New California law could give ‘path forward’ for El Dorado County apartment plan
When the California Legislature passed Assembly Bill 893 last year, it was pitched as a way to help jumpstart student housing near college campuses across the state.
Yet to developer Affirmed Housing, it could serve as a lifeline for a 128-apartment project planned just east of El Dorado Hills — though it is nowhere near a college campus.
That was by design said Kate Rodgers, a policy director with the Student Homes Coalition who drafted AB 893 and was one of the primary advocates working on the bill as it made its way through the Legislature.
A provision was added to the bill before it passed to try and close a loophole that local officials could use to hold up housing developments on commercial land across the state. It forces those officials to focus solely on the area of a site where construction will occur and not on bordering land when considering if a project is exempt from environmental law.
“What the folks at Affirmed Housing and El Dorado County are doing is exactly the intended use case of the bill, that specific provision,” Rodgers said.
Two years ago, Affirmed Housing went to the Board of Supervisors with a request to subdivide a 5-acre commercial property in the Rescue and Cameron Park areas so a future project there could qualify for an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act. Property with wetlands on it was not eligible for the exemption the developer was seeking.
Supervisors rejected that request.
CEQA requires public agencies to document the environmental consequences of proposed projects, which can lead to lengthy reviews that grind construction to a halt. California lawmakers have spent years adding an array of exemptions to the act to counteract those long reviews, as well as combat efforts by opponents of new construction from using the law to hinder housing developments they don’t like. AB 893 fits into that mold: providing developers with another tool to blow through local obstacles.
Affirmed Housing did not want a future apartment plan to go through a lengthy CEQA review. Now it may not have to split the property to receive a reprieve from the environmental law under AB 893, as long as the developer is not physically disturbing the area of land with the wetlands during construction. The apartments are designed to be spread out over six buildings, most of which would be three stories tall.
The proposed project, which is called the Green Valley Family Apartments, is currently under review by county staffers to determine if the new law applies. If it does, the Board of Supervisors would also not have a vote on the project’s fate.
“That really gave us a path forward to be able to repropose the project,” Alicia Gaylord, a senior vice president for the San Diego-based company, said of AB 893.
That’s much to the dismay of an organized opposition to the project, which was previously called the Bass Lake Family Apartments. Among their concerns with the project, opponents worry the development will bring unsafe traffic congestion around the nearby elementary school and environmental degradation to the surrounding area.
“The OpposeBLA group is supportive of the responsible and timely construction of affordable housing,” Derik Oakes, a spokesperson for an alliance that opposed the apartment plan, said in a statement. “What we are not supportive of is projects like the renamed Green Valley Family Apartments, that are detrimental to public health, safety, and the welfare of our community, as determined by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors.”
In a separate interview, Oakes acknowledged the need to build more housing in the state, but said there’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.
“Faster isn’t always better,” he cautioned. “We know they’re trying to accomplish something good. But we know the road to ruin is paved with good intentions.”
Most members of the Board of Supervisors did not respond to requests for comment about the new state law and Affirmed Housing’s latest request.
“Although I won’t comment on this project specifically, I am generally opposed to any state legislation that overrides local control of property rights,” Supervisor Greg Ferrero said in an email.
Supervisor Brooke Laine, who chairs the board, also did not want to discuss the company’s pending request, but said she did support the previous project.
“In general, I feel that we are way far behind in building affordable and workforce housing,” she said of El Dorado County. “We generally say ‘Yes, we are all for affordable housing,’ but every time a project comes before the board, the majority of the board most of the time says, ‘Not here, not there.’”
Gaylord, from Affirmed Housing, said the project would help get people into more affordable residences. Half of the apartments have either two or three bedrooms, she said, and would be targeted to serve people with income levels of between about $38,000 and $77,500 for a family of four, she said.
“The state of California needs a lot more housing and we need housing at all income levels and all types,” Gaylord said. “So it’s really just how can we get folks that need housing into housing as quickly as possible.”
El Dorado County staff are expected to decide whether the project is eligible for expedited review under AB 893 by early June.
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 1:09 PM with the headline "New California law could give ‘path forward’ for El Dorado County apartment plan."
