Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Placerville council denies rezoning for 2752 Coloma Street, citing safety and HCD guidance
Summary
The council voted unanimously to deny a request to apply a Housing Opportunity Overlay to 2752 Coloma Street, a 3.77-acre site that could have allowed up to 67 multifamily units; staff and the planning commission cited pedestrian, traffic and wildfire-evacuation concerns and said HCD confirmed the city's housing element remains in compliance without rezoning the parcel.
The Placerville City Council voted unanimously on July 14 to deny a proposed general plan amendment and zone change that would have applied the Housing Opportunity Overlay to 2752 Coloma Street.
Carol Kendrick, Placerville's director of development services, told the council the request covered 3.77 acres along Highway 49 and could have allowed up to 67 multifamily units at 20'to'24 dwelling units per acre with at least 50% affordable. After a June 16 Planning Commission hearing, staff and the commission recommended denial citing site-specific concerns, including pedestrian safety, traffic operations and wildfire-evacuation constraints. Kendrick said follow-up conversations with the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) confirmed the city can remain in substantial compliance with its housing element without rezoning the parcel and that the site is not included in the city's housing element site inventory.
During public comment, adjacent resident Max Mizell urged the council to deny the rezoning, saying the CEQA analysis omitted key impacts to vehicle and pedestrian safety and wildfire evacuation routes and noting a 1994 resolution declaring his house historically significant. "I hope the council is in agreement with the Planning Department and the Planning Commission to deny the rezoning," Mizell said.
After public comment, a council member moved to adopt the staff recommendation to deny GPA 26-03 and ZC 26-03 and to decline adoption of the mitigated negative declaration. The motion passed on a unanimous roll-call vote.
Why it matters: the decision preserves the site's current zoning and reflects the council's weighing of localized public-safety and circulation constraints against additional housing capacity on this parcel. City staff said the denial will not jeopardize Placerville's RHNA compliance because HCD has confirmed the city can meet requirements without this rezoning.
What happens next: staff will transmit the council's findings to HCD as directed in the staff report. No further public hearings on this specific rezoning were scheduled at the July 14 meeting.
