Sacramento-Napa Weekend Experience Highlights
• Welcoming luncheon with Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo (invited) and Presentation on the Blueprint Project by SACOG Executive Director Marty Tuttle.Friday, November 12 – Saturday, November 13
Sacramento-Napa Weekend Experience Highlights
• Welcoming luncheon with Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo (invited) and Presentation on the Blueprint Project by SACOG Executive Director Marty Tuttle.
• Mobile Workshop Friday afternoon of new downtown housing by John Dangberg, CADA, and a presentation by the Millennia Associates of the Railyards and tour of the Sacramento Terminal Central Shops.
• Foundation KeyNote dinner Friday evening. KeyNote speaker - Bob Smiley, professor and emeritus dean, Graduate School of Management, University of California at Davis on the Economics of the California Wine Industry. KeyNote speaker sponsored by LAI Land Economics Foundation.
• Napa Valley tour beginning Saturday afternoon featuring Copia – American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, a tour and wine tasting at the Regusci Winery, and before dinner we will have a wine and cheese reception followed by dinner at the acclaimed Ristorante Tra Vigne in St. Helena.
LAI’s Sacramento Chapter will host the Fall Weekend Experience November 12-13, 2004. Our Weekend Experience will start with a luncheon at noon at the Hyatt Regency Hotel overlooking the State Capitol. Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo has been invited to welcome Lambda Alpha members and guests. Our speaker will be Marty Tuttle, Executive Director of SACOG (Sacramento’s Council of Governments) who has been leading the Blueprint Project. The Blueprint Project is the area’s long-term planning – anticipating that Sacramento will more then double its population over the next fifty years – how will the area cope in meeting transportation and housing needs. They have been conducting workshops using new computer technologies to understand how growth will affect the region. SACOG is using innovative GIS software to help in the visioning process. Chicago-Ely member Ron Thomas, AICP and Executive Director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, recently started running their own computer program, “Paint the Region” after visiting Sacramento. This is an important project where all Lambda Alpha members will learn something to take back to their communities.
After lunch we will proceed on a Mobile Workshop where CADA (Capitol Area Development Authority) Executive Director, John Dangberg will take us on a tour of the new in-fill housing developments in the downtown area.
We will then go the “Railyards” for a tour and presentation by the Carol Shearly, City of Sacramento Project Manager, and Millennia Associates. Millennia Associates, the development arm of the Jerde Partnership, a Venice Beach, Calif., architectural firm, is buying the former Union Pacific Railroad yard in downtown Sacramento to build a mixed-use development. The 240-acre parcel is one of the largest undeveloped urban tracts in the country. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2005. The redevelopment will include as much as 500,000 square feet of streetfront retail, 600,000 square feet of office space, 3,000 residential units, 500 hotel rooms and civic facilities.
We will finish our afternoon tour with the famous Sacramento Terminal Central Shops. This area was the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Sacramento Central Shops. It was the main facility for repair and fabrication of steam and diesel locomotives, equipment and specialized items needed for rail operations throughout the western United States. At one point, over 90 buildings and 7,000 workers occupied the approximate 240-acre site. The shops were the largest industrial complex west of the Mississippi River. The City is leading the SITF planning process, while Union Pacific is commencing development of the Railyards and recently has selected a master developer for the site, Millennia Associates. We anticipate returning to our hotel at 5 pm.
Friday evening will begin with an open bar reception at the Sutter Club at 7 pm. The Sutter Club is one of the great institutions of Sacramento and where our Sacramento Chapter holds its monthly meetings. [The Sutter Club does require men to wear a jacket and a tie, and yes, gentlemen leather shoes and socks -- women to dress appropriately. The Club does not allow cell phones.]
Dinner at the Sutter Club will follow and our Lambda Alpha Land Economics Foundation KeyNote speaker will be Robert Smiley, Professor and Emeritus Dean of the Graduate School of Management at the University of California at Davis. Bob Smiley will provide an overview of Saturday’s tour of Napa Valley and talk about the economics of the wine industry.
Saturday morning for those, not attending the Lambda Alpha Board of Governors meeting will be free to tour downtown Sacramento including the famous Old Town section on your own. At 1:30 pm, we will depart from the Hyatt Regency Hotel for our hour drive to Napa Valley.
Our first stop will be Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts in downtown Napa. Agri-tourism is growing and Copia is one of the first expressions of how agri-tourism works. Copia is a cultural museum and educational center dedicated to exploring the American contribution to the character of wine and food in close association with the arts and humanities, and to celebrating these as a unique expression of the vitality of American life, culture and heritage. Copia is on twelve acres and in a new 80,000 square foot building. We will have a presentation on why Copia was developed.
After Copia, we will proceed by bus to the Regusci Winery about two miles north of Napa on the Silverado Trail, in the Stags Leap District. Regusci Winery was established in 1932 but recently re-opened in 1998, highlighting its estate wines - Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay. Regusci is only open by appointment, so this will be a special event. We will have a tour of the historic three-story winery where the winemaker will answer your questions and then we will have wine tasting before proceeding to dinner. We will then travel to St. Helena for our dinner.
But before dinner, we will have wine reception at one of Northern California’s great restaurants, Tra Vigne. Dinner will follow at the restaurant around 7 pm. We will dine in the Magnum Library, a handsome oak paneled private dinning room at Tra Vigne. The dinner will feature a three-course meal with appropriate wines. Our motor coach that evening will take us back to our hotel in Sacramento (anticipating arrival around 10:30 pm), or if you wish, you may wish to make arrangements on your own to stay longer in Napa Valley at one of the many small hotels in the area.
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