation and its proportionate share of impacts.
Neves told the council that a substantial portion of the corridor has already been incorporated into those development requirements.
“There is a core segment of Prairie City Road, nearly two-thirds of it, that has been conditioned by city staff to the developer to realign and reconstruct the road based on the proposed cross sections I’ve presented this evening,” Neves said.
That also helps explain why recent maintenance work on Prairie City Road did not amount to a complete repaving of the corridor. The city and county recently partnered on maintenance paving and critical repairs, but officials avoided investing heavily in pavement along a portion of the roadway expected to be realigned and reconstructed through development.
Neves said the agencies instead made the repairs necessary to stabilize that section while avoiding what she described as “throwaway cost” ahead of the planned reconstruction.
Raithel also raised a feature familiar to those who regularly drive the existing road: the prominent hill along the Toll Brothers realignment area that can limit a motorist’s view of approaching traffic. He asked whether the coming realignment would eliminate that condition.
“Yes, there’ll be some significant grading that occurs not only with the road, but with the project itself too,” Neves said.
Neves explained that the work will involve smoothing portions of the existing hills and coordinating the grading of the development with the new Prairie City Road alignment. The developer will essentially have to build the new roadway alignment first and coordinate its rough and finish grading with development along the western boundary, with retaining structures also expected in portions of the project.
When that reconstruction could occur was another question raised Tuesday. Vice Mayor Anna Rohrbough asked whether the Prairie City Road work required of the development would be completed as the project itself reached full buildout, rather than leaving the roadway unfinished for years afterward.
Neves confirmed the required realignment would occur as part of the project’s buildout and said the current ballpark timeline provided to the city is 3 to 5 years. She cautioned that the estimate is not a firm completion date.
“It may be sooner, it may be later, it kind of depends,” Neves said. “It’s such a market-driven effort.”
When the development is completed, Neves said, the developer “will have realigned Prairie City Road and complied with the conditions set forth,” including requirements governing how much of the roadway it must construct.
The 3- to 5-year estimate discussed Tuesday applies to the development timeline and the improvements tied to it, not completion of the entire Prairie City Road corridor. Other portions of the road will depend on future development, funding, approvals and construction schedules.
Neves explained that large developments are typically conditioned in phases. Rather than requiring every piece of infrastructure at the beginning of a project, improvements are triggered as development progresses and the need for them emerges.
As development moves westward, she said, larger transportation improvements would include portions of Prairie City Road as well as Mangini Parkway and extensions of Alder Creek Parkway and Oak Avenue to Prairie City Road.
Raithel also questioned when development on the Sacramento County side of Prairie City Road could begin moving forward, saying he wanted to ensure funding ultimately comes from all of the sources that will be responsible for building the corridor.
“I’m concerned about making sure that the funding comes in from all sources that will be required to pursue building of this,” Raithel said.
Neves said she did not have a firm timeline for the Easton development but noted that those stakeholders were involved in developing the proposed Prairie City Road cross sections because they are likely to face requirements to construct portions of the roadway as their projects move forward.
Councilmember Barbara Leary told the council she had met with the Easton group earlier that same day.
“They’re moving forward, but they don’t have a definitive timeline as of yet,” Leary said, adding that continued communication between the parties would be important as plans advance.
The broader effort to settle on a common vision for Prairie City Road gained momentum as development activity increased in the Folsom Plan Area. In 2024, the development community approached the city about near-term opportunities to continue construction west of East Bidwell Street. In 2025, Folsom received an application involving 1,424 residential lots along with parks, recreation areas, open space, a future fire station, elementary school sites and roadways.
At the same time, city and county planning documents contained three different conceptual cross sections and alignments for Prairie City Road. City staff reopened discussions with Sacramento County in February 2025 to resolve those differences, leading to the concepts presented Tuesday after roughly 18 months of coordination.
Quarry operations have also played a significant role in the road’s planning history. Sacramento County has approved quarry operations south of White Rock Road, and the Quarry Truck Management Plan designated Prairie City Road as a quarry truck route. Folsom’s participation in that program provides funding collected from participating quarry operators for quality-of-life improvements along designated truck routes.
The agreement now gives city staff a common framework to use as additional development applications arrive. Developers and new quarry operators could be required to fund traffic mitigation and roadway improvements necessary to offset their impacts on Prairie City Road and surrounding infrastructure. The city and county would also retain the ability to initiate roadway projects as other funding becomes available.
The MOU itself carries no direct financial impact to the city, according to the staff report. Future Prairie City Road improvements would return to the City Council either as developer-funded conditions or as city- or county-led capital projects, and council approval would be required before city funds were committed.
The agreement itself also does not constitute approval of a construction project for purposes of environmental review. Specific future projects will undergo the appropriate environmental review once their scope and design are defined.
Neves also told council members that the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors had approved the same MOU earlier Tuesday as part of its consent agenda.
Councilmember Mike Kozlowski pointed to the broader transportation connections that could eventually result as Prairie City Road and surrounding roadways are completed.
“This activates a couple of vital connections that will relieve pressure off of East Bidwell,” Kozlowski said. “When Mangini Parkway and Blue Ravine can connect through to an improved Prairie City, we’ll all be better for it.”
Boundary realignment would follow future Prairie City Road
The council’s Prairie City Road discussion Tuesday went beyond the pavement itself. In a separate but related item, officials turned their attention to the sometimes awkward jurisdictional boundary between Folsom and Sacramento County that runs through the corridor.
The existing boundary does not consistently follow Prairie City Road’s centerline or right-of-way. In some locations it bisects the roadway itself or splits individual parcels between the two jurisdictions. That can create practical questions over who is responsible for pavement maintenance, striping, signage, drainage and traffic signals, along with potential split jurisdiction involving law enforcement, emergency response, code enforcement, permitting, development review, utilities and taxation.
With the city and county now settling on a common vision for Prairie City Road’s future alignment, staff proposed beginning discussions about adjusting the jurisdictional boundary to more logically follow the future roadway.
The proposal is not intended to annex additional territory into Folsom for development. According to the staff report, the goal is a jurisdiction-neutral adjustment that would create a more logical and identifiable boundary and clearer responsibilities between the city and county. Small amounts of territory could ultimately transfer between the two jurisdictions to establish that cleaner boundary.
That process, like the roadway transformation itself, remains in its early stages. Tuesday’s discussion did not establish a new boundary or initiate a formal annexation application. Staff sought direction to begin coordinating with Sacramento County and the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCo, and the precise location of a future boundary has not yet been determined.
Staff expects to return to the City Council in the first quarter of 2027 with a resolution to initiate the formal application and additional information about the project, costs, process and timeline. Any eventual boundary modification would require further review and approvals involving Folsom, Sacramento County and LAFCo.
Once a formal application is submitted, staff estimates the LAFCo process could take approximately nine to 12 months, depending on the commission’s hearing calendar and the complexity of tax-sharing negotiations with Sacramento County. The process would include preparation of a legal description and boundary map, identification and notification of affected property owners, a property tax exchange agreement and decisions about responsibility for affected roadway segments and public improvements.
Taken together, Tuesday’s actions brought the future of Prairie City Road into clearer focus, but there remains considerable work ahead before the full vision becomes reality. Rather than signaling that a four- or six-lane Prairie City Road is about to appear overnight, the actions established the groundwork for improvements that will unfold in stages as development progresses, requirements are triggered, funding becomes available and additional approvals are secured.
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