As troubles rise, major several Sacramento-area builders are shutting down

On a perfect Saturday in June the lemonade flowed, cookies abounded and cheerful crowds flowed through Pardee Homes' eight model homes in Natomas. It was a memorable opening day in Natomas for a Los Angeles builder launching the first of its 660 houses near downtown.

Now, just five months later, Pardee has closed the project. Sales offices that opened during a national subprime loan crisis that quickly worsened into a credit crunch have been shut. Building crews have been laid off and deals made with only four buyers canceled. Three other regional builders have done the same in recent weeks.

Their actions are the latest indicator of how brutal the Sacramento market has become for area home builders as they fight one another for sales. Builders are wrestling with swollen unsold inventory, buyers who can't get loans and a record glut of existing homes for sale. Analysts say builders are on track to sell their fewest homes in a decade and will likely sell even fewer next year. And for companies like Pardee that arrived at the height of the boom, bought land at inflated 2004 prices and started sales in a slumping market, it's especially tough.

Don't repeat past mistakes by relying on development to solve city's fiscal woes.

Now that the housing boom of 1999 to 2006 has cooled and become downright frigid, it's an appropriate time to consider what this boom has brought the city of Sacramento.

Across the city, an influx of new housing and services has revitalized various neighborhoods. Del Paso Boulevard has spruced up and become more attractive to businesses. Midtown, with new lofts and restaurants, is so crowded on weekends that patrons have trouble finding parking.

In the southern part of Sacramento, the city and its redevelopment agency have transformed crime-ridden Franklin Villa into Phoenix Park. And The Bee reported Sunday the entire waterfront area, in both West Sacramento and Sacramento, is primed for a startling mix of new housing, museums, parks and waterfront attractions.

Experts say staph not a cause for fear
Sacramento area health officials are trying to calm "superbug" fears stemming from recent announcements that students have been diagnosed with a type of staph infection that does not respond to common antibiotics in the penicillin family.

Amid the cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, schools have notified parents by phone, canceled physical education classes and disinfected classrooms, bathrooms and even school buses to address what some worry is a modern-day scourge.

Most of the focus has been on Natomas Middle School, where extensive cleaning and parent notifications took place last Friday after a student reported an MRSA infection, and at Rocklin High School, where administrators Monday took similar action after learning a 17-year-old student had contracted the infection.

Rio Linda Junior High Student Has MRSA Infection
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Grant Joint Union High School District said Tuesday that an eighth-grade student at Rio Linda Junior High School was diagnosed with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

Immediately when the school district is finished with Rio Linda Junior High School on Wednesday, they will start preventative measures at all the other school sites and district offices, school officials said.

The cleaning process will not be of any disruption to students, officials said.In addition, hand sanitizers will be provided in all the classrooms.Four other schools in the area have had confirmed cases of MRSA.

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Before the home construction crews and bulldozers descended on the flat plain of North Natomas, city leaders made their vision clear: The northern frontier of Sacramento would be a pedestrian-friendly place where people could work, play and shop in the same neighborhood.

Not only that, this city within a city would pay for itself. The houses, stores and offices would generate enough fees and taxes to build roads and community facilities as well as pay for public safety and other city services.

Eight years and 15,000 homes later, city leaders say the reality has fallen well short of that vision. North Natomas doesn't look or feel much different from nearby suburbs. In some respects, it's more car-oriented than most because its roads are oversized to handle traffic from Arco Arena.

"It still is a suburban community, and I think what we envisioned was something that would be more than a suburban community," Councilman Steve Cohn said at a recent council workshop on growth.

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The nattily dressed gentleman in the corner is holding his head in his hand -- literally -- and letting it spin.

A white-faced witch with disheveled black hair perches on a broomstick stuck in the privet tree that is growing in the corner of the yard.

The small patch of front lawn has been turned into a graveyard filled with charcoal-colored tombstones.

"Here lies Edgrrr, mauled by lions," one says. Another reads, "Here lies Gorlando, died in a bullfight." A vulture roosts on the lamppost, and a witch's brew bubbles in a pot near the gate and spills out its unnatural "fog" along the sidewalk.

It's Halloween at the Pulido residence in South Natomas, and Mario Pulido loves Halloween.

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A student at Natomas Middle School has been diagnosed with a staphylococcus infection believed to be an especially dangerous form of the bacterium known as MRSA.

Dolly McClellan, executive assistant to Natomas Unified School District Superintendent Steve Farrar, confirmed late Friday afternoon that an automated phone call was made to parents with children in the district alerting them to the infection.

McClellan said the superintendent is "very cautious and concerned" and ordered that the school and buses be sanitized over the weekend. School will reopen Tuesday following a staff development day on Monday, said district spokeswoman Heidi Yanez.

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The Sacramento City Council has decided to follow a federal recommendation that it apply for a flooding designation that would impose building restrictions on North Natomas.

At the same time, however, the council directed staff members to include language in their application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency indicating that the city will later seek an exemption from the requirement that new homes be elevated 3 feet.

In North Natomas – where flood depths could exceed 20 feet – elevating homes by 3 feet would do no good, but would be so expensive that it would bring construction to a halt, said Gregory Thatch, a lawyer representing builders.