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The Rocklin City Council delayed a decision Tuesday night on the proposed Sierra Wilds Apartments, ending a six-hour meeting without a vote on whether the 120-unit affordable housing project should move forward next to Maria Montessori Charter Academy.
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The council unanimously continued the matter to Sept. 22 after hours of public testimony from residents, school officials and parents who said they supported affordable housing but remained concerned about the project’s location and potential impact on students.
The delay reflected council members’ calls for more information before a vote. Council members said they still had questions about fire and emergency access, a detailed construction management plan, legal issues, a proposed deceleration lane and potential noise impacts on children.
Officials press safety concerns
Adrienne Garcia, assistant director of Maria Montessori Charter Academy, told the council that the school has about 330 students, 30 staff members and a waiting list for enrollment.
Garcia also emphasized that many of the families the school serves could potentially benefit from affordable housing.
“We are Title I, meaning a significant number of our students come from families who would qualify for the Sierra Wilds,” she said.
But school officials and parents argued that the project’s potential benefits do not eliminate concerns about construction, traffic and safety near the campus.
The project would place 120 apartments on approximately 4.67 acres of a 6.34-acre property at 1800 Wildcat Boulevard. The site is partially developed with St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church and sits next to the school.
Plans call for four three-story apartment buildings, a community center, swimming pool, tot lot, barbecue area, dog park and 180 surface parking spaces.
Of the 120 apartments, 118 would be designated as affordable for households earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income. Two additional units would be reserved for managers.
For many residents, however, the question was not whether Rocklin needs affordable housing, but whether this particular site is appropriate.
Placer County Board of Education member Dave Patterson pushed back against any suggestion that the debate was simply opposition to affordable housing.
“It’s a conversation about the health and safety of our children,” Patterson said.
Speakers raised concerns about traffic, construction activity, emergency access, noise, air quality and pedestrian safety.
A traffic study estimated that the apartments would generate 577 additional vehicle trips each day, including about 60 during the busiest morning hour and 55 during the busiest afternoon hour.
The city conducted a follow-up analysis after discovering that the original morning traffic count had taken place on a teacher workday, when students were not attending classes.
The updated analysis considered normal school traffic as well as a more conservative scenario involving individual student drop-offs and separate trips by school employees.
The studies concluded that nearby intersections would continue to operate at acceptable levels, but school officials and parents remained concerned about traffic and pedestrian movement during drop-off and pickup.
Council question the loss of commercial land
The opposition also extended beyond school safety.
Council member Jill Gayaldo said the controversy illustrates what she considers a loss of local control over land-use decisions.
“We have a general plan for a reason, and we spent years making that plan,” Gayaldo said.
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She pointed out that the property was originally zoned commercial and was intended to generate sales-tax revenue for the city.
“It was always intended to provide sales tax to the city and for the residents, so that we can pay for police and fire and for parks and roads,” she said.
Gayaldo also noted that the church and school has been allowed to use the property under provisions that did not generate city tax revenue in the same way as commercial development.
“Now I have a developer who skipped us altogether,” Gayaldo said. She argued that residents had hoped to preserve at least some commercial component on the property and questioned how much land would remain available for future commercial development.
Her concerns also extended to the state’s role in the project.
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State housing law complicates the city’s decision
Sierra Wilds is part of Rocklin’s state-required housing planning because the city identified the property as Site 1-13 in its Regional Housing Needs Allocation inventory.
Because the project includes a substantial amount of affordable housing and is located on a site identified for housing, it receives protections under California’s Housing Accountability Act. The law can limit a city’s ability to reject a qualifying housing project based on concerns that do not meet specific legal standards for health or safety threats.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development has told the city that the project qualifies for those protections.
Gayaldo warned that a finding that the city was out of compliance with state housing requirements could have consequences beyond Sierra Wilds.
“If HCD decides we’re noncompliant, it’s not just this project that they get to do, it’s the whole city,” she said.
She urged the school, church and developer to negotiate improvements rather than continue fighting over the project.
“The three of you need to sit down together and work something out to make some improvements,” she said. “Because you know none of us are going to love construction, but something’s going on there.”
The developer proposed measures to reduce disruptions on the adjacent school, including fencing and screening, dust and noise controls, moving some construction activity away from the school and using off-site parking for construction workers.
City staff recommended requiring a detailed construction management plan before building permits are issued.
Other unresolved issues
The project has undergone months of review and has changed since the council first considered it.
The developer modified its fencing proposal after concerns that apartments would be visible from the school’s playground. The revised plan includes a solid wood fence with a lattice top along part of the southern property line.
Emergency access remains another concern.
City staff have said the proposed access routes meet fire requirements, including a 14-foot-wide emergency gate. The developer has also proposed allowing the school to use an emergency route through the apartment property.
A school garden on church property remains also remains unresolved.
The developer said it was willing to work on relocating the garden, potentially to another portion of the church property or nearby city park land, but no final agreement had been reached.
The school and developer also have not finalized private agreements involving property access and a proposed walkway connecting the church parking area to the school.
The council’s decision to delay the vote leaves those issues unresolved ahead of the Sept. 22 meeting.
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