From its historical roots as a Gold Rush town, Folsom has grown and developed a reputation as a business center and a technology hub, which for decades has been anchored by the presence of the computer chip manufacturer Intel.
But recently, Intel has made some significant business decisions that are impacting the lives of hundreds of workers in Folsom. Last August then-CEO Pat Gelsinger said in a staff memo the company plans to save $10 billion over the next year and reduce the company’s workforce by around 15%.
In November the company cut nearly 300 positions at its Folsom campus along Prairie City Road, and also said it was exploring putting the facility up for sale and leasing back part of the space. And last month, Intel announced almost 600 more layoffs in Folsom over the course of three weeks.
Meanwhile, Folsom continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas in California, adding new developments like the Folsom Ranch project. Folsom is also preparing to mark 80 years of cityhood next year.
Folsom Mayor Sarah Aquino has been an elected representative of the city since 2018, holding the offices of mayor and vice mayor several times during her tenure. She also represents the city’s Third District which encompasses the eastern edge of Folsom along the Sacramento/El-Dorado County line, as well as all of the city south of Highway 50.
Aquino spoke with CapRadio’s Chris Nichols about how the Intel layoffs might affect her community, and how the city is charting a path forward.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Let’s get to the recent news about Intel’s large rounds of layoffs in Folsom, and its plans to sell and lease back the campus. Did these moves come as a surprise to you?
No, we’re in regular contact with the folks at Intel. They continue to be a fantastic community partner, and we really value that relationship. The layoffs and the sale of the campus, those are things that we are monitoring very closely. I think in terms of the layoffs, they need to do what they need to do, to kind of right-size their organization, and we respect that.
I think the most important thing is we want to retain that talent, if not in Folsom certainly in the region. In the last couple years Folsom welcomed Qualcomm and Samsung, and both of them said the reason they chose to open offices in Folsom was because of the very deep talent pool, and we can [attribute] that to Intel.
Thankfully, Iron Point Road in Folsom and really along the Highway 50 corridor from El Dorado Hills down to Rancho Cordova is really becoming kind of a semiconductor corridor. So hopefully as those folks get laid off they are joining Micron, Qualcomm, Samsung, Solidigm, or even their own startup.
So you’re saying Intel has played a really important role not just for the jobs it has at its offices, but also possibly influencing other companies to start up in Folsom?
Absolutely, I mean Intel employees are well-educated, they know the market, they just have a lot to offer. So as long as we can retain that local talent here, I think we'll be in good shape.
The other thing that we're watching. Intel employees have been directed to be back on campus in Folsom four days a week starting Sept. 1 and so that will be good for the surrounding businesses, coffee shops, restaurants, [and] gas stations. We are looking forward to having that activity back on campus.
An Intel building on the company's Folsom campus along Prairie City Road, Aug. 16, 2025.Sarit Laschinsky/CapRadioYou are hoping that the community or the region can retain some of that talent, but how will Folsom specifically be impacted by having hundreds of people laid off from a company like this?
Well, certainly it could have an effect on the real estate market. But actually… It isn't so much the layoffs from Intel that are affecting the real estate market. It's really the fact that during the pandemic, employees—a lot of them from the Bay area—moved to this region thinking that they could work from home indefinitely. And now, not just in the technology sector but all kinds of sectors, a lot of those folks are being called back to work in the office two to three times a week.
We are seeing people who don't want to make that commute to the Bay Area, and so they're going to be putting their house up for sale here in Folsom or in the region. And so, I think that may have the potential to have more of an impact on us. But again, counteracting that [are] Intel employees back on the Folsom campus four days a week. We'll have to see how it all shakes out.
Of course, there’s more than just tech in Folsom. How is the city diversifying?
Folsom is becoming quite a health care hub. We have all four major health systems currently building, or with plans to build in the very near future. We will be having a ribbon cutting with UC Davis for their new medical office building in Folsom Ranch, which is just south of Highway 50 where the new growth is occurring. Across the street from them, probably in September, Dignity Health will be breaking ground on their medical office building. And then back on the other side of the freeway, Sutter Health broke ground on a medical office building a couple months ago. And Kaiser owns the property behind the Palladio, they have plans for what they call a comprehensive care center.
