City Council picks day to vote on East Sacramento apartment plan challenges
The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday will take up challenges to a controversial six-story apartment plan near McKinley Park.
HRGA, a Sacramento architectural firm, is proposing the 332-unit complex, which has become a battleground over the California Environmental Quality Act. City staffers argue the project should receive Sacramento’s first exemption from environmental review under Assembly Bill 130, which was approved by Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators last year.
The new law said certain projects in urban areas of the state do not need to undergo a CEQA review and was pitched as a way to help prevent opponents of development projects across the state from trying to slow down and ultimately defeat housing plans.
The city’s Planning and Design Commission granted the new exemption earlier this year, a decision that was challenged by two groups. One was the Casa Loma Terrace-East Sacramento Neighborhood Association, which its president, Carl Seymour, said is made up of over 80 members.
The other is a group called Citizens for Positive Growth & Preservation, which has filed several lawsuits since 2015 that have accused the city of violating CEQA. It has at least one known member: Maria Kelly.
Kelly, 84, has spent years fighting against development projects in East Sacramento that she does not like. She grew up in a home overlooking McKinley Park, and sees herself as a steward of the park and surrounding neighborhood for future generations. But it is unclear how often she lives in the home that is now owned by a limited liability company listed in her care.
Citizens for Positive Growth & Preservation is using a Southern California attorney, a CEQA consultant and public affairs company in its fight against the project.
The City Council will hear the groups’ challenges at its 5 p.m. meeting.
The city staff is recommending that the City Council reject the appeals and approve the CEQA exemption.
