ABSTRACT
This chapter explains a vignette of Sierra Pacific megapolitan area in terms of major demographic and housing trends, employment and development projections, the extent of economic dependency, and attractiveness characteristics. The Sierra Pacific megapolitan area is the highly populated agglomeration of metropolitan areas stretching from the Pacific Coast south of San Francisco to Sacramento, in the middle of the Central Valley, to Reno, just east of the Sierra Nevada range. About three-quarters of the megapolitan area lives in a knowledge class county, and about 90 percent of the megapolitan area's population growth will occur in those counties. In 2010, the Sierra Pacific megapolitan area could support about 3.5 billion square feet of nonresidential space, including industrial, commercial, and institutional uses. Growth-related and replaced space will be roughly equivalent to 1.5 times the nonresidential existing space in 2010. The chapter concludes with an assessment of major planning and development challenges.
