The Abridged version:
- Less than 18 months into its ambitious “Missing Middle Housing” ordinance, the city of Sacramento is considering retooling its policy that allows construction of denser housing on small home lots across the city.
- So far the city has approved 22 projects for denser housing like duplexes, triplexes and four-plexes, among a total pool of 34 applications.
- At a meeting Tuesday night, multiple members of the Sacramento City Council urged the city to be more permissive with its middle-sized housing policies.
The city of Sacramento made headlines in late 2024, when it became the first city in the state to allow multi-unit housing in every neighborhood, regardless of single-family home zoning.
Less than 18 months into the new policy, the city appears poised to alter some of those provisions.
City staff recommended that the city scale back some of the provisions with new width and depth requirements, but members of the Sacramento City Council urged the city to be more aggressive in its approach to encourage more multi-unit developments.
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Sacramento’s “Missing Middle Housing” ordinance opened the door for denser housing uses like duplexes and triplexes — and upwards to ten-plexes — on small lots in all of the city’s neighborhoods. The multiplexes are intended to fill the “missing middle” housing between single-family homes and large-scale apartment buildings.
Housing advocates have looked to the housing as one way to provide more affordable housing options for middle-income residents.
City staff propose stricter standards
The original “missing middle ordinance” was passed unanimously on an interim basis in 2024. City staff is looking to update the ordinance before they put into law a more permanent version, which could be finalized by the end of this year.
They recommended adding new depth and width requirements to the ordinance, but would maintain rules that allow administrative approvals for smaller projects.
Staff recommendations would also allow building heights to go beyond the current maximums, pending approval on a case-by-case basis by a city planning director. City staff also recommended that the city loosen some of its aesthetic restrictions which dictate things like the style of the roof and size of the building.
Housing advocates say ordinance has not been successful
Dov Kadin, vice chair of the city’s Planning and Design Commission, recalled hearing concerns that the Missing Middle ordinance would change the look of neighborhoods overnight.
“We’re a year and a half in, and we haven’t seen a single project between three and 20 units,” Kaden said. “What we have in the interim ordinance is clearly not working.”
So far, the city has approved 22 applications for middle-sized housing, among a total pool of 34 applications, as of late March, according to the city’s data.
Housing advocates pointed to the “bulk controls” as a limiting factor for the ordinance. The bulk controls currently dictate the shape and size of the multiplexes that can come in, including aesthetic requirements like roof shape.
The city is considering peeling back the bulk controls, but adding new width and depth restrictions instead. Ben Raderstorf, with volunteer-run advocacy group House Sacramento, said that the new height restrictions on the table would scale back the housing efforts even further.
“They’re proposing putting in new restrictions that potentially dramatically shrink what you’re able to build,” Raderstorf said.
He added that some elements of the city’s current ordinance make it difficult for projects to pencil out for small developers looking to build middle housing.
Council voices support for expanding ordinance
Multiple members of the council urged the city to be more aggressive with its Missing Middle ordinance, and agreed that the city should pull back some of its bulk controls and make it easier to build middle housing.
That recommendation went counter to the advice provided by a city-paid consulting firm, Opticos Design. The firm recommended that three-story buildings only be approved in single-family neighborhoods with additional aesthetics like sloped roofs.
“I worry that in our effort to do things that are focused on aesthetics … that we might end up in a place where we’re behind the ball,” said Councilmember Caity Maple, who represents Oak Park.
Maple urged that the city “be bold and go a little further,” with its attempts to build out middle-sized housing.
Councilmember Lisa Kaplan, who represents North Natomas, urged the city to streamline its policies as well, especially in the lower-density areas of the city.
“I want to see them in the subburbs of neighborhoods, not just downtown,” Kaplan said.
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.