On July 22, 2025, the Board of Supervisors received public comments (see live video at 15:50) about the bad situation at Country Club Plaza (CCP). The owner of the "coming soon" laundromat there presented the Board with reports documenting toxic mold and a badly decaying and leaking roof, problems that had made it impossible to open the business. Local residents echoed the owner's concerns. The speakers were urged to attend the North Area Sheriff’s community meeting on July 24th and ask code enforcement about the Plaza’s problems. At that Sheriff's meeting the Code Enforcement Division representatives stated that they were only responsible for mold in residential buildings. They said the Building, Permits and Inspection Division would have to address the leaking roof. (Fun Fact: both of those divisions are in the same Department, the Community Development Department). Since the Sheriff's meeting there has been a big old game of back-and-forth: The building owner is responsible. No, the County is responsible. No, the other part of the County is responsible. Well, who is wrong and who is right?

Last week the Building, Permits and Inspections guy showed up to inspect the roof. but the CCP property manager (Helm Property Management, AKA Helm) did not grant permission to go on the roof. An inspection was eventually done this week. As our Newsroom Elves understood it, Helm plans on doing repairs to the roof.  But does that mean the roof will be replaced or does "repair" mean slapping some fresh tar in a few places and calling it a day? However, they did learn that the owner was given an open-ended time frame for those repairs, although the roof inspection showed things have gotten even worse. Last year's broken skylight has not been fixed and by now additional panels have been shattered because "someone got up on the roof and dropped several rocks through the skylights" despite Helm paying $36,000 per month in security fees. Helm has now roped off some areas with caution tape, so CCP patrons will not get hit with shards of flying glass. It will be interesting to see what happens during the first rainstorm of the season.  

Meanwhile, on the mold front, staffers continue to pass the buck.  The County Code Enforcement people say they do not deal with commercial mold issues. CalOSHA says it only deals with employee-related mold claims. The state's Public Health people say the County should deal with the issue. The County DA's representative said he is knows about the issue and is looking into who would handle the problem.  Last but not least, our Assemblywoman Maggy Krell's office told our Newsroom Elves that, as of January 1st, 2025, mold in commercial buildings is now an enforceable part of the State Housing Law and that city or county code enforcement would be the ones who handle it, per:

• SB 1465 - which amended the State Housing Law to include ANY BUILDING or portion thereof, regardless of zoning designation or approved use of the building. The law was amended to protect people who often live in non-residential buildings in response to events like the Ghostship Fire in Oakland, CA.
• California Health & Safety Code Sections 17970 and 17970.5 - which require code enforcement officers to inspect substandard buildings and issue appropriate violations
• California Health & Safety Code Section 17980 - which requires owners to remediate substandard violations.

So the current status seems to be that the laundromat won't open, the laundromat company has sued Helm, Helm is dilly-dallying about the roof and the mold, the state says the County has to handle things, and the County is taking it slow. But what about us, the community and customers of the mall's businesses? It appears an operational license is not required to actually run a mall in the unincorporated Sacramento County. Owners can just rent spaces to tenants and make money - never mind public safety or public health.  From what the county is telling us, the owner answers to no one but himself. If you don’t like that, you can sue him. 

It is pretty clear, therefore, that there is still no viable plan for CCP. The County does not seem to have grasped the severity of the situation. It looks like nothing is going to be done to improve this situation for either the public or the businesses at the mall. This rapidly declining mess is the ambiance for the new Chick-fil-A restaurant being built at CCP. If you are really lucky while waiting in the drive-thru line there you might also catch the Sacramento County Sheriff pulling squatters out of the boarded-up and falling-apart Macy’s building. Dinner and a show!