Is Sacramento’s Campus Commons truly historic? Let old offices become new housing | Opinion
In Sacramento, Campus Commons is where time stands still. The constant of our place in the universe is this classic residential community of the 1970s with its impeccable tree-lined streets, manicured landscapes and resident turkeys.
Many of its adjacent offices, however, aren’t aging so gracefully. The post-COVID economy has shrunk office demand as vacancies have exploded. And now, to the horror of some residents, one office at the edge of a cherished residential area is being converted into 24 condominiums.
Local Sacramento City Councilman Eric Guerra’s solution is to use the full weight of government to make further change exceedingly difficult, by designating the 1,200-acre community as a historic district. This is a historically bad idea. And for a city that deserves a ton of credit for being on the cutting edge of smart growth planning, Guerra’s idea would send the city in the wrong direction.
State laws that create incentives to build much-needed housing in urban areas meant that Guerra and Campus Commons recently could do nothing to prevent this new dense residential complex with a decidedly 21st-century look and feel. Developer Katherine Bardis-Miry proposed 24 condominiums on just over an acre of land at the intersection of Campus Commons Road and Commons Drive.
Opinion
I drive by this corner nearly every week. Save for some sporadic poor landscape maintenance by the owner while awaiting final approval it’s a good project. Its density is unremarkable for what is happening in other Sacramento neighborhoods. But it does mark a sea change for Campus Commons.
Some of its residents fought the proposed development at the City Council on June 18 with multiple arguments. The office building was historic. Its tall redwoods deserved protection. The market-rate condominiums would do nothing to address the region and state’s housing crisis. More than 70 garbage cans for waste, recycling and yard trimmings would litter the sidewalks.
“Here we are, the annoying old people again,” long-time resident Joan Barrett told the City Council last week. The proposal “built right to the edges of their property, so they don’t have any shady trees. They don’t have any grassy knolls. So their dogs are going to walk on your property.”
The sole issue before the council was whether to deny the tentative map for the project as condominiums, meaning they would be for-rent apartments instead. Guerra and the rest of the council supported the condo option. But Guerra also tried to set the stage for a very different process the next time a landowner seeks to convert a tired office building into new residences.
“The community as a whole, I think, presents itself as a historic district,” Guerra told the council. And then he all but argued against his own idea. “Be careful what you wish for when you designate something historic,” he said. “Every time you peel the onion back, or you go digging into something, you find a bigger challenge with a project.”
The real motivation for Guerra’s historic designation idea seems pretty evident. It’s to make Campus Commons some living museum harder to change.
Guerra’s gesture to some disgruntled constituents isn’t necessary. The look and feel of the existing communities inside Campus Commons are not at risk. The residents control the destinies of their own neighborhoods. Through their homeowner associations and the community’s covenants, conditions and restrictions, they can ensure that the look of and feel of the neighborhoods will never change.
It is the nearby office buildings, particularly along University Avenue, that would be hurt by the new processes and restrictions of a historic district. There is nothing historic about a single office building in this community. Making it harder to smartly redevelop these lands could even pose a threat to Campus Commons if the office market continues to deteriorate and the economics of the buildings fail.
To meet the Sacramento region’s climate change goals to reduce emissions, our greatest tool is to build new housing in the right places. Those places are inside existing communities rather than beyond the fringes. The Sacramento City Council should not erect a single new impediment in Campus Commons or anywhere to convert office buildings into residential properties or mixed use communities.
The true roots of Campus Commons are not what is there today. For years the Horst family grew hops on the land for a beer-thirsty state. A historic flood in 1950 broke through levees and flooded the fields. Only after the construction of Folsom Dam and stronger nearby levees did today’s Campus Commons come to exist. These lands once benefited from change, until it became taboo.
Here is the compromise:
Let time forever stand still in the heart of Campus Commons.
Just beyond, let the land evolve with our changing times and needs.
