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ISSUE | CITYHOOD: The El Dorado Hills Community Services District has submitted an application to incorporate as a city, a move that could bring significant changes to local government, public spending and land-use decisions.
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The candidates running for the Community Services District’s Board of Directors, including incumbent Steve Ferry, government attorney Ben Glickman, retired Army Lt. Col. Steve Gutierrez and state water infrastructure executive Josh Ziese, are vying for three open seats.
Here’s how they differ over whether they support cityhood now or want more information about its financial and other effects before deciding:
Steve Ferry, incumbent
Steve Ferry said during an interview Thursday that he supports cityhood because he believes that El Dorado Hills should have greater independence from the county.
“I believe in basic freedom, and the closer we get our government to our homes the better we can operate,” he said. “So having a government that’s so far away in Placerville doesn’t work very well.”
He said the county had made poor land-use decisions, and that residents have not always known how those decisions have affected the community. “They see El Dorado Hills as this nice, pretty place with big trees and all that…But what they don’t know is all the places where we’ve been taken advantage of by the county,” he said.
He pointed to developer agreements that have left the community services district responsible for park land that can be difficult to develop. As a city, El Dorado Hills would have more control over negotiating those agreements, he said.
Ferry said cityhood would give El Dorado Hills greater control over some local government decisions but would not change some essential services, including the fire department. He said he is waiting for the results of a fiscal analysis that will help determine whether the proposed city is financially feasible, but expects it will find significant savings for residents.
“I feel like one of the original revolutionary war patriots,” Ferry said. “Freedom comes from having your government close to you and represented.”
Ben Glickman, challenger
Ben Glickman said he supported the Community Services District looking into cityhood, but he said he wants to understand the financial and housing obligations that would come with incorporation.
“In the abstract, local control and keeping our tax dollars here would be a good thing,” he said during an interview Thursday. “I support what they’re doing now, crunching the numbers and figuring out what that looks like.”
But, Glickman said, “there’s no free lunch.” If El Dorado Hills were to become its own city, it would have its own housing obligations under state law, including planning and zoning for its share of regional housing needs.
“What I would want to understand is, if we become a city and get our own allocation, what does that look like?” Glickman said.
“I don’t know if that’s good, bad or otherwise, but it’s relevant to the conversation,” he said. “Because once we’re a city, we’ll be the ones responsible for complying with state law and ensuring our housing obligations are met.”
Glickman questioned how much local control cityhood would actually give El Dorado Hills if the city still had to follow state housing laws.
“Are we really going to have control?” he said, “Or do we get it only for a moment to have the state take it right back from us?”
If elected, Glickman said he would examine what El Dorado Hills would both gain and give up through cityhood.
Steve Gutierrez, challenger
Steve Gutierrez said in an interview that he is open to cityhood but wants to see more information about the proposal and how much support it has among residents.
“Let’s find out what the financials are,” Gutierrez said Thursday. “If the information is there so that a city can be viable, I’ll certainly help out with that process.”
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“Who wouldn’t support something that’s going to improve your community?” he added.
He said the district should have done more to gauge residents’ support before starting an application. “We’ve got to make sure there’s an appetite for it,” he said. “You spend a lot of money on this process and then at the end of the day if there’s no appetite, no voters for it, there you go.”
Gutierrez also said affordable housing should not be a reason to shy away from incorporation. “Once we become a city, then we’re going to have to be adults that have to deal with that,” he said, “It’s not necessarily a scary thing.”
“People think, ‘oh my God, affordable housing, low-income, it’s going to cause crime,’” he said. “I’ve seen affordable housing, and that’s not an issue.”
Ultimately, Gutierrez said the decision should be based on what residents want. “Whatever the majority wants, whether I like it or not, that’s what you go with.”
Josh Ziese, challenger
Josh Ziese said in an interview that he believed cityhood could be positive for El Dorado Hills, particularly because it would give the community more control over land use and development.
He said he wanted to see the feasibility study currently being prepared before taking a position. “If it’s not an affordable kind of thing, that’s a big red flag for me,” he said.
Ziese said he believes that affordable housing development is inevitable in El Dorado Hills, and would continue whether the community becomes a city because of state laws. But, he said, incorporation could give local officials more say over how that growth takes place.
“It’s coming no matter what,” said Ziese. But after becoming a city, he said, “We would have more local control on deciding the nature of those allocations and where.”
Ziese said residents should make the decision once they have the information needed to understand what cityhood would mean for the community. If elected, he said, he would work to make sure that every resident had access to that information.
“Fundamentally, my opinion doesn’t matter on cityhood,” he said. “I think that what matters is that all the citizens of El Dorado Hills are fully informed.”
Why it matters
El Dorado Hills began its latest push for cityhood last year. It’s the community’s first formal incorporation attempt since 2005, when residents voted down a cityhood proposal.
Now, the El Dorado Hills Community Services District has submitted its application to the El Dorado Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO. The commission will review the proposal and decide whether it can move forward and eventually be placed on the ballot.
A major question is whether El Dorado Hills can afford to become a city. LAFCO is preparing a Comprehensive Fiscal Analysis, which will examine the proposed city’s revenues and costs and evaluate how incorporation would affect the county and other local agencies.
The analysis will also look at housing. If El Dorado Hills becomes a city, it would eventually receive its own share of the region’s housing needs through the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation process. The state determines how much housing a region needs, then the regional planning agency divides that need among cities and counties. Each local government must then plan and zone for enough housing to accommodate its share, including housing for lower-income residents.
El Dorado Hills’ future allocation has not yet been determined. LAFCO’s fiscal analysis is specifically required to examine the proposed city’s regional housing obligations, which should provide a better estimate of how much housing the new city could need to plan for.
The current community services district board approved the application, so the newly elected board would not get another vote on whether to submit it to LAFCO. The three directors elected in November could, however, help shape the district’s role in the incorporation process as LAFCO reviews the proposal.
This story was originally published September 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM with the headline “Fact Check: Where El Dorado Hills CSD board candidates stand on cityhood.”
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