The Abridged version:
- The Sacramento City Council approved plans for a six-story, 332-unit apartment complex in East Sacramento off of Alhambra Boulevard on Tuesday night.
- The project would demolish a set of vacant warehouses and three single-family homes to make room for the apartment complex, parking garage and a coffee shop on the ground floor.
- Dueling neighborhood groups were vocal in their opposition, and in their support, for the housing project.
The Sacramento City Council has green-lit plans that would transform a full block of East Sacramento from a long-vacant factory building into a dense apartment building complex.
The council voted unanimously on Tuesday night in favor a new six-story apartment complex planned at the former Mary Ann’s Bakery site in East Sacramento. The project would see the city block bounded by Alhambra Boulevard, 30th Street, C Street and D Street largely demolished and redeveloped.
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Vocal opposition has surrounded the project since plans first debuted. Residents in the adjacent neighborhood and other parts of East Sacramento have taken issue with the height of the apartment complex and asserted its design does not fit in with the nearby bungalows and single-family homes.
Opponents appealed planning commission vote
The project won unanimous approval from the city’s Planning and Design Commission in February. Two appeals were filed against the project by a neighborhood association and a citizens group sending it before the City Council for a final vote.
“We won’t have a place for our children to live if we don’t build places like this,” said Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, who’s district includes East Sacramento and the central city.
Pluckebaum pointed to estimates that the city must build about 45,000 new housing units to keep up with projected population growth in the Sacramento region, and called the project a “drop in that bucket.”
“There is friction when we bring new folks into our communities, it creates tension … I believe our neighborhood can embrace this project,” Pluckebaum said.
Site once housed bakery
Two empty warehouses currently fill the site, as well as three homes and a duplex. While the site is currently vacant, it once housed Mary Ann’s Bakery. Between 1927 and 1969, the warehouses also housed the Pureta Sausage Co., one of the city’s largest meatpacking factories.
The historic brick facade would likely remain, according to architectural renderings for the site.
Project plans describe 332 housing units, a six-level parking garage and space for a coffee shop on the southwest corner of the site. The housing units would include a mix of studio apartments, one-bedroom units and two-bedroom units ranging from 505 square feet to 1,100 square feet. All of the units would be rented at market rates.
The project is proposed by property owner Demas Enterprises but would still need a developer to build out the apartment complex. The council vote, however, solidifies the entitlements to build dense new housing on the site.
Residents offer vocal opposition, and support for project.
Opponents argued that the project wouldn’t fit in with the adjacent neighborhood of single-family homes, and drew issue with the scale of the project.
“We’re not NIMBYs, we support housing here,” said Carl Seymour, referring to the acronym Not In My Backyard. Seymour is the president of the Casa Loma Terrace – East Sacramento Neighborhood Association.
Seymour urged that developers should redesign the project and keep it to a 35-foot height limit — below the planned 68-foot height — and said that the project should cater to affordable housing rather than market-rate housing.
“It bears no architectural resemblance to anything in the entire area,” Seymour said.
Other neighborhood groups voiced strong support for the project, stating that it was important to add new residents to East Sacramento.
When Amanda Pilz’s family built their home in East Sacramento nearly a century ago, it was a neighborhood of teachers, hospital workers and low- and middle-income residents, she said.
“… Most of those folks would have a hard time affording housing in East Sacramento today because limited supply and high demand have driven up home prices,” Pilz told the council. “If we want to restore the hope of affordability in East Sac, we need to seize opportunities to build new housing in the neighborhood.”
City says housing laws limit ability to deny project
The city’s attorneys told the council that state housing laws largely limit the city’s ability to reject the project or require a lower height.
“If we’re going to reduce the density of this we’d have to find specific, adverse impacs that would result from the approval of this project,” said Leslie Walker, senior deputy city attorney with the city of Sacramento.
Opponents of the project did not immediately confirm whether or not they were planning to file a lawsuit over the council decision. A pair of groups cited the violations of the city’s general plan and the California Environmental Quality Act when they filed appeals to the original Planning Commission decision.
Felicia Alvarez is a reporter at Abridged covering accountability. She’s called Sacramento home since 2015 and has reported on government, health care and breaking news topics for both local and national news outlets.