The Abridged version:
- The Rocklin City Council delayed its decision on the fate of a 281-unit affordable housing development.
- Residents have largely decried the project for its scale and concerns over safety and traffic strains on a busy roadway.
- Residents and City Council members have criticized state affordable housing mandates and regulations, which they say force cities like Rocklin to either approve controversial developments or go to court.
Heeding concerns from residents, the Rocklin City Council moved to delay a vote on a controversial affordable housing project. But the pause is unlikely to change the development’s fate.
Developers’ plans for Midas Apartments include 281 affordable units across three four-story buildings. The development site sits at the corner of Pacific Street and Midas Avenue, a roadway that local residents noted is often congested with traffic and prone to safety issues.
Council members on Tuesday voted 4-1 to continue discussing Midas Apartments at a later date, again punting a decision to a future meeting.
State law allows local governments up to five meetings to discuss proposed affordable developments, giving City Council two more chances to discuss Midas Apartments before they must take a vote. But the decision on whether to approve the Midas development, officials say, is largely out of their control due to affordable housing mandates and legal pressure from the state.
“I think we have to be very careful with how we’re going to be proceeding,” Rocklin mayor Dave Bass said. “When this thing goes into litigation, it’s not just gonna be the developer that’s showing up … this is the project we’re going to get swarmed on.”
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Resident concerns and growing pains
Developers said that despite pushback over scale, their proposal is “modest,” as zoning designations would allow them to build nearly 200 more housing units than currently planned. They also noted that they’ve made compromises since first introducing the project, including adding 58 more parking spaces and revising plans for a driveway.
Residents largely say they support building some form of affordable housing in the city, but that the Midas development’s scale, location, limited parking availability and the predicted influx of vehicles to a busy roadway will put a strain on the community and make the street more unsafe. The apartment complex is expected to generate over 1,300 additional vehicle trips daily on local roadways, which residents say will worsen existing traffic issues.
Midas Apartments would also be located near a railway and pipeline, which many residents have taken issue with.
“I’m concerned about the safety of not only myself and our current residents, I’m concerned for the safety of the residents who will be in these units,” Rocklin resident Richard Schultz said. “People are going to be in jeopardy with traffic issues that you’re dealing with here.”
Locals also expressed concerns over potential changes to home values and overburdening local schools with new students, though the Rocklin Unified School District has told officials it does not expect to be affected.
Rocklin has been a key target for more affordable housing development in recent years, becoming the site of multiple up-and-coming complexes. Housing advocates and some local residents emphasized that Midas Apartments will help the city meet its affordable housing goals, allowing many lower-income, elderly and younger residents to avoid being priced out.
“To me, the development of affordable housing is an opportunity for young adults such as myself to stay in the city that I’ve grown up in and cherish deeply,” resident James Getzen said. “These pains are ultimately unavoidable. I for one am willing to deal with the consequences that a rising population will bring to our city.”
The impact of state mandates
The project site has been zoned for apartments for years and has since been designated a suitable location for affordable housing in Rocklin. The City Council generally cannot deny or modify plans for affordable housing projects like Midas Apartments, with California law mandating approval unless an “extraordinarily high-bar legal finding” shows negative impacts on the community, the developers’ lawyer Dave Rand said.
“The question is not that the 281 units in front of you is feasible,” Rand said. “The question is if 281 units would literally cause a quantifiable human health and safety impact, which of course, it won’t.”
In recent years, Rocklin has received several letters directly from the state Housing and Community Development agency demanding it approve affordable housing proposals, including a 2026 letter demanding a green light for the controversial Sierra Wilds development plan nearby.
If the City Council ultimately votes against the project, Rocklin will likely find itself in litigation. City officials estimated that a court case with the developer would cost Rocklin upwards of $2.8 million, adding that courts would still have other avenues to force the city to approve the project.
“No city has won any of these lawsuits except for one,” Bass said, referring to a development plan in Santa Barbara that was struck down due to a targeted carve-out in state law. “It’s not just whether we pay a bunch of money to decide whether we’re going to fight something. It’s also the other things that the court can do and the precedent that’s been put before us.”
The city of Rocklin hasn’t determined when it will continue its discussion on Midas Apartments, but council members indicated that it’s unlikely to happen this month.
To learn more about what the three Rocklin City Council candidates on the November ballot think about balancing housing needs and community concerns, check out Abridged by PBS KVIE’s voter guide.
