This story is part of our September 2024 issue. To subscribe, click here.

This is a sidebar to September’s feature story on housing. 

The City of Sacramento has earned recognition for doing more than most communities to reduce California’s housing shortage.

In the last four years, Sacramento has approved more than 11,000 housing units, the third-highest total in the state, according to figures from the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The city’s total of approved housing trails only Los Angeles and San Diego, both of which are much larger cities.

In addition, Sacramento two years ago became the first jurisdiction in the state to earn a “prohousing” designation from the Department of Housing and Community Development. The Prohousing Designation Program provides “support, incentives, and accountability measures to help meet California’s housing goals,” the department website says. Since then, Placer County, Roseville and Citrus Heights, along with other jurisdictions outside the Capital Region, have received the designation. 

Sacramento Planning Director Greg Sandlund attributes the city’s success to a revision of its general plan — the guiding document for development — in 2009. The updated plan emphasizes the development of apartments, condos and other types of multifamily housing in existing communities, a process known as infill. 

The city’s general plan is heavily influenced by a regional land use plan called the Blueprint, created by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, Sandlund says. The Blueprint emphasizes infill development as well.

The results can be seen in Midtown Sacramento and other central city communities, where trendy and upscale condos are mixed in with affordable apartments. More than 70 percent of the approved housing in Sacramento in recent years has been multifamily.

For example, Anthem is building 225 rental apartments at 905 S Street. Anthem also built Maker in Midtown, a 137-apartment complex on R Street.

The emphasis has also been on affordable: Most of the housing has been considered affordable for households of moderate, low or very low incomes ($109,000 a year or less for a household of two).

Federal, state and local subsidies help pay for the housing.

It took a while for the city’s plans to work, in large part because the Great Recession and associated foreclosure issues had a strong impact on Sacramento’s housing market, Sandlund says. The city further kickstarted construction by making it easier for builders to get through the city’s approval process.

“We’re taking the politics out of the housing policy,” he says, adding that local opposition to development —  also known as NIMBYism, for “not in my backyard” — seems increasingly rare.
Sacramento’s approach can work in other parts of the region, experts say.

“Multifamily construction is booming,” Alex Steinberger of Cascadia Partners told the Sacramento Area Council of Governments earlier this year, as the agency updated the Blueprint.

Several trends are driving an increase in multifamily housing, he says. Baby Boomers are moving into smaller homes and apartments, while Generation Z is just entering the housing market. Also, people are interested in walkable communities with services and shops nearby.
But single-family homes remain popular in some communities. In Roseville, for instance, 5,600 single-family homes have been approved for construction in the last four years, making up most of their new housing. Roseville approved the ninth-most housing in the state in that period. All the jurisdictions approving more housing than Roseville have much larger populations.

Just north of Roseville, Taylor Builders last year started construction on Placer One, a master-planned community previously called Placer Ranch. More than 5,000 residential units are expected, along with college extension programs by Sacramento State and Sierra College.
Several developers are building at Folsom Ranch, a master-planned community south of Highway 50. More than 3,000 homes have been built in the community that is expected to have as many as 11,000.

While unincorporated Sacramento County has plans to add up to 100,000 housing units in coming decades, it has seen relatively little housing activity in the last four years — less than 3,000 units permitted or about a fourth as much as the City of Sacramento. Most of it has been single-family housing.

Tim Murphy, president and chief executive officer at North State Building Industry Association, says developers are committed to providing housing to all parts of the market, including people who want downtown apartments and suburban homes.