City Take Steps to Continue to Meet Housing Requirements

The City Council took an important step on Tuesday night to continue to ensure that Rocklin meets state requirements for zoning of potential housing sites for all income levels. The Council identified a list of properties that will undergo review to be included in the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) Available Sites Inventory as part of the latest update to the City’s Housing Element. To be included on the inventory, many of the sites require General Plan amendments and rezones to mixed-use (MU) and high density residential (HDR) designations.

The identification of potential sites began nearly two years ago with the formation of an RHNA ad-hoc committee consisting of Councilmembers, Planning Commissioners, residents, and local developers. The group worked for eight months to provide recommendations to Council on sites that should be considered to maintain an available sites inventory in the lower income category. Council and staff worked to modify the recommendations over the past year, culminating in list of parcels presented by staff Tuesday night.

During the meeting, Council further modified the sites list, removing sites 1, 7, 25, A-2, A-8 and  A-9 were from the list. The proposed designation and zoning for Site A-10 was modified from HDR to MU and a the Western Care site on Sierra College Boulevard south of Dominguez Road was added. The proposed designation for the Western Care site is HDR.

With the revisions, the total potential lower category affordable units zoned in the future Housing Element would be 3,278, proving a modest surplus on the required 3,062. 

Council’s actions on Tuesday did not actually change any land use and zoning. It gives direction to staff to prepare the General Plan Amendments, Zoning and environmental documentation that will be needed. Actual changes to land use and zoning as well as environmental documents are anticipated to come back to the Planning Commission and City Council for final action in early 2021.

See the proposed RHNA available sites inventory and read all documents presented for this item here.

Quarry Park Adventures Challenged by COVID-19

Ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic have challenged every aspect of the economy, with businesses struggling to compensate for forced closures and restricted operations. Quarry Park Adventures has been no exception.

On Tuesday night, Dylan Burt, general manager of Adventure Operations, which runs QPA, provided a mid-year update to Council on the park’s performance.

After operating at a profit in the January and February, in March QPA was forced to close due to COVID-19 for approximately three months. The park reopened in June but at a much lower capacity to facilitate social distancing and other safety requirements.

Despite the capacity for fewer guests, QPA has innovated to weather the COVID-19 storm by offering summer day camps for kids, socially distanced team building for small groups, reducing staff, and filing for a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan.

QPA has continued to show consistent five-star customer feedback on line, with satisfied guests showing their appreciation with glowing comments. The park also continues to be well maintained, with all courses operating, when the park has been open. Most importantly, the park is exceptionally safe, with no serious injuries occurring.

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View the full July 28 meeting here.