PLACER COUNTY, Calif. — Many Californians struggle to afford housing. We need more of it, but lots of cities and counties are falling short of goals set by the state.
Placer County is trying to pave the way for more low-income housing, but some neighbors don’t like the way the county is doing it.
On the southeast corner of Baseline Road and East Drive, just west of Roseville city limits, stands one sign from Placer County, announcing a ‘rezone pending’ and several signs from Laura Bullard’s group, 'Stop the Rezone Madness!'
“The exclamation point kind of says how ticked off we are,” Bullard said with a laugh.
She grew up in the small, rural community of Dry Creek, and her 93-year-old mother still lives in Bullard’s childhood home, just half a block from a property the county wants to re-zone for high-density housing. It’s currently the site of a strawberry field.
“I don’t care whether these are luxury apartments or whether they’re low-income apartments. That has nothing to do with it. Apartments don’t belong in this spot,” Bullard said.
Placer County does have low-income housing but is about 1,200 units short of what the state requires. To make up that shortfall, the county came up with 19 properties it wants to rezone for high-density, low-income housing. It's part of the Housing Needs Rezone Program.
As Placer County Planning Director Chris Pahule explains, that would “allow for the development of multifamily up to 30 units per acre with a minimum of 20 units per acre.”
He said the owners of the 19 properties are on board with the rezoning.
Some neighbors, like Bullard, are not.
“The four lots that are within the Dry Creek district that are proposed are all zoned, currently, ag-residential, and we have, you know, our local 4-H Club, and we want to maintain that ag presence. It’s important to us.” she said. “There’s about a 2.2 square-mile (area) and they’re asking us to put four of those developments — of the 19 — within that.”
One property is on the north side of Vineyard Road near Misty Lane. Another — the strawberry field — is at the southeast corner of Baseline Road and East Drive. The other two are adjacent, at the northwest corner of Silky Oak Drive and Cook Riolo Road, right across the street from the Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District Office.
Bullard says she wants to see the rezoning in places with more existing infrastructure that can better accommodate high-density housing, with “the sidewalks, could have the streetlights and all of those things that are needed, but instead they come to the older community that’s been long-established, rural.”
Pahule said they county is listening to the concerns of neighbors, who have voiced opposition at various public meetings.
“We are working to balance the concerns of residents with also the need to provide for affordable housing opportunities throughout the unincorporated county,” Pahule said.
The Placer County Planning Commission will hold a hearing in April, where neighbors can weigh in. The Board of Supervisors is set to vote on whether to approve the 19 properties in May.
