Pleading with local leaders across several lengthy public meetings didn’t work, so opponents of an apartment complex planned for a small Placer County community turned to another strategy to try and stop it from moving forward: a lawsuit.
The action by Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Rights, a local group that has led the resistance to the project, escalates the fight over the 240 apartments and provides a test of state environmental law.
The challenge argues that Placer County officials failed to properly follow the California Environmental Quality Act, commonly known as CEQA, when they signed off on the development by not fully analyzing how it could affect wildfire evacuation safety, among other issues.
The law requires public agencies to consider the environmental effects of proposed projects before approving them. But Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators in recent years have added an array of exemptions to CEQA because of criticism that it has been used as a strategy to try and delay or defeat housing developments that neighbors don’t like.
Brian Myers, who leads the Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Rights group, said that is not the case with their suit.
“We’re using CEQA where it still applies and where we believe they violated it,” he said.
The lawsuit was filed last month but wasn’t processed by the Placer County court until Friday. The county and its Board of Supervisors are named as defendants.
Placer County Planning Director Chris Pahule, in a statement, declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit but said “the county conducted a thorough and legally compliant evaluation of the project in accordance with” CEQA and state housing law.
The 12-building apartment complex is planned for a vacant property in Penryn, a community of about 1,100 people. Citizens for Neighborhood Rights is described as a group “whose members reside in, work in, and regularly use the Penryn Road corridor and surrounding community.”
A rendering shows the Hope Way Apartments, a 240-unit affordable housing development proposed in Placer County. Opponents of the development filed a lawsuit against its approval. USA Properties Fund
USA Properties Fund, the Roseville-based developer behind the project, pitches the complex as a way to provide more affordable housing options for working and retired people in the area. It would be close to Interstate 80, allowing for easy access to other parts of southern Placer County. All of its units, except for two set aside for on-site managers, are designated as affordable.
“USA remains confident in our project proposal since Placer County identified the parcel for affordable housing, and the use was already allowed by the zoning and general plan,” said Milo Terzich, a vice president of development for the company, said in a statement. He added that the developer was evaluating the lawsuit and “the options before us.”
Placer County officials argue the apartments don’t need additional CEQA review under state law for several reasons, including that it has such a high percentage of homes for people with incomes lower than the area median.
State law requires local governments to grant those waivers in most circumstances, but the lawsuit claims that it does not allow local agencies to “avoid CEQA.”
During public meetings, residents shared fears with county officials that the dramatic increase in people in the area would strain local schools, reshape what it is like to live there and cause issues during evacuations.
The Placer County Planning Commission initially rejected the project last year. But that attracted the attention of the head of an enforcement unit at the California Department of Housing and Community Development, who sent a letter to the county warning the county could be in violation of state laws if it denied the plan for the complex without proper justification. A San Francisco-based housing group threatened to take the county to court if it did not approve the apartment plan.
The matter then came before the Board of Supervisors, which was caught between a sea of unhappy constituents and the possibility of a costly legal battle if the plan was not approved. Ultimately, the body signed off on the development in a narrow vote.
But a supervisor who voted for approving the project later rejected providing a $10.8 million loan to USA Properties Fund, after suggesting the developer reduce the number of apartments units planned. That caused the potential funding agreement to fall apart.
Myers said Placer Citizens for Neighborhood Right has raised “well in excess of $100,000” in its fight against the project and that he has received calls of support from around the state.
“Penryn’s a very tight-knit community where this lifestyle is worth preserving,” he said. “It’s the density that’s the killer. If they were to propose a much less dense project, we would welcome it.”
The lawsuit calls for a judge to direct the county to reverse the approval of the apartments until additional environmental review is completed.
This story was originally published March 23, 2026 at 10:31 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.