Village 7, Lincoln, CA

Village 7 is a planned district on the growing edge of Lincoln, California, and it is the least built-out of the city's neighborhoods. Open fields, lots waiting for construction and a small number of finished streets share the area, and the picture keeps changing as builders move in. It sits next to Lincoln Crossing, which supplies most of what people here use day to day. Homes are new construction, single-family houses with attached garages on lots laid out under the city's Village 7 plan. Because so much of the area is still open, the view from a back fence can be a field one year and a row of fresh roofs the next. There are no parks inside the boundary yet. The closest are across the line in Lincoln Crossing, starting with Dr. Nathan Dubin Park and Aitken Ranch Park, followed by Pete Demas Park and Machado Park a bit farther along. For a bigger outing, Foskett Regional Park is a 42-acre city park with softball diamonds, soccer fields, a walking path and a dog park. Nothing to eat or drink sits within the boundary. The nearest restaurants and coffee are in the Lincoln Crossing shopping area, where Kobe Teppanyaki & Sushi and Starbucks are the main stops, and downtown has Brood Coffee and Old Town Pizza for something more local. Sprouts and Raley's handle groceries. Daily life here is by car. Local roads link into Lincoln Crossing and town, and Highway 65 is the way to Roseville. The area has so few services of its own that even a missing carton of milk means a drive. Construction is the main thing to weigh. Dust, trucks and changing views come with a place still being filled in, and the parks, shops and restaurants that will serve it later are mostly not built yet. In exchange, the land is open and the streets are brand new, which older parts of the city no longer offer. Right now this is the part of Lincoln where you can still watch the city being drawn.