Matsui secures $3.15M toward building 4-acre park over Interstate 5
Rep. Doris Matsui has secured $3.15 million in federal funding toward building a 4-acre park over a downtown stretch of Interstate 5, her office announced Tuesday.
The effort, known as the Sacramento Stitch Park Riverfront Project, is “a major planning effort to reconnect downtown Sacramento with the city’s riverfront,” according to a release provided by a spokesperson for Matsui.
“The project would build a new deck park over a stretch of Interstate 5, helping repair a divide that has long separated downtown from the waterfront,” the statement noted. “Once complete, the proposed 4-acre park would create a safer and more inviting connection for pedestrians, expand access to the Sacramento River, add new green space, and support future infill development in the heart of the city.”
Matsui and other local leaders including Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty and City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum will hold a press conference on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Crocker Park.
The Downtown Sacramento Partnership’s website says the park would “would make the river more accessible for pedestrians, increase green space in the area and provide opportunities for infill development.” Its rendering of the project depicts the park covering I-5 between O Street and Capitol Mall.
This part of Sacramento was once part of the city’s West End. The area saw extensive redevelopment in the 1960s and ‘70s and included the building of I-5 that cut off much of the waterfront access to the Sacramento River.
When the park could get built
Pluckebaum touted the value of the park during a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon, though he also admitted that it might be awhile before it gets built.
“I would love there to be a happy path where we can say that we’re going to be able to be able to do this in 3, 5, 7, years, maybe,” Pluckebaum said. “That’d be aggressive, probably. But odds are, it’s going to take a while.”
Pluckebaum said that he hoped that the total cost of the project wouldn’t be $300 million to $400 million, but that it would “be closer to that than not.”
“No way is the funding for this secure,” Pluckebaum said.
Still, he said it was important to try to build this park. “I don’t know if we can really overstate how significant it is,” Pluckebaum said.
This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 1:14 PM.
