Full article by Graham Womack for Sacramento News & Review
Statistically speaking, Dumitru Cucicea has something of a rare asset in Sacramento.
Cucicea, a developer who does work in the local region as well as Napa and Berkeley, built a duplex in 2020 around North Sacramento’s Del Paso Heights and Robla neighborhoods. All in all, it was a smooth experience, even if Cucicea built his duplex near Rio Linda and Marysville boulevards on a block that wasn’t previously loaded with this type of housing.
“The city was receptive to it,” Cucicea said. “They were helpful in some ways. The neighbors were also pretty receptive to a newer property being built on their street and in the community.”
Cucicea built what’s called missing middle housing: two, three, or four-unit properties that prior to World War II were abundant in Sacramento and other cities.
With residential stock pivoting to single-family development in the mid-20th century, missing middle housing comprises only a fraction of the city of Sacramento’s housing supply.