Council OKs controversial East Sacramento apartment project under new CEQA law
Opponents of a planned six-story apartment complex in East Sacramento hoped the City Council would share their concerns and vote to pause the project or reduce it by several levels.
Instead, the council on Tuesday evening did the opposite.
It unanimously rejected challenges by two groups, approved the project’s design and gave the 332-apartment plan at the Alhambra Boulevard site the city’s first exemption under a new state law meant to speed up home construction across the state by allowing developments in urban areas to bypass environmental review.
“The reason that we are in the housing crisis that we are in today is because for decades well-intentioned people across the state, and frankly across the West Coast, have taken opportunities like this to oppose projects that look exactly like this,” said City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, whose district includes the site of the proposed development. “It would be so much easier for all of us to fold every time there was opposition to a project like this.”
The fight over the project, at 324 Alhambra Blvd. between C and D streets, has served as a test case of the new law — known as Assembly Bill 130. Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislators heralded the measure when it passed last year as a way to help neutralize what they said was a strategy by local groups to use the California Environmental Quality Act to try and defeat housing developments.
CEQA is a more than 50-year-old law that requires local and state governments to evaluate the environmental effects of projects. The city’s Planning and Design Commission in February determined the project should receive the exemption and be approved, a decision that was formally appealed by two groups.
One of them is called Citizens for Positive Growth & Preservation, which argued that the proposed project would go against the city’s general plan and zoning. If so, the CEQA exemption would not apply.
Stephen Cook, an attorney representing the group, called on the City Council to pause approval of the development and find a path forward that was “safe and respectful” for the neighborhood. He pointed to increased traffic, strains on the city’s wastewater system and concerns about hazardous waste on the site as health and safety issues with the project.
One of the founders of the group, Maria Kelly, deeply opposes the project. She closely watches what happens around McKinley Park and has spoken out against other developments in the area. She did not address the council Tuesday evening, but did sit through what was a lengthy meeting.
Council members did not start discussing the apartment project until around 9:30 p.m. and they did not vote on it for over an hour.
The other group that appealed the decision was the Casa Loma Terrace – East Sacramento Neighborhood Association. Its president, Carl Seymour, pleaded with the council to call for the project to be redesigned.
“This essentially destroys the neighborhood,” he said.
Others in the audience also criticized the proposed development, calling it a “monstrosity” that would kill the feel of, and destabilize, the area.
The apartments would go on a site currently occupied by vacant homes and old brick warehouses, and would rise above the mostly single-family homes that dot the corner of East Sacramento near the Capital City Freeway. The architectural firm HRGA filed the application with the city for the project, which would also include commercial space and a six-level apartment garage.
Representatives for HRGA and the Demas family, which owns the property, were on hand Tuesday but did not make a presentation to the council. Other supporters spoke out in favor of it.
“If we want to restore the hope of affordability in East Sac, we need to seize opportunities to build new housing in the neighborhood, said Amanda Pilz, an East Sacramento resident who said her family built a home in the area a century ago.
After the two sides made their cases, Pluckebaum asked city staffers if any of the concerns raised were enough to overturn approving the project. They did not believe they were.
Shortly after, the council voted.
The fight, though, might not be over.
Citizens for Positive Growth & Preservation since 2015 has filed three lawsuits against the city accusing Sacramento officials of violating CEQA.
The group could challenge the City Council’s latest decision in court.
