Not close to the area but a quick thought. Nevada City and Grass Valley are old gold rush towns gentrifying up even more because relatively close to Sacramento and the Bay Area. They've been popular for tourism, etc. for quite a while. Although as a whole aside from the damage done by the insane population increase in California, much of the gold country is pretty leave us alone conservative. In town probably getting liberal. Not sure if close enough to commute to the Sacramento area. Soda springs is a wide spot on the old highway and railroad across Donner Pass. On the new interstate, too. Not sure there's much going on besides some tourism and seasonal ski area stuff. Near Truckee. Truckee is growing, too. Close to Reno and Tahoe areas so weekend getaways, all year resorts and recreation in Tahoe. People priced out of Tahoe trying Truckee, etc.
TBH, with 20 million people California was great. With 40 million a lot of the old nice casual areas are getting over run.
The Gold Country and small Sierra communities, etc., is another part of California that is very much not the urban Los Angeles/Bay Area/Sacramento sprawling mess.