Folsom rescinds approval for new historic district building following judge’s ruling
A Folsom resident’s lawsuit halted a proposed mixed-use building in the city’s historic district because it would have been 4 feet taller than allowed under city rules, a judge ruled.
The city in 2023 approved the three-story mixed-use building, including two housing units, for a vacant lot at 603 Sutter St.
Resident Robert Delp then sued the city in Sacramento Superior Court alleging Folsom had violated the California Environmental Quality Act by approving the project.
The suit paused construction for two years. In November, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jennifer Rockwell ruled that the city must rescind approval for the building on the 0.17-acre parcel, which the City Council did Wednesday.
“The city abused its discretion when it failed to hold the project to the applicable building height standard for the historic district,” Rockwell wrote in her ruling.
According to court documents, the ruling centered on the building’s proposed height of 39 feet, including parapets on the roof. The historic district’s limit is 35 feet, according to the city’s zoning code. Parapets are low protective walls along the edge of a roof. The city had not considered the parapets part of the height calculation, but Rockwell ruled that they should have been included.
Ziad Alaywan, who owns an architectural firm across the street called Z Global, had applied to build the building on the vacant lot, which he has owned for over 20 years. He planned to move the firm to the 12,177-square-foot building, which included a retail space for a coffee shop or another business on the ground floor. He planned to include two housing units on the third floor, he said.
“I was disappointed,” Alaywan said of the ruling. “I’m not going to build it at this point. I put over $1 million into this, including legal fees. I got nothing out of it.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom last year loosened certain parts of CEQA in an attempt to stop groups from using the law as an excuse to block new housing across the state.
As an infill project, the plan would have qualified for that rollback but for the height issue, said Folsom spokesperson Christine Brainerd.
“While the city respects the court’s decision and is complying with the order, this case highlights broader challenges cities across California face when applying CEQA to infill development in already urbanized areas,” Brainerd said in an email. “These cases can be complex, time-consuming and costly for all parties involved.”
Such environmental lawsuits have delayed other recent projects in the capital region.
Lawsuits lasting more than nine months have delayed work on a developer’s plan to build four infill high-rise towers with 787 market-rate apartments along the American River in the Railyards, just north of downtown.
A CEQA lawsuit also delayed a plan to build 81 units at a housing complex near Mission and Whitney avenues in Carmichael. That suit was recently dismissed by a judge, said Kim Nava, a county spokesperson.
