::: COMMUNITY NEWS

One of the parcels being considered for affordable housing is between the 9th and 18th holes of the North Course.

County supervisors challenge low-income housing in Rancho Murieta

Published Friday, April 16, 2004

Two of Sacramento County's supervisors said Wednesday they don't think Rancho Murieta is a good location for low-income housing, given its remoteness and lack of employment possibilities.

The comments by Supervisors Roger Niello and Muriel Johnson came as the supervisors continued work on a county plan to develop an inventory of land that will be built as affordable housing in the future.

The inventory already includes one site in Rancho Murieta, and the supervisors were considering adding two more.

"Where would people that live there work?" asked Niello. "There are not a lot of work opportunities out there."

"You're going to have to do some tall talking to make me think we should count the acreage in Rancho Murieta," said Johnson. "...We need to put (housing) where people can have transportation and jobs and convenience. And so there's one vote against it."

The county is working on an amendment to the general plan to establish an inventory of vacant land and policies that will generate affordable housing. The goal is to satisfy state requirements and to meet a threshold set in a 1996 court settlement between the county and Legal Services of Northern California.

On Wednesday, Principal Planner Leighann Moffitt made a presentation to the board showing the vacant land proposed for inclusion in the inventory. The board considered the assumptions the planning department made in compiling the inventory and discussed a 66-acre shortfall for low- and very low-income housing that must be resolved to meet minimum legal requirements. "State law requires us to demonstrate that we have land available to accommodate affordable units," Moffitt told the board.

Rancho Murieta turned up in the presentation as a separate category in a list of communities that have land designated for multi-family housing, which fits the low-income housing profile.

The Rancho Murieta land -- 23.8 acres -- was added to the list several weeks ago, after county planners realized the land is designated for multi-family housing in the community's master plan, although it isn't zoned that way in the county's general plan. The chart projected the Rancho Murieta acreage could hold 600 units -- about 25 units per acre.

The land is two of the three sites proposed for development as the Retreats by the Murieta Holdings developers. The two sites are between the 9th and 18th holes of the North Course and between the Country Club driving range and the 11th hole.

Developer Gerry N. Kamilos asked the county supervisors to remove two pieces of land from consideration.

Murieta Holdings, with partners Robert J. Cassano and Gerry L. Kamilos, is serving as development agent for the Pension Trust Fund of the Operating Engineers, the owner of Rancho Murieta's undeveloped land on the North. Cassano and Kamilos plan to develop the three Retreat sites as clusters of single-family homes on the same model as their Retreat project at the Valley Hi Country Club in Elk Grove. Homes there are selling for more than $500,000.

Kamilos asked the board to keep the Retreat land out of the county housing plan, saying the community has "an expectation" for the development and the tentative map was submitted to the county two years ago. While the two Retreat sites were planned as multi-family development in the master plan for Rancho Murieta, Kamilos said the master plan has a "tremendous amount of flexibility" and allows the low density, single-family development that's proposed without an amendment. The Retreat plan reduces the density to under four units per acre on the two sites.

Supervisor Don Nottoli, who represents Rancho Murieta, did not speak directly about the Rancho Murieta land, but he offered "words of caution" to the board about the need to act immediately on the decision, especially if the board were to vote to include the land in the low-income inventory.

"The implications there would potentially fill this chamber the next time we have a hearing on the housing element," he said.

Supervisor Illa Collin referred to the early plans for Rancho Murieta as a retirement community and its "very, very slow" development as such.

"And so, as a consequence, (the development) changed very much in nature over time," Collin said. "One of the curious things in terms of listening to 'Where would the jobs be?' etc., well, it was never envisioned that the jobs would have to be there. Medical facilities were envisioned, that there would have to be some commercial out there for convenience, and there would definitely have to be some medical out there, because it is very remote."

She referred to the possibility of senior housing in the community and, by comparison, called the planned Retreat homes, which are aimed at empty-nesters and affluent retirees, as "very expensive housing."

Already included in the county inventory for affordable housing are 17.8 acres at the east side of the North Gate, a site that has been zoned RD-30 for apartments for decades.

When asked by Collin whether he hoped to exclude the North Gate site as well, Kamilos said, "I would assume that this probably would stay in (the affordable housing inventory)."

Planning Director Robert Sherry told the board that county planners think an argument can be made either way for inclusion of Rancho Murieta's 23.8 acres in the inventory.

"In the end, your board is going to have to figure out a way to bridge this gap that we have in the inventory," he said. "We present to you 23.8 acres. Really, it's up to you. If you think it's something you want to include in the inventory, we'll accommodate that.

"If you think it's really not appropriate, we won't, but knowing that we'll have to make it up somewhere else."

Discussion of the topic will continue at a hearing at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at the county Administration Building, 700 H St.