About 80 people attended a town hall in Diamond Springs on Sept. 10, where residents raised concerns about new housing projects approved under California’s Senate Bill 35.

The meeting held at the Herbert Green Middle School gym and hosted by the Diamond Springs/El Dorado Community Coalition, drew District 3 Supervisor Brian Veerkamp and District 4 supervisor candidate Gina Posey.

SB35, passed in 2017, requires counties that fail to meet state housing production goals to streamline the approval of certain projects. For El Dorado County’s west slope, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments assigned 7,157 units between 2021 and 2029, according to the coalition.

Coalition leaders claim the county’s implementation of SB35 has bypassed local oversight. Projects that qualify no longer go be

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