Placer County supervisors approve housing changes. Will it help the real estate crunch?

In the face of a housing shortage and rising interest rates, Placer County officials hope to streamline the addition of new housing in the county’s developed neighborhoods.

In a 4-1 vote on Tuesday, the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved zoning changes intended to remove barriers on housing development.

Among the changes are the rezoning of land parcels to encourage infill housing and an updated multifamily and mixed-use design manual intended to standardize the review process for new housing, reducing the time and cost for construction of multifamily homes.

Required by state law, the changes in Placer come as part of a statewide push to encourage the development of more affordable, higher-density housing options. In September 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed off on a suite of bills allowing for more duplexes and small apartment buildings in certain neighborhoods.

Most likely to be affected by the Placer rezoning changes are areas with a high concentration of infill lots between existing housing developments. These include communities like North Auburn, Penryn, Newcastle, Granite Bay, Sheridan, Sabre City, Alpine Meadows and Northstar.

Shawna Purvines, deputy director of Placer County Community Development Resource Agency, said the county has some unique housing challenges.

“In all of our solutions, but particularly in this housing code amendment, the idea was to apply uniquely Placer solutions, looking at those things that make the most sense for our residents, our future residents, our employers and their employees,” Purvines said.

Placer is among the fastest growing California counties in the past decade. In the past year alone, the median home price in the county has increased by 15.8% and interest rates on mortgages have risen from 3% to more than 4%. The current medium home price is around $737,800.

The county has also struggled to provide sufficient affordable housing for low-wage workers. Since 2013, 84% of the housing built in Placer has been geared towards people of above average income, with only 468 affordable housing units constructed.

The changes, Purvines said, could increase opportunities for forms of higher-density housing that are not typically constructed in Placer, specifically in neighborhoods that have already been developed.

“A lot of development could still be single-family detached types of homes, just smaller and therefore more naturally affordable, allowing for that mix of housing types, housing incomes and households needs up here in Placer,” Purvines said.