The Community That Never Got Its
Downtown.
Orangevale doesn't have a traditional downtown — not because nobody tried, but because the plans kept stalling. In 2015, Sacramento County adopted a Streetscape Master Plan to change that. This site tells the story of what was planned, what it would have meant, and where things stand today.
The Official Plan
Sacramento County adopted the Downtown Orangevale Streetscape Master Plan in December 2015 as part of the Greenback Lane Special Planning Area (SPA) — a formal zoning amendment covering the Greenback Lane corridor between Chestnut Avenue and Madison Avenue.
Read the Master Plan (Sacramento County PDF) · Commercial Design Guidelines
Why there's no downtown
Named for Orange Groves That No Longer Exist
Orangevale takes its name from the orange groves planted here in the 1880s, when land speculators believed the foothills east of Sacramento could support a citrus industry. Several town-site plans came and went in the early 1900s — each one imagining a proper downtown with a main street, a town square, civic buildings. None of them took hold.
What grew instead was a semi-rural, unincorporated community — never incorporated as a city, governed by Sacramento County, with no taxing authority of its own and no city government to push development projects forward. Commercial growth followed the path of least resistance: strip malls along Greenback Lane and Madison Avenue, built for cars, not people.
The rolling hills, the horse properties, the lack of sidewalks on most streets — that's not an accident. That's what happens when a community grows organically without a downtown plan for a hundred years.
A timeline
Orangevale & the Downtown That Almost Was
Orange Groves & Land Speculation
Speculators plant citrus and draft town-site plans for a community to be called Orangevale. Several plats are filed. None produce a functioning downtown.
Plans Fail, Community Grows Anyway
The orange groves don't survive the climate. Orangevale develops as an unincorporated rural community under Sacramento County jurisdiction — no city hall, no mayor, no downtown.
Sacramento County Adopts the Streetscape Master Plan
December 2015: the county formally adopts the Downtown Orangevale Streetscape Master Plan and Commercial Design Guidelines as part of a Greenback Lane Special Planning Area zoning amendment. Bike lanes, separated sidewalks, ADA upgrades, and pedestrian-friendly streetscape are all in the plan.
Signs Go Up. Domain Registered.
Construction signage appears along Greenback Lane. The vision feels real. This domain — DowntownOrangevale.com — is registered in June 2016, watching to see what happens next.
The Plan Exists. The Corridor Evolves.
The zoning framework is in place. Greenback Lane continues to develop within those guidelines. The vision of a walkable, pedestrian-friendly downtown OV is still out there — officially adopted, waiting to be fully realized.
In the meantime
OV Has a Heartbeat Right Now
While the long-term downtown vision works its way through county planning and funding cycles, Orangevale's independent businesses, restaurants, and community events are very much alive. DowntownOV.com is the local-only guide to what's actually happening in OV right now — no national chains, just the places and people that make this community worth living in.