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Dollar Creek Crossing project still seeking community input

Hannah Jones
hjones@sierrasun.com

Placer County is still looking for community input on a housing project in the Dollar Hill area that could accommodate a range of income levels, not just affordable.

“More and more people on the income scale are not able to find housing,” said Caleb Roope, president of Pacific Companies. Despite the need for moderate income housing units, Roope said government subsidies available to those types of housing projects “drastically diminish” as you move up the income scale making it challenging to develop housing for the middle class.

According to a Mountain Housing Council study, Eastern Placer County needs 1,560 units to accommodate residents in the very low and extremely low income bracket. Another 250 moderate income units are needed and 614 upper-middle income units are needed.



According to the housing council, affordable housing is for those with an extremely low or very low income making 60% or less of the area median income. Moderate income levels range from 60% to 120% of the area median income and upper-middle income range from 120% to 195% of the area median income.

The project aims to provide housing for all of those income levels.



“Obviously no one project is going to answer all of these problems,” said Emily Setzer, senior management analyst for Placer County. “It needs to be a regional approach. The county is working on trying to come at it from every different angle.”

In August, Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of an 11.4-acre property in the Dollar Hill area from R.T. Nahas company for $3.6 million. The property is still in escrow. The property located at 3205 and 3225 North Lake Blvd. will be developed by Related-Pacific Companies, a hybrid team of development companies, which built the 77-unit Domus affordable housing project in Kings Beach.

In the early stages of planning the developers proposed a total of 206 units, including 192 apartments of various sizes and 14 single-family homes with a community building. They emphasized that it is not a final proposal.

“We are here to listen to the community. We’re interested in a community project that works,” L. Andrea Clark of Pacific Companies said at a community meeting last week. Clark said they only had 45 days to submit a proposal when the county put out a request for proposals.

“This is a potential project it’s not something that’s going to go in the ground tomorrow,” said Jennifer Merchant, Placer County deputy executive officer.

This was the third time community developers have hosted on the project. Moving forward, the county hopes to develop an advisory committee to help inform the process.

Setzer said they hope to finalize the project description by the end of the year. The project would then have to go through an environmental review which would take anywhere from six months to two years. Construction on the project would begin in 2021 at the earliest.

Hannah Jones is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at hjones@sierrasun.com or 530-550-2652.


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