There’s a missing tool in Sacramento’s housing toolbox
There’s a missing tool in Sacramento’s housing toolbox
There’s a missing tool in Sacramento’s housing toolbox
There’s a missing tool in Sacramento’s housing toolbox
By now, most agree that housing is undersupplied. But the type, location, and scale of new housing matters if we want that housing to reliably get built and to actually enhance Sacramento’s livability for everybody.
The [Strong Towns](https://www.strongtowns.org/) approach to housing is not so different than Sacramento’s very own approach just 100 years ago, but post-war federal economic and development policy ushered in an era of suburban development and financial products that wiped out almost all our knowledge of how we used to build cities. It was a grand experiment, but one that is so inflexible that it resulted in a housing market that only rewards big leaps in development intensity and large scale projects. Sacramento 100 years ago was built by many hands incrementally, but today new housing is mostly built by a small handful of large developers. It’s time to learn from our own past embrace *incremental development* once again.
Notes and sources:
* Cover photo is 21st and Fat Alley.
* “Farm-to-Suburb” slide features a new suburban development adjacent to North Natomas.
* [Annual New Car Ownership Costs Boil Over $12K](https://newsroom.aaa.com/2023/08/annual-new-car-ownership-costs-boil-over-12k/)
* [How Modern America Is Optimized for Loneliness, Misery and Poor Health](https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2024/5/24/how-modern-america-is-optimized-for-loneliness-misery-and-poor-health)
* “The suburban experiment has failed us” slide features a [photo of a concrete flood wall](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sacramentodistrict/7645618222/in/photostream/) (bottom center) designed to protect the Valley Hi neighborhood from a flood-prone and Morrison Creek, tasked with carrying most of sprawling South Sacramento’s surface runoff.
* [Market for 301 Capitol Mall is unclear](https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2022/07/28/301-capitol-mall-market-unclear.html)
* [High-rise residential proposed for Sacramento’s Lot X on pause, city says](https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2024/08/07/lot-x-high-rise-residential-on-pause.html)
* The [N & 14th development project](https://www.cadanet.org/projects/cada-residential-site-21) is estimated to cost $50M to build, and is used as an example of a dense, but large-scale project dependent on private equity.
* [Sacramento Makes Groundbreaking Changes to Housing Policies](https://www.sacog.org/Home/Components/News/News/115/16)
* [Sacramento’s Groundbreaking Zoning and Policy Reform](https://opticosdesign.com/blog/sacramentos-groundbreaking-zoning-and-policy-reform/)
* [South Bend Neighborhood Infill – Pre-approved, ready-to build housing](https://southbendin.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SBBT_Catalog_23-0506-lowres.pdf)
* Book recommendation: [Escaping the Housing Trap](https://www.housingtrap.org/order) by Charles Marohn and Daniel Herriges
Missing:
1. Planning for more than just single family homes. Planning the streets and roundabouts, planning shops, planning public transit, planning green space and bike routes. Planning for density and options.
Wow, this is a very informative set of graphics, and it offers some practical suggestions for next steps. Thank you for posting. Unfortunately the city’s budget is not looking great this year, same with many other surrounding cities. Hoping we can get some of these strategies implemented soon.
Living in south natomas and watching north natomas sprawl, I could not agree more. Our land development practices are atrocious. Reality is that people with money still yearn for these suburban sprawls.
Demonizing sudden intensification is a mistake. It only pushes the problem to the next generation. ADUs and renovating old houses to include more units is fighting a losing battle. The foundational infrastructure is old and needs costly maintenance, while a new ADUs pushes back demolition another 20-30 years until that shoddily built ADUs also begins deteriorating.
Also, the addition of ADUs only creates ridiculously small units that cost significantly more than their square footage. Most people do not want to live in a situation where they have to sneak into a backyard just to get inside their room just to pay 1br apartment rates for a studio.
If we want real progress, we need to get rid of policies that limit growth based on surrounding structures. An old bungalow torn down should be allowed to become a 3 story townhouse.
This is the type of content I love to see. Keep it up, you legend!
The sudden intensification is there because we didn’t do a good job of incrementally adding more units. Developers are building at this scale based upon demand and costs. Honestly we need this supply increase to help elevate rental price increases. Little ADUs in East Sac isn’t going to cut it.
Yeah, I was wondering recently why all new housing developments are building only 2 story, large homes (~2500 square feet) and not smaller starter homes that are a more reasonable size like 1000 square feet with 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms. We bought our first home in Hollywood Park which was built in the late 40’s and was originally 900 square feet and there were plenty of developments building homes this size at the time including Tahoe Park. Well, it’s pretty obvious that a developer would rather build a McMansion on a postage stamp size lot to maximize profits. I don’t know what can be done about that, but it seems that issue should be addressed in some way to give young families or young singles a better shot at buying their first home. Much easier to afford 1000 square feet than 2500 square feet.
What a great presentation, thanks! We live in Midtown, and see so much of what you talk about here. We live in multi-use housing. above a local business, and we really enjoy. We walk and bike a lot, and take light rail. We still have one car, but I sold mine so we only have my spouse’s.
On our walks, we have seen alley infills, first-level apartments, and front yard cottages being built.
I’ve been tempted to rent out my separate, converted garage but with the hassle California imposes to evict someone it’s just not worth the risk of getting a bad tenant.
Everybody should live in a shoe box and have no hobbies.
I worked on those apartments. They are not worth that, at least for the amount of effort that we put in.
