A proposed six-story apartment complex in Sacramento near McKinley Park was approved by the city’s Planning and Design Commission. Opponents of that decision had until 5 p.m. Monday to appeal it
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Opponents of a proposed six-story apartment complex in East Sacramento are appealing to the City Council to reject the project.
That would overrule a decision by the Planning and Design Commission earlier this month to approve the 332-East Sacramento apartment development and grant it the city’s first exemption under a new state law meant to speed up home building.
The complex would be built on Alhambra Boulevard at a site now occupied by vacant brick warehouses and a few homes. It is owned by the Demas family, which has held the land for more than 50 years, John Hodgson, who runs a real estate advocacy firm, told the commission.
“We remain confident about our project and its merits,” Hodgson, who is representing Demas Enterprises LLC, said Monday.
Many residents say the complex would not fit the character of the neighborhood and warn it will worsen traffic, strain the city’s sewer system and should require additional environmental review. That did not sway the commission, which approved requests to exceed the area’s height limit and to grant the development an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act, a change pushed through the Legislature last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The appeal, filed by Citizens for Positive Growth & Preservation, argues that the complex needs to be subject to greater environmental review and the local height limits.
“The commission’s approval of a conditional use permit was improper because there is no substantial evidence in the record that a project of this height and mass would not be out of scale with adjacent residential development even with the planned step-backs,” the appeal said.
It goes on to argue that the development is not exempt from the state environmental law, known as CEQA, “because it is inconsistent with the city of Sacramento’s General Plan in multiple respects.”
The project includes a six-level parking garage and ground-floor commercial space.
Citizens for Positive Growth & Preservation describes itself as an “unincorporated association whose members reside in or around” Sacramento that “was created to advocate for positive growth in the City, and the preservation of safe, healthy, and livable residential neighborhoods.”
The group has sued the city at least three times over CEQA-related concerns with the city’s General Plan and changes that would allow for denser and taller buildings in a certain section of East Sacramento. In the most recent case, filed in 2018, the 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of the city.
An attorney representing the group did not immediately respond to an email requesting a comment.
No commissioners voted to deny the project at a meeting Feb. 12, although four of its 13 members were absent. The deadline to appeal the decision was 5 p.m. Monday.
It is unclear when the project will go before the City Council. Staff will need to review the appeal and find a date when the council is able to hear it, said Kelli Trapani, a city spokesperson.
This story was originally published February 23, 2026 at 11:48 AM.
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Stephen Hobbs is an enterprise reporter for The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Bureau. He has worked for newspapers in Colorado, Florida and South Carolina.