Natomas is a large housing development neighborhood northwest of downtown Sacramento. The area is loosely bordered by the American and Sacramento Rivers to the west and south, Elkhorn on the north, and the Natomas east main drainage canal to the east. Because of these boundaries, the Natomas area is a flood plain protected only by decades-old levees — the area is particularly vulnerable to annual flooding as well as severe flooding if a levee is ever to break. While the southern parts of Natomas (south and east of Interstate 80) are over 30 years old, most of the growth in North Natomas has occurred in the last decade. Among these new developments is Natomas Park, a master-planned community opened in 1999.

Commerce

Sleep Train Arena (formerly Arco Arena) is located in North Natomas. The Natomas Marketplace and Sacramento Gateway shopping complexes near Truxel Blvd. and the surrounding area are awesome. Tons of restaurants, lots of small stores and the nice, huge chain stores, e.g. Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, Fry's Electronics, etc. Some UC Davis students and faculty live in Natomas for the cheap rent.

Education

American River College (part of the Los Rios Community College District) has a campus in Natomas.  The University of Phoenix also has a campus here.

Comments

2007-06-22 17:17:55   One word: Yuck! —CharlesMcLaughlin

2007-08-30 22:17:32   natomas is as souless as a place could be inside the city limits —YoHo

2007-08-31 16:14:37   Yuck? Other than being suburban and less densely populated (which I prefer) as downtown.. whats the problem? —TheodoreSuryapurnama

— Big box stores. I don't mind a few, but the scale there is overwhelming. New homes and neighborhoods without character. Natomas really should never have been developed - it's one big flood plane. —CharlesMcLaughlin

— Well I'm not going to start a "big box store" debate here, but I'm not sure how you build new homes and neighborhoods with built-in character, isn't that something that should develop with people over time? In terms of flood risk, most of downtown isn't much better, by that argument the majority of Sacramento should never have been developed... Anyways I guess we all have our opinions.