So no new hospital at the moment but lots of medical office buildings, outpatient surgery, infusion centers, just a lot of good health care access which is really important not only to our residents but I think to the region. Specifically for Folsom residents, it’s really the gift of time… you can get the services you need without having to travel to Roseville or to Sacramento.
Growth and development
Folsom is one of the fastest-growing cities in California. City officials reported a 28% population increase since 2010, and it’s now home to over 92,000 people. Tell us a little bit about that growth, how would you characterize it?
We are growing. If you've driven along Highway 50 you've seen it. That area, everything south of 50, is in my council district. I always ask people, “where did you move from?” It's a combination of a lot of Bay Area, a lot of other places in the region. And, we also have quite a few people who lived in Folsom already north of 50… they relocated south of 50. It may be because they wanted a bigger house or a smaller house, we have a fantastic 55+ community in Folsom Ranch, it’s really kind of a mix.
We are doing everything we can to make that area look and feel like it has always been part of Folsom. Really high-quality parks, they have beautiful schools. We're adding trails all the time.
Everything that Folsom is known for we want to make sure that that is seamless, whether it's north or south of Highway 50.
What does the housing situation look like? How are you dealing with things like affordable housing to ensure that everyone can actually afford a home?
Folsom has been doing quite a good job of that for a couple decades now. We have a housing trust fund that we use to help fund affordable housing projects. The state requires that we zone land for housing for all income levels, and so we do that. In the new growth areas you'll see a mix of single family homes, multi-family town homes, active adult living, so we pretty much have something for everybody.
New homes form part of the Folsom Ranch development south of Highway 50 near Alder Creek Elementary School, Aug. 16, 2025.Sarit Laschinsky/CapRadio
Last month, CapRadio covered some of the controversy around Sacramento County's response to another problem that occurs in our region - homelessness. State Sen. Angelique Ashby at the time had introduced a bill that would have created a new regional agency on homelessness. You told CapRadio initially you were blindsided by that proposal, but later supported the collaboration after further discussion. What ultimately changed your mind?
I don’t know if it changed my mind so much. We are always happy to collaborate with our neighbors, and we know that we don't want to be shuffling people from community to community. We really have to get at the root of the problem and to help people the best that we can.
I think the challenge is, we don't really need state intervention to do that. There already is a meeting on the books between the County of Sacramento, the City of Sacramento, all the suburban cities for late October. There is a Sacramento homeless policy council that exists already. And so, I think part of it is we need to be able to have control of our own resources.
That bill, we were not notified, we were not contacted, the bill was introduced without any input from us. As it was originally drafted, our housing trust fund money would have been now under the control of this new [Joint Powers Authority] rather than the five elected officials in Folsom who are elected by the public, and that is just not acceptable to us.
Folsom, for the most part, has very little homeless. We have a homeless outreach team with our police department that does an absolutely fantastic job, we also have some really terrific nonprofits, and to the extent that we can we want to connect people with services.
Sen. Ashby has put the bill on hold to talk with regional leaders. But if she decides to bring her proposal back, at this point can you say whether you’ll support it?
It would be unlikely. Regional collaboration cannot be at the expense of local control. We need to retain control over our housing funds, over where to build housing, over how we're going to provide homeless services. The other jurisdictions want that too.
The historic Rainbow Bridge crosses the American River north of the Folsom Historic District, Aug. 16, 2025.Sarit Laschinsky/CapRadio
Finally, there's a lot going on in Folsom. Tell us something that people might not know about your community?
My favorite thing about Folsom is we kind of have big city amenities, Folsom Lake College, the Harris Center, great shopping, great dining, a hospital, a zoo, great parks and trails, all those sorts of things. But, we really try hard to maintain a small town feel. Our police department will do vacation checks on your home when you're out of town.
Next year we'll have some sort of celebration for the 80th birthday of the city. A couple years ago, we celebrated the 100th birthday of the Rainbow Bridge. Every December our police and fire personnel go around the city… and they collect canned goods and toys for folks in need. I think we're very diverse, and that's something that maybe people in the region don't realize about Folsom.
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