Elk Grove’s planning commission voted 3-1 last Thursday to recommend approval of the Summer Flats housing project, pushing forward a 120-home development on Waterman Road even as nearby residents warned the road is already busy and dangerous. The vote sends the proposal toward the Elk Grove City Council for final approval, though no hearing date has been announced.
Summer Flats is proposed on just over 27 acres along the east side of Waterman Road between Bond Road and Elk Grove Boulevard, according to the Sacramento Bee. The newspaper reports the project includes 120 homes, while an Elk Grove housing-element report lists the same project with 124 units. The site itself is described in city planning documents as three parcels bordered by Waterman Road along its western edge.
The project, formally tracked by the city as PLNG23-006, requires a rezone, a small-lot tentative subdivision map, subdivision design review, master home plan design review and a design exception, along with changing the land designation from low-density residential to medium-density residential, per the city staff report cited by the Bee. Developer Sheldon Business Park Limited, which is also developing a separate Summer Villas proposal for up to 499 senior homes in rural Elk Grove, is behind the project. Tim Denham, who represented engineering firm Wood Rodgers at the meeting, said Summer Flats is intended to provide entry-level, medium-density housing for young professionals in east Elk Grove, telling commissioners the market urgently needs workforce housing.
A Divided Vote After Weeks of Debate
The planning commission first heard the project in September and continued discussion because of traffic concerns at the Waterman Road and Rancho Drive intersection, according to the same Bee report. When the matter returned, Commissioner Sandra Poole cast the lone vote against recommending approval. She said she had great concern about the traffic study’s results after hearing from area residents, and she pointed to the lack of a firm commitment to install additional traffic measures in the future — even as she said she believes the city needs more housing for middle-income young people.
Fellow commissioner Suman Singha ultimately voted to recommend approval but said he saw a disconnect between the traffic study and what residents were reporting. Residents told the commission the development would add more traffic to a road they already consider busy and dangerous, and said conditions are especially bad during funerals at a nearby hilltop cemetery, per the Bee’s account.
What the Traffic Study Found — and What It Didn’t
City staff’s traffic study found the project would not cause roadway safety impacts at the Waterman Road and Rancho Drive intersection and did not, at the time, warrant a traffic signal or traffic-calming measures, the Bee reported. The Elk Grove Police Department reported four collisions at that intersection over the previous five years, including one in the year before the report. Those figures sit against a different stretch of the same road: a fatal single-vehicle crash occurred near Elliot Springs Drive in the early morning hours of May 13, 2025, according to the City of Elk Grove. The road was shut between Elliot Springs Drive and Sheldon Road during the investigation and reopened before 11 a.m., CBS Sacramento reported at the time.
Despite the staff findings, the city added a condition requiring speed-control measures on Waterman Road, which the staff report says could include a radar speed-feedback sign. The project also requires widening nearby Waterman Road to a four-lane divided road with a center turn lane and bike lanes, Denham said. Summer Flats would increase the maximum residential units allowed under the East Elk Grove Community Plan by 91, to 4,416 units total.
Fees Won’t Necessarily Fix the Roads Residents Use
Under the city’s roadway fee program, Summer Flats will contribute an estimated $1.5 million to $1.8 million in roadway development fees, or roughly $13,000 to $15,000 per housing unit, according to the staff report. But those fees do not have to be spent on the roads actually affected by the development. The city’s roadway fee program collects money from new developments citywide and includes funding earmarked for a future traffic signal at Waterman Road and Rancho Drive — yet Antonio Ablog said that signal is not currently a priority in Elk Grove’s five-year capital improvement program, which is reviewed annually.
School District Raised Its Own Objections
The Elk Grove Unified School District opposed the project ahead of a September 17 meeting, according to the Bee’s reporting. The district said it is overcrowded and in a school housing crisis, that it lacks immediate funding to build new schools, and that the development would negatively affect existing school facilities.
The planning commission’s recommendation also covers certification of the project’s environmental impact report, amendments to the general and community plans, and approval of the subdivision map and design review. With no council hearing date set, the fight over Summer Flats — and over what it means for an already-strained stretch of Waterman Road — is not yet finished.
