Rocklin neighbors upset, rally against housing rezone effort

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article misstated Vice Mayor David Bass' comments as referring to the Planning Commission, when he was speaking about an unrelated state commission. A request for comment from Gold Mountain California News Media to Bass was sent to an old campaign email address rather than his Rocklin city address, which led to the lack of clarification before publication. Gold Mountain California News Media apologizes for the error. The Rocklin Planning Commission was overflowing last week with residents opposed to rezoning some city parcels for affordable housing. The city of Rocklin's Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) status has been revoked due to not rezoning enough acres for lower-income and moderate-income houses, causing the city to rezone vacant or underused land. The RHNA process refers to a California requirement for all local governments to plan for the housing needs of everyone in their community, regardless of income. The process begins with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) determining how much housing is needed at a variety of affordability levels for each region in the state. The regional governments develop a methodology to allocate that housing need to the local governments. The California local governments, like the Rocklin City Council, then adopt housing elements as part of their general plan to show the jurisdiction will meet local housing needs. This is a state-mandated process that occurs every eight years. Rocklin's 2021-2029 Housing Element was adopted and certified as compliant in 2021. The Housing Element established goals and polices, and identifies 24 programs the city will implement during the eight-year period. On Oct. 16, 2024, HCD issued Rocklin written findings that the city failed to implement Program 10, which requires the city to rezone 159.91 acres to accommodate the lower-income RHNA and 77.75 acres to accommodate the moderate-income RHNA before the due date of Sept. 15, 2024. The city responded to the HCD's written findings on Nov. 12, 2024. Additional documentation that was requested by HCD regarding the rezones was received on Jan. 23, 2025, and March 3, 2025. A letter to the city from HCD on June 24 stated while Rocklin completed a portion of its required housing element rezones to meet its lower-income RHNA, there remained a shortfall of 968 units. The letter stated HCD found the city's housing element no longer compliant with the Housing Element Law. Until the city transmits a copy of resolution or ordinance to HCD and they review the documentation, the status will be revoked. This opens the city to "Builder's Remedy," a penalty for cities that fail to meet their housing planning requirements. This allows developers to bypass local zoning restrictions. "Because the City no longer has a housing element that substantially complies with Housing Element Law, the City is now subject to the 'Builder's Remedy' and is ineligible for certain state funds," the letter from HCD stated. "In addition, the City may be subject to referral to the California Office of the Attorney General, court-imposed penalties, and the loss of local land use authority to a court-appointed agent." After three hours of testimony from roughly 45 concerned Rocklin residents, the Planning Commission voted Aug. 5 to recommend the City Council approve some rezones and discouraged others. A total of 15 sites on 23 parcels were earlier identified for lower-income rezoning, said City Planner Nate Anderson. After the draft study was published, the city received a flood of letters regarding mainly four disputed parcels. The commission agreed to recommend approval of the overall plan, minus the 10-acre working ranch at Argonaut Avenue and another undeveloped parcel west of Delmar Avenue near Loomis. "We will continue to make it as difficult as possible for anything to happen there," Franklin Burris, president of Yankee Hill Estates Board, said about the Delmar property. "You just put your boot on my neck," said rancher William Mitchell. "This is the last ranch in Rocklin." Under the "No Net Loss Law," cities are required to maintain an inventory of adequate sites planned for any remaining unmet housing needs. However, housing projects cannot be denied solely because they require rezoning of other sites. As a result, several market-rate projects on land originally for lower and moderate incomes were approved, sending Rocklin into "non-compliance," staff explained. Rocklin is currently working on an inclusionary housing ordinance to require a portion of projects be lower-income to avoid these problems. The RHNA is determined by councils of governments. For the six-county greater Sacramento region – which includes Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba Counties – the agency is the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, or SACOG. The RHNA represents a minimum number of housing units Rocklin must plan for growth across all income levels. Rocklin currently must have an inventory of 5,661 housing units across all income categories during the sixth RHNA cycle, staff said. The rezoning requirement for lower income households, which includes extremely low-, very low- and low-income categories, totals 3,062 units, along with 481 carryover units from the Rocklin fifth cycle, for 3,543 total units. For the city's allocation for moderate-income households, the plan also includes the rezoning of 77 acres, or 51 acres of vacant land and 26 acres of underused land, to mixed-use, 10 dwellings per acre minimum. Rocklin staff said it is important to understand that in most cases, zoning only comes into play when a property owner proposes a new project. Officials also said Rocklin has few alternatives, as the city is generally "built out" and running out of suitable housing locations. "This RHNA rezoning effort does not require property owners to construct multifamily housing or initiate any new development at all," Rocklin staff stressed in the report. "Rather, it is intended to facilitate and encourage housing production in appropriate areas." "If there is any recourse to fight this unwanted affordable housing imposition from the state, I think it should be vigorously pursued," wrote Rocklin resident Mathew Bollinger. The Rocklin City Council is tentatively scheduled to decide the matter Aug. 26, staff said.