Proposed Penryn housing project approved, funding request denied

The Hope Way Apartments project slated for Penryn received final approval from the Placer County Board of Supervisors on Monday. The project is proposed as 240 units in 12 three-story buildings with a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom energy-efficient units to serve qualified individuals and households in need of affordable housing. The project is slated for an 11.43-acre site on Hope Way, right off Penryn Road. The project initially went before the board on Dec. 16, 2025, after three appeals were filed following the Placer County Planning Commission's 3-2 vote to halt the project, and received tentative approval. The supervisors approved the project's design review agreement and nine waivers in a 3-2 vote, with District 2 Supervisor Shanti Landon and District 3 Supervisor Anthony DeMattei voting no for each. The board also voted to grant the appeals of applicant USA Properties and YIMBY Law and deny the appeal made by Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Rights (PCNR) in a 4-1 vote, with Landon submitting the lone nay vote. Placer County Planning Director Chris Pahule provided an overview of the process and confirmed staff's recommendation was to approve the design review agreement, the nine concessions and the appeals filed by USA Properties and YIMBY. Additionally, Pahule provided clarification for comments received regarding information received in a public records request and alleging trip generation assumptions and lane configurations in the traffic study were manipulated to benefit the project. Pahule confirmed all information was evaluated by county staff and the board on Dec. 16, and the traffic study was reviewed and verified by Placer's Department of Public Works and reflects existing and proposed roadway operations. "The adjustments made within the traffic demand model reflect standard engineering judgement to align model results with observed travel behavior," Pahule stated. "These adjustments were reviewed and verified by county Department of Public Works staff and do not constitute manipulation of the analysis." The board then accepted 32 comments with the majority noting concerns which included the validity of the traffic study, public safety and emergency/evacuation access, and that a project of this size being wrong for the Penryn community. "Take the time now to make sure that the studies are done correctly and to look at alternative plans, if necessary," Laura Bullard said at the end of her comment. Vic Massenkoff told the board, "Your vote today will be a test of your integrity as an elected official as a representative of the residents of this county that voted for you and put their trust in you to keep their best interests, their safety in mind. Your vote today will be your legacy." Following the board's questions to staff and deliberation on possible options, the board noted it does not take the issues lightly, the difficulty of the decision before them and the need to spread affordable housing throughout the county. "... Having people who can work in our communities, in all of our communities is essential to me, and that's why I have supported this moving forward, but I wanted to make one other comment," District 5 Supervisor Cindy Gustafson said. "I hear your skepticism on traffic and if this project were to move forward, I as one supervisor am willing to work with our county staff as well as the developer to do what we've done in other communities, which is run shuttle buses and vans because people in affordable housing are on a very tight budget and if they don't have to drive and their kids can go to school in a van, they're using that. That is who uses our transit system." District 1 Supervisor Bonnie Gore added, "Right now, we have very few sites in District 3, which is where this actually is, and we have one affordable housing site in District 2, which is in Sheridan. At some point, these have to get disbursed, to Supervisor Gustafson's point." Board Chair Landon confirmed her position on the project had not changed and this project was the main reason she voted no on the RHNA rezone. The board then voted on the item's four actions, which were approval of the design review agreement; approval of the nine development standard concessions and waivers; granting the USA Properties and YIMBY Law appeals and deny the appeal filed by PCNR; and determine the project was consistent with the previously certified Housing Needs Rezone Program Programmatic Environmental Impact Report. The board passed each item in a 3-2 vote with Landon and DeMattei submitting the nay votes. In a newsletter Monday night, PCNR confirmed it is preparing to file a lawsuit against the approval within the next 30 days. According to the PCNR's website, preservepenryn.org, the nonprofit is currently raising funds to support the lawsuit. Loan and funding agreement The second item on the board's agenda was the developer's request of $10.8 million of county-controlled funds, which amounts to 9 percent of the project's cost, to support the development. Marie Maniscalco, housing development project planner for Placer, confirmed the total cost of the Hope Way Apartments project is anticipated at $117.7 million ($490,753 per unit). Maniscalco advised three sources of funding proposed to contribute to the project: low and moderate income housing asset funds, previously collected Bickford Ranch Affordable Housing fees and a developer bridge loan. The staff report notes the third loan source is a pledge of forthcoming affordable housing in-lieu fees from the Bickford Ranch project, if and when they become available. Maniscalco confirmed the county currently has $1.7 million available with the first two funding sources. Maniscalco advised the funds would go out as a 55-year term loan with an annual interest of 3 percent, which is consistent with other affordable housing loans authorized by the county. "The county would be paid back with residual receipts payments, which means that after operating expenses and their income, a portion of those proceeds would come back to the county through the life of the project, with the full amount plus interest being due at 55 years," Maniscalco said. After accepting public comment on the funding request, the board discussed the funding guidelines and whether the county could include conditions within the agreement. County counsel confirmed it would depend on what the conditions were. The motion to approve the funding agreement failed in a 2-3 vote, with Landon, DeMattei and District 4 Supervisor Suzanne Jones submitting the majority vote of dissent. The board then considered the option of continuing the item to consider alternatives for the funding. Placer County Counsel Karin Schwab confirmed the board would have to rescind its previous vote on the funding agreement to do so. Gustafson made a motion to rescind the decision. The motion failed due to not receiving a second. In the PCNR newsletter, Chairman Brian Myers deemed the denial a "major strategic victory for Penryn." According to Myers, projects of this nature rely on Low Income Housing Tax Credits to fund the project and need a score of 120 points. With the funding gap, the score drops and could disqualify the project from the April funding round. "This is far from over," Myers noted in Monday's newsletter. "Today was a good day for Penryn - let's keep the momentum going."