By Tony Bizjak, Sacramento Bee

Old Jackson Highway has had many personalities. Once a lazy path to the foothills past strawberry and hop fields, the east Sacramento County road today is a busy commute and truck route flanked by pit mines, rural ranchettes, small industry and encroaching suburbs.

Now, Sacramento-area leaders are in talks with Caltrans to take control of the road, also known as Highway 16 and Jackson Road, so they can prep it for the biggest remake yet.

Officials in Sacramento County, the city of Sacramento and Rancho Cordova want to turn 11 miles of the two-lane highway into an urban street to serve as the spine for massive development.

The Jackson Highway area is being promoted as one of the Sacramento region’s potential urban growth areas for the next 20 to 30 years. Developers are drawing up plans for as many as 30,000 housing units between South Watt Avenue and Grant Line Road.

Read the whole story