Rocklin moves forward on College Park apartments

The 180-unit, affordable senior housing portion of the larger College Park development at Sierra College in Rocklin should begin construction by the end of the year, officials said. The Sierra College Senior Apartments project is a 180-unit, age 55-plus community on 7.3 acres, according to the Rocklin staff report. The plan is part of the larger College Park, a 108-acre, 900-unit Rocklin housing project across the street on two sides of the college. Mixed-use College Park is set to include three-story triplexes, a four-story condominium complex, a four-story apartment complex and single-family homes amid parks, trails and open spaces. Although located in Rocklin, kindergarten to 12th-grade students from College Park will travel north to attend Loomis schools due to district boundaries. Loomis settled out of court with the developer for $90,000 in impact fees two years ago. The Rocklin City Council approved a preliminary commitment letter and fee deferral request last month for the senior village, USA Properties. Rocklin established an affordable housing incentive program in January. The program provides a framework for affordable housing developers to use in development of deed-restricted housing units, officials said. As entitled, the project consists of 180 units, of which 178 would be restricted as affordable units to households of limited income. The 178 units represent 20 percent of the total units in the College Park project. Rents for the apartment homes will be limited to qualified seniors with low, very low or extremely low incomes, according to the report. The developer said the proposed affordable rental housing project is moving forward to its construction phase, including plans and maps to the city. The College Park project entities – Sierra College, Evergreen Sierra East LLC and Cresleigh Homes Corporation – have collectively contributed roughly $5.1 million to the developer for the project. Should funding be all settled for the project, construction would begin during the fourth quarter of 2024, with an estimated construction period of 24 to 30 months, staff said. The developer has requested a city loan from the city's low- and moderate-income housing asset fund of $2.2 million, to be repaid from project residual receipts, staff said. Rocklin's low-income fund is $9.2 million, according to the report. The developer has also requested the city consider deferring impact fees until Certificate of Occupancy, 24-30 months after construction begins. City staff have estimated $2,164,631 in impact fees for the project. The developer is working with several other local agencies to help with impact fees until Certificate of Occupancy.