Mobilizing Surplus State Land for Affordable Housing In Downtown Sacramento

Mobilizing Surplus State Land for Affordable Housing In Downtown Sacramento

Sonrisa is the first project to be approved and completed under a 2019 California executive order directing that surplus state-owned land be prioritized for affordable housing development. Photo credit: CADA

To help address California's housing affordability crisis, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order (EO) in 2019 to boost the use of surplus state-owned land for affordable housing development. In 2023, the first project to be approved and completed under the EO, Sonrisa, opened in downtown Sacramento. Built by Sacramento's public development agency, the Capitol Area Development Authority (CADA), Sonrisa features 58 microunit apartments that are leased to one- or two-person households earning between 40 and 60 percent of the area median income. Sonrisa's location — a quarter-acre parcel that was formerly the site of a single-story event space and a surface parking lot in Sacramento's downtown — offers residents walkable access to transit, public green spaces, neighborhood retail, and other amenities. In addition, Sonrisa is notable for its innovative green features, including being the first ground-up construction in Sacramento to use cross-laminated timber (CLT) — a renewable, wood-based building resource with a smaller environmental footprint than steel and concrete.

Smaller Unit Size Enables More Units Onsite

CADA sought to maximize the number of units that Sonrisa could offer in the vibrant, high-opportunity neighborhood of downtown Sacramento. According to Todd Leon, development director at CADA, the small and unusual shape of the site meant that the building's units needed to be small, ultimately measuring 267 square feet each. To better understand how to implement a microunit design, the development team visited several micro- and small-unit buildings in San Francisco and Sacramento. Sonrisa incorporates a number of the design elements to make the microunits more comfortable, including high ceilings and large windows to impart a feeling of spaciousness, and a Murphy bed that features a built-in bookcase and a closet armoire that converts into a couch when stowed to create a living room space. To accommodate the site's size restrictions, the developers used exterior, open-air hallways (such as in a motel) rather than a double-loaded hallway plan. Although the exterior hallways did present some design challenges — in particular, the need to waterproof the exposed portion of the CLT components and redesign the façade — it reduces Sonrisa's operational costs and energy use by eliminating the need to heat and cool interior hallway spaces.

The small size of the site led developer CADA to opt for smaller units that could maximize the total units at Sonrisa, located in amenity-rich downtown Sacramento. Space-enhancing features include large windows, high ceilings, and foldaway Murphy beds that convert to couches. Photo credit: CADA

The microunits' small size meant that the design of the communal spaces took on an outsized importance, said Leon. For example, the communal kitchen on the building's top floor opens to an exposed community room that offers views of the city. Other building amenities include a bicycle storage room and a coworking space. On the ground level, an area nonprofit occupies a 1,300-square-foot commercial space.

Innovative Green Building Technology

The developers incorporated many green elements into the construction and ongoing operation of Sonrisa. The governor’s EO contains a provision encouraging the use of renewable construction materials, including CLT. Because it is a wood-based product, CLT sequesters carbon. Using CLT also reduces secondary pollution because it reduces the amount of vehicular traffic produced by construction vehicles by 90 percent and because construction timelines using CLT are 20 percent shorter than those using traditional materials. Another benefit of CLT is its appearance; the warm, natural aesthetic of exposed wood enhances a space’s livability. At Sonrisa, the developers used CLT to construct the building’s horizontal elements (the floors and ceilings); they also used prefabricated walls to further reduce construction time and costs.

Sonrisa is a zero-net-energy and zero-net-carbon building. A zero-net-carbon building produces or procures all its annual energy needs from carbon-free renewable sources. Sonrisa achieves this status through its participation in the local utility’s SolarShares^® program, which allows developers to meet their solar energy obligations under the 2019 California Building Standards Code. Additional green features include the use of heat pump technology in the building’s heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system; permeable landscape features that collect stormwater runoff; and drought-tolerant landscaping.

The small size of the units made Sonrisa's shared spaces, such as the community terrace on the building's fifth floor, especially important. The warm hues of the CLT ceiling and the colorful mural, painted by a local artist, contribute to the welcoming and lively feeling of the space. Photo credit: CADA

Prioritizing Affordable Housing for Surplus State Land

The EO required the state’s Department of General Services (DGS) to inventory all state-owned surplus land and create a searchable, interactive map to help developers and housing agencies identify parcels as candidates for affordable housing development. DGS works with HUD and the California Housing Finance Agency to select parcels that are the strongest candidates for economically feasible affordable housing development. In making those determinations, the agencies consider proximity to job centers, educational institutions, high-frequency public transit, and other services and amenities. Agencies also prioritize areas where housing underproduction has eroded housing affordability as well as areas experiencing rapid increases in rental costs.

Although Sonrisa's story followed a different process — CADA had previously considered the development potential of the site — the EO helped galvanize the necessary collective commitment of state and local stakeholders to bring this project to fruition. Sonrisa embodies the potential for creative thinking about developing affordable housing and using innovative housing technologies to improve housing affordability, build housing near areas of opportunity, and advance important sustainability goals in the state.