Are you not aware that this has BEEN happening all over town, that ADUs require virtually no plan review and are super easy to get permits for, that the alley builds are still WILDLY expensive (too expensive for a regular homeowner to undertake), that speculators and developers call and mail homeowners constantly trying to buy up these spaces, that when they are built the work is often shoddy (those shitty square buildings, that’s what these wind up being), that they sell or rent for more than the existing housing stock?
I mean I assume this is well-intentioned and that you are not one of said speculators, but this post is honestly ludicrous. This is happening already, and it’s not solving the housing issue. There are four of these on the alley behind my house and every single one of them is occupied by a wealthy Bay Area transplant, and they all sold or rent at top of the market prices.
I realize that $700k isn’t an entry-level home. But how cheap can you actually build a house in California in 2024 that meets all building codes and permitting, etc.
I like the pre-approved plans in second to last slide. But I have to believe those would still cost $500K+ to build in California which still isn’t really entry level.
Contractor here. Additions, ADU’s, etc. are great but most people get serious sticker shock and most of those projects are DOA. If you don’t want something cookie cutter you need an architect and then dealing with the city/county plus permit fees, school fees, etc. You got utilities and then concrete and all the other trades to get the project done, cross your fingers you won’t have to upsize your electrical panel. Because the projects are small you get zero economy of scale so each trade is pretty pricey because nobody wants to even do such a small project. Then you have to think about do I want to deal with a renter on my property and potentially reducing my own parking and adding cars for the renter and by the time the person considers all this they are like yeah no thanks.
and yet tinyhomes on wheels are still illegal to have in one place for more than 6 months because they’re classified as RVs…
and then East Sacramento works hard to first recall and then replace the most strongly pro-incremental-growth / mixed use member of the city council and replaces her with someone who will NEVER allow this kind of mixed use or growth anywhere but the densest urban areas downtown.
Stop building houses on farmland!
Great presentation! Would love to see more movement in this direction. Especially pre-approved plans.
Nice presentation with great data, but unfortunately feels like the time you took to create this will be wasted in the depths of Reddit. Unless you sit on City council, or work as a developer/land planner, this won’t influence much. Right now the bigger issue is inflation costs on building materials and labor. Costs for everything are skyrocketing out of control, so building affordable housing is a tough sell. No investor with money wants any part of low-income housing, which leaves it up to the government who would have to figure out a way to fund it. Also California is not a state friendly to lower and middle class citizens even in the slightest. I know our politicians like to tout our state’s inclusiveness and accepting of all lifestyles…but they don’t like to mention you need a bunch of money also.
Our infrastructure is also rapidly aging and failing, and leaders keep kicking the can down the road. At some point here soon things are going to start failing faster than we can afford to replace or rehabilitate them. Things like water/sewer, bridges and roadways, etc.
Not just here but the world as a whole is entering a period of a lot of instability. The society we have built around us is currently unsustainable. Things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better sadly.
I don’t want to live in a world where living stacked on top of each other is the only way. Ugh
Too bad the cost to build an accessory dwelling with all the permits and a licensed contractor is damn near the cost of buying a new home.
“Why is this what we build?”
Because the developer market is an oligopoly/almost a cartel, and they only care about maximum profits from high price sales.
Sorry, I get the vibe. However, I’m not going to live in a backyard shed.
Worship the super rich, see only expensive homes built. Stop worshiping the super rich, tax the super rich; home builders will be forced to lower costs. **Rule of Thumb: As long as there are people with millions of dollars, those who sell things will want a piece.** Think: Why would you build and sell a home for less if somebody has and is willing to pay 3 million for it? **TAX THE RICH. NOT THE POOR**. Vote better.
I would love to subdivide my giant house in the central city. Not sure how or how to afford it though.
Neighbors for more neighbors!
incredible presentation. Suburban areas popping up left and right making it so difficult for people my age to find a space to live Sac. Anything affordable is already filled while so many vacant suburban houses lay available at too high of a price.
Hey I have land in the city I want to develop.
Any serious people in this thread who want to talk capital or their personal experience developing in city of Sacramento. DM me.
Most of those “empty lots” are just portions of existing lots dedicated to parking for commercial spaces, right? How are people supposed to work if there is no parking? (And yes, public transportation would be great if it was actually an option but lets be honest that deserves a separate post for solutions.)
I just have one question:
How do I make such awesome graphics on my pictures! I need that app!
Lived in midtown for years and now that I have kids I love the burbs! Kid friendly neighborhood, top rated schools, no tweakers… I accidentally left my garage door open all night last week and not a single thing stolen.
The thing we need is rent control. They could build a million new houses and apartments, but if rents are high, who is going to live in them. Developers are obviously incapable of regulating themselves when it comes to rents, and they have to give *something* back, they can’t just have it their own way.
🥹 Preach!
This is put together really well.
If you’ve ever had a construction project and dealt with the city you would know that the City will stop at nothing to get in the way of progress. The City is horrible at getting anything done. Not sure if it’s the state worker mentality, they just aren’t smart or they don’t care?
Sounds great, anything that increases housing supply in high demand areas is a good thing. As long as legalizing this doesn’t make other construction illegal. Destroy all NIMBYS
High housing costs are the bane of the west.
Casa De Chaos spotted. RIP
I like that you included the empty lots slide. Started noticing that like a month ago and now cannot unsee it.
Anyone who argues against bike lanes because they are underused should have to answer to the huge number of parking lots in midtown that are never used.
I am an infill multifamily construction lender. I provide higher leverage construction loans for local investors to activate these infill parcels.
Either for-rent or for-sale housing.
I live in Sacramento. AMA!