Elk Grove is not a ‘bad actor,’ but Attorney General Rob Bonta was right to sue them | Opinion

When California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the city of Elk Grove, the booming suburb south of Sacramento became the front lines in the struggle to build affordable housing that is desperately needed in this state.

Elk Grove officials rejected a ready-for-construction, privately financed affordable housing project in its Old Town area, and Bonta responded with a lawsuit. Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen justified city actions as necessary to maintain local control over development.

The problem with this justification is that local control is often rigged to prevent affordable housing across California, one of the primary reasons why the state has a dire housing shortage in the first place.

That is why SB 35 — the law Bonta says was violated by Elk Grove — is so important.

Authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, SB 35 streamlined the construction of affordable housing in California counties and cities that fail to build enough housing to meet state-mandated requirements. Eligible projects do not need to seek permission or go through the same process as market-rate housing, much to the chagrin of cities that would prefer a tight grip over development.

Elk Grove officials are aware of SB 35, but in 2021, they denied the development of the 66-unit affordable housing project, known as Oak Rose Apartments, saying that it violated a Special Planning Area requirement that prohibits residential units on the ground floor.

Elk Grove leaders insist they are not “bad actors” seeking to block affordable housing projects. They point to several examples of transitional housing within the city limits that are clean, safe and instrumental in providing needed shelter.

“We want to be good ambassadors and good neighbors. We agree with the mission and the goals that every city must step up and do their share,” said Singh-Allen. “We are doing that, but we also want to be able to work … to find alternative solutions, then find that win-win.”

City officials insist that they have a better, alternative site for the Oak Rose Apartments on a parcel in the northern part of the city, but the developer, Excelerate Housing, disagrees and favors the site in Old Town.

Elk Grove leaders invited members of this editorial board to hear their side of this dispute and to tour transitional housing units in their city that are successful.

Singh-Allen and other city leaders are undeniably sincere. Elk Grove is not in the same category as Huntington Beach or Woodside or other cities that are outright hostile to affordable housing.

However, in the context of California urgently needing more affordable housing without delay, Elk Grove officials are in the wrong here.

After Oak Rose was rejected, Elk Grove subsequently allowed a market-rate housing development located within the same Old Town Special Planning Area to move forward despite the presence of ground-floor residential units. The city found that Railroad Courtyards, just a few blocks away from the proposed Oak Rose site, was consistent with its planning standards and “completely avoided any discussion of the same use restrictions” that it cited to deny the Oak Rose project. Gov. Gavin Newsom himself noted this double standard in a press release announcing Bonta’s suit against Elk Grove.

“Communities that fail to build their fair share of housing, including those refusing to develop desperately needed affordable housing, will be held to account,” Newsom said.

Elk Grove has very little affordable housing compared to market-rate housing.

A glance at the affordable, multi-family housing map of Elk Grove shows a distinct lack of locations to the east of Highway 99. The few that are to the east of the highway are mainly clustered in the north end of town.

The city says that’s because larger plots are available to the west, but there are at least two more obvious reasons:

Elk Grove needs more affordable housing

First, the proposed Oak Rose site is adjacent to a city-owned property that the city wants to use for a future library. Elk Grove had the opportunity to buy that plot before the would-be developer did. The city declined, citing a high cost.

Second, Elk Grove is a desirable place to live, but an equally difficult place to afford a home.

The median home price in Elk Grove in April 2023 was $630,000, according to Redfin, and a quick perusal of Zillow shows million-dollar homes just blocks away from the proposed Oak Rose site. Old Town is a semi-historic district that city officials acknowledge they are unwilling to develop in any way that doesn’t fit a master plan.

Elk Grove is part of Sacramento County, whose problem is many magnitudes larger and which counted nearly 10,000 homeless individuals last year. California is home to 30% of all people in the U.S. experiencing homelessness, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

While California cities like Elk Grove may not like SB 35, it’s the law. They have an obligation to provide affordable housing in every area of their city, and especially in infill areas exactly like the proposed site in Old Town.

California must move toward building affordable housing projects to infill, in empty plots, and not in far-flung areas of cities.

The point of SB 35 is that it requires cities to approve projects that fit their objective standards of housing development and to approve those projects in every part of a city, not just the outskirts. Elk Grove’s homeless population may be comparatively small — leaders claim there were only 45 homeless people at the last point-in-time count, but the population fluctuates on any given night.

California must build more affordable housing at a much faster pace and it’s clear that the only way to achieve this goal is by force. It’s understandable that Elk Grove leaders do not feel good about being forced. They want local control over their city. They don’t want to build an affordable housing project where they hoped to add a city amenity: a library.

If California wasn’t in a desperate housing crisis, we might be more sympathetic to the civic goals of these leaders.

But California is in a housing crisis, California needs more affordable housing, and there are too many people living in their cars. For these Californians, one personal setback is all that is separating them from homelessness.

We hope Elk Grove will work with Bonta to resolve this lawsuit and build more infill affordable housing — at a much faster pace.

This unfortunate chapter should not define Elk Grove. It has the competence and team to dramatically increase the city’s stock of affordable housing if it truly is a high priority. We hope Elk Grove leads by example. The whole region would be better for it.