Lawsuit filed against Placer County, USA Properties in proposed Penryn housing project

Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Rights (PCNR) has filed a lawsuit against Placer County and USA Properties in relation to the Hope Way Apartments project slated for Penryn. "It's not about affordable housing at all; it's about the density of this project in Penryn. All of Penryn could move into this apartment complex and have 250 spaces left over. … It's too big for the area," Brian Myers, chairman of Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Rights, told Gold Mountain California News Media in an interview 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 with the addition of a roundabout. On Jan. 26, the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the project's design review agreement, the nine development standard concessions and waivers and granted the appeals of USA Properties and YIMBY Law in 3-2 votes, with District 2 Supervisor Shanti Landon and District 3 Supervisor Anthony DeMattei submitting the nay votes. Additionally, the developer's request of $10.8 million (9 percent of the project's cost) of county-controlled funds was denied due to the motion to approve the funding agreement receiving a 2-3 vote. Landon, DeMattei and District 4 Supervisor Suzanne Jones submitted the majority vote of dissent. Myers stated PCNR appreciates that the board "stood their ground on the financing," as the lack of local matching funds affects the project's eligibility to qualify for federal funds for development. "Because the board was willing to stand up to that, on the financing part of it, we feel that there are some very strong arguments now that the developer should come talk to everybody – the county and us," he said. The lawsuit, filed Feb. 25, alleges the project was unlawfully approved due to "the County's failure to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the State Planning and Zoning Law …" The lawsuit also alleges the project "presents site-specific and potentially significant impacts not analyzed in any prior CEQA document." Myers stated, "They did a programmatic EIR (environmental impact report), which took 15 properties and said, 'We've analyzed them all, sort of, and we find that there's no changes at all in Hope Way after we did that programmatic EIR.' Except that the programmatic EIR never talked about the roundabout and its impact on traffic, and it's huge. It's a huge difference. And the law, even CEQA, says even in affordable housing if there's something that comes up after you've certified your EIR that's a substantial change, you have to analyze it within a CEQA-type review and they never did. They chose not to." Gold Mountain California News Media reached out to the county regarding the lawsuit and Placer County Planning Director Chris Pahule provided the following statement: "The county is aware of the lawsuit filed by Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Rights regarding the Hope Way Apartments project. While we cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation, the county conducted a thorough and legally compliant evaluation of the project in accordance with State housing law and the California Environmental Quality Act." USA Properties provided the following when contacted by Gold Mountain California News Media: "USA remains confident in our project proposal since Placer County identified the parcel for affordable housing, and the use was already allowed by the zoning and general plan. USA is evaluating the suit filed and the options before us." According to Myers, the lawsuit is requesting a writ of mandate, which would stop proceedings until the matter is litigated in the hopes of reducing the project's density. "Our optimum goal would be to reduce the density to a point where they don't need this roundabout," Myers stated. "Whatever that number is, if they can eliminate the roundabout and go back to a signalized intersection because the density is smaller, we would agree to that." In a post announcing the lawsuit in the Penryn Chit-Chat Facebook group, Myers confirmed the parties will have 30 days to file legal answers to the complaint once they are served. "We want to thank everyone in Placer County who has supported this fight," Myers said on Facebook. "Together, we are doing all we can to make this apartment proposal something that is a better fit in Penryn."