Elk Grove broke ground on its biggest affordable housing project. Here’s when it will open
Construction will soon begin on Elk Grove’s largest-ever affordable housing development.
The 387-unit Poppy Grove apartments will be built on 17 acres at 10149 Bruceville Road and is expected to greet its first residents in September 2024.
Developers Urban Core Development and E. Smith and Co., and city leaders announced the groundbreaking last week as Elk Grove officials acknowledged the city’s ongoing affordable housing crisis.
Elk Grove’s mayor said the new Poppy Grove development will help narrow the city’s affordable housing gap.
“We are re-affirming our commitment to addressing the affordable housing crisis in our state and region head on in our city,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said. “While we have a long way to go to meet needs,” Singh-Allen continued, “it’s our hope that many homeless families will find stability here.”
Poppy Ridge’s nearly 400 apartments will include units for extremely low-income families — those who struggle the most to find affordable and safe housing, Singh-Allen said. The development will be open to residents at 30 to 60% of the city’s median income.
As many as 1,500 people will live at Poppy Ridge, developers estimate. The site will join nearby affordable apartment complexes Gardens at Quail Run and Gardens at Quail Run II, also on Bruceville Road south of Whitelock Parkway.
“Elk Grove is a high-resource community,” said Reese Jarrett, president of San Diego-based E. Smith and Co. The San Diego firm teamed with Oakland-based mixed-income project developer UrbanCore and its president and CEO Michael E. Johnson on the project.
Poppy Grove is the firms’ first joint venture and Elk Grove’s first affordable housing project led by Black developers.
“We feel strongly that families can take advantage of high-quality schools, the access to shopping, that enhances the quality of life and can change the trajectory of outcomes,” Jarrett said of the location of the Elk Grove site.
The Poppy Grove development at Bruceville Road and Chester Dawson Way will be built in three phases spread over 15 buildings, a 147-unit first phase; 82 units in the project’s second phase and another 158 units in phase three, Jarrett said. Jarrett anticipates the development will be fully occupied in late 2024.
The apartment mix includes 162 3-bedroom units; 151 2-bedroom units and 74 1-bedroom units. Common areas will include playgrounds, a swimming pool and outdoor grills. The apartment units will contain fully equipped kitchens, washers and dryers and energy efficient appliances. Ten percent of the units will be accessible to those with disabilities.
Elk Grove officials fast-tracked the development’s approval finalizing the deal in roughly 5 1/2 months. The Elk Grove City Council approved the project in May.
Elk Grove was “very forthright in seeing this type of development in the city,” Jarrett said. “They said, ‘We want to say ‘Yes.’ To go from application to full city approval in 5 1/2 months — we worked through all of the issues to get to the approval process.”
Housing shortfall in Sacramento County
The 387 units at Poppy Grove will make needed headway, but affordable housing continues to be a huge need in Elk Grove. A recent housing lottery conducted by the city drew 50 households for every available unit, Singh-Allen said.
Elk Grove has about 2,300 affordable housing units, according to city officials. But Elk Grove needs to build more than 4,200 units of housing for very-low and low-income families this decade, according to a recent regional housing needs analysis by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments.
More than 100 units are expected to open at The Gardens at Quail Run II as early as the end of January. Other projects including the 84-unit Cornerstone transitional housing complex planned for Bruceville Road near Laguna Boulevard and approved by city planners in June, are on the tarmac.
Scrutiny on Elk Grove’s affordable housing
The city recently has faced local and state criticism for its response to homelessness and housing affordability.
In July, Elk Grove enacted a tough ordinance banning homeless people from camping near schools, day care centers, playgrounds and youth centers while largely barring camps of four or more people in the city limits.
That same month, Elk Grove City Council rejected the proposed 67-unit Oak Rose Apartments in the city’s Old Town historic district. The proposed three-story building on Elk Grove Boulevard near Waterman Road would provide permanent housing and services for low-income families who had been homeless.
State housing officials in October said officials broke state law in rejecting Oak Rose.
Their report largely mirrored a lawsuit filed by Oak Rose developers alleging Elk Grove officials ignored state law designed to fast-track affordable housing. The state’s report also called on city officials to develop “a specific plan for corrective action, including allowing the (Oak Rose) project to move forward.”
City officials have since responded to the state report while council members discussed the lawsuit in closed session last week.
This story was originally published January 18, 2023 at 6:30 AM.
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