Placer town hall provides overview of housing rezone program

Placer County hosted a town hall Wednesday to provide the community with an overview of the Housing Needs Rezone Program. The Housing Element Implementation Program HE-1: Rezone to Meet the RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) involves planning staff accessing the viability of candidate sites that have the potential to be rezoned to accommodate a shortfall for Placer's capacity in lower-income households. State law requires Placer to rezone sufficient sites for accommodated RHNA by May 15, 2024. The state also recommends having a buffer of 15-30 percent, so Placer plans to incorporate a 30-percent buffer over its required allotment of 1,257 units (1,634 units with the buffer). The county will establish a new zone district, RM30 Zone - Residential Multifamily 30 District, which will create a minimum density of 20 units per acre and a maximum of 30 per acre. The zone district is intended to provide areas for the development of halfplexes, duplexes, apartments and multifamily attached dwelling units such as condos or townhomes. Kally Kedinger-Cecil, a senior planner for Placer County, shared possible candidate sites identified include eight in District 1; two in downtown Sheridan within District 2; nine in District 3 with many of the sites within the Penryn Parkway, as well as four sites along English Colony Way in Penryn and a site on Buena Vista Avenue in Newcastle; sites on Douglas Boulevard, at the corner of Eureka and Auburn Folsom roads and on Granite Lake Drive in District 4; and sites in Newcastle, unincorporated Truckee and North Auburn and the Bowman area in District 5. Kedinger-Cecil confirmed a majority of the sites in Districts 1 and 2 are in specific plan areas, and District 5 has the most sites. More than an hour of public comment was accepted as 27 residents shared their concerns. Comments included concern over the majority of sites being in North Auburn and Penryn; there being no infrastructure or services like jobs and transportation near candidate sites; whether the community will be provided a say in which sites will be selected for the rezone; the impacts to services, traffic and potential crime in the sites' surrounding communities; and the rezone being a way to politically flip the county. Commenters also inquired as to whether the county was asking or telling residents it had to rezone parcels and what happens if the county does not move forward with the rezone program. "The state has been taking actions," Kedinger-Cecil said. "They've been taking legal actions against jurisdictions. State legislators have been very vocal in that they want to hold jurisdictions' feet to the fire with their RHNAs, so it is a very serious program with serious consequences." Kedinger-Cecil confirmed another consequence could include Placer losing its local permitting authority. Kedinger-Cecil also noted while Placer is required to meet these numbers, the county is not requiring property owners to build if their properties are rezoned. Planning Director Chris Pahule confirmed the county is providing information at this point and casting a wide net to add more properties than needed to the list. Pahule also confirmed staff would take the site list to the Board of Supervisors on Sept. 26 to seek direction on whether sites should be kept or removed from consideration. Kedinger-Cecil also noted the contract for the programmatic Environmental Impact Report will be presented to the board during the Aug. 15 meeting. According to the board's agenda, the contract is a department item that will be considered for action as time allows. Residents can learn more about the Housing Needs Rezone Program and view a map of all candidate sites throughout the county at placer.ca.gov/8794/Housing-needs-rezone-program.