(By Ben van der Meer – Sacramento Business Journal)

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. May 24, 2022 — A closed golf course along El Dorado Hills Boulevard in El Dorado Hills is mostly quiet these days. The discussion over its future, though, is anything but.

About a decade after Parker Development Co. proposed redeveloping the golf course and other land nearby into a residential project called Central El Dorado Hills, a final vote appears possible in the next couple months.

Kirk Bone, Parker Development’s director of government relations, said the company believes it has a project that meets needs and acknowledges community concerns.

“We just think it’s a good project,” he said, noting a planned development agreement for the project would include money for 1.5 miles of trails, design work for a pedestrian crossing on Highway 50 and more. “There are some real community benefits there.”

After some revisions, Central El Dorado Hills is now planned as a 336-acre project of up to 1,000 residential units, more than 800 of them at 9.4 units per acre or more. The project’s two components are Pedregal, on the west side of El Dorado Hills Boulevard and with up to 242 housing units; and Serrano Westside, east of El Dorado Hills Boulevard and with up to 758 homes.

Central El Dorado Hills would also have 15 acres of parks, 50,000 square feet of civic/commercial space and 175 acres of open space, though the former El Dorado Hills Executive Golf Course, closed since 2007, would be redeveloped into housing.

El Dorado County’s planning commission is set to vote on a recommendation for the project on June 9, with a final vote to follow from county supervisors, likely 30 to 60 days later, according to Bone.

Among the more recent tweaks Parker Development made are designating 100 units in the project for income-restricted workforce housing, designating some of the Pedregal property zoned for as many as 400 units to instead be 37 custom-home lots and about 200 multifamily units, and some higher-density homes for ownership planned on what was the golf course, Bone said.

Nearly as long as it’s been proposed, Central El Dorado Hills has had opposition from neighboring El Dorado Hills residents. Though their concerns have ranged from traffic impacts to adding too many students to local schools, the loss of the golf course property has been one of the strongest ones.

Kevin Loewen, general manager for the El Dorado Hills Community Services District, said reflecting those concerns, he’s advocated for the district to get possession of the former golf course and keep it as open space, or even explore other opportunities for it.

“The CSD wants what the community wants,” Loewen said. “Everyone would be comfortable with it remaining pretty much as it is, with the vast majority to be open space and trails.”

Loewen said Parker Development could deed the land to the community services district, or sell it. A county staff report for the project, though, suggests sales talks have so far not borne fruit, and Loewen said Parker Development estimated the value at $30 million.

“We know we want to preserve it, but we don’t want to do it […]

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