Rancho Cordova, CA

Rancho Cordova's employment geography grew from two immense Cold War-era properties. Mather Air Force Base trained air navigators during the Vietnam War, while Aerojet supplied rocket and missile programs connected with the Moon race and national defense. Mather closed in 1992, and reductions in defense work left large tracts, offices, and technical facilities to be reused. The community subsequently developed into one of Sacramento County's major employment centers. Rancho Cordova's fiscal 2025 financial report counted over 52,600 jobs in about 2,000 business establishments, compared with 79,332 residents in the 2020 census. The employment base now spans education, vision and health insurance, investment services, health care, electric motors, specialty chemicals, and defense electronics. The city itself is much younger than those workplaces. A cityhood campaign lasted roughly 40 years before about 78 percent of voters approved incorporation in November 2002.

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Rancho Cordova became California's 478th city on July 1, 2003. Highway 50 and Folsom Boulevard run through the established northern half, where office parks, retail centers, and older neighborhoods occupy the former highway and rail corridor. SacRT's Gold Line serves four stations in the city—Mather Field/Mills, Zinfandel, Cordova Town Center, and Sunrise—linking them toward Sacramento and Folsom. The alignment puts business parks and civic destinations on a regional transit route, although the city's newer residential districts extend well south of the tracks and freeway. One old rail stop has become a local arts address. The Mills Station building dates to 1911, when it served farmers and travelers, and reopened in 2018 as the Mills Station Arts and Culture Center.

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The center presents local exhibitions, workshops, history displays, performances, and cultural programs near the Mather Field/Mills light-rail station. A separate Mills Crossing project is planned across Folsom Boulevard beside the Folsom Lake College center, with gathering spaces, housing, and retail; as of July 2026 it remained a development project, not a completed civic district. Farther east along Sunrise Boulevard, the Barrel District gathers five breweries, a distillery, a wine-tasting room, a meadery, and a hard-kombucha bar. These reused commercial buildings add taprooms and tasting rooms to the office and industrial corridor. The American River defines a different side of Rancho Cordova. Six miles of the river and its parkway line the north, while 41 miles of creeks and drainage channels cross the city.

The parkway carries a regional cycling and walking route and provides river access. On 55 acres beside it, nonprofit Soil Born Farms grows produce and offers over 100 classes a year. Its Saturday farm stand combines produce with local food goods, and a snack bar provides work training through a teen program. The river, farm, and former military-industrial corridor sit close together: a rider can follow the parkway past working agricultural land, then reach neighborhoods and Gold Line stations south of the water. In 2026, SacRT also listed a Saturday certified farmers market at Sunrise station, putting produce sales beside light rail as well as on the working farm by the river.