The Citrus Heights City Council honors Jayna Karpinski-Costa for service as mayor. Photo courtesy of the City of Citrus Heights

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - At the Jan. 14 meeting, the Citrus Heights City Council honored Councilmember Jayna Karpinski-Costa for her service as mayor, a role she held for more than a year. 

Mayor MariJane Lopez-Taff said, “It is hard work.” 

Councilmember Porsche Middleton said, “You have done an excellent, just absolutely stellar, job at your duties. You’ve taken them seriously.” 

Councilmember Kelsey Nelson said, “Thank you so much for your leadership last year. I learned so much…with you at the helm.” 

Councilmember Tim Schafer said, “You made yourself available and accessible. A job well done.” 

Karpinski-Costa thanked them for the kind words, and to the public she said, “It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve as mayor for over a year.”

Her favorite part of the role was “Monday with the Mayor,” where residents could come and speak with her directly in a more casual setting. She said it was satisfying “to help someone solve a problem right then and there,” with the help of the staff who were always ready to step up and get things done. 

City Manager Ash Feeney said the staff appreciated Karpinski-Costa’s leadership as mayor over her extended term, as she collaborated and worked to find solutions to every challenge. 

The council also heard an update about the Sayonara Drive Habitat for Humanity project, which is already under construction. The project will offer 26 affordable new homes, providing homeownership opportunities for low-income first-time homebuyers. 

The total cost for the project, including infrastructure and construction, is $8.5 million, with the average home cost at $320,000. Funding support comes from various sources, including the City of Citrus Heights, the State of California’s CalHome, and federal Community Project Funding, as well as donations from individuals. 

Habitat for Humanity president and CEO Leah Miller said, “It takes a community to build a community.”

In addition to the professional construction crews, local volunteers help build the homes alongside the selected families, who are required to put 500 hours of “sweat equity” into the homes they will eventually purchase.

“It’s a really beautiful way to see what’s possible when a community comes together to help build homes,” said Miller.

Vertical construction on Phase 1 began in August 2025, and the first eight homes are expected to be completed by May 2026. The families will officially purchase the homes in June 2026, followed by an official dedication ceremony. 

For Phase 2, family selection and construction are both beginning this month on four more homes, with completion expected by October 2026. 

Phase 3 will be the largest, with 14 homes. The application period will open on Feb. 1, with family selection and construction beginning in November 2026 and final completion in October 2027. 

Councilmember Karpinski-Costa said she’s driven by and hasn’t seen any of the families working on the homes, only construction workers wearing hard hats. She asked what type of work the families do on the homes. 

Miller said there are volunteers working on the homes almost every day of the week, with the families working on things like “siding, painting, landscaping, finishing, flooring. … Those family partners are right alongside with them and doing that 500 hours of their own labor that they put into it.” Miller added that everyone wears hard hats on the site, so it would be difficult to tell which ones were volunteers. 

Councilmember Schaefer said 500 volunteer hours amounts to three months of full-time work: “I appreciate that they need to make that contribution to what they’re getting. I think you’re building a great clientele of homeowners there.”

Mayor Lopez-Taff said she’s happy to see these improvements to Sayonara Drive and mentioned there have been conversations about renaming the street to something more current.

Miller said, “We also would be interested in renaming it and bringing a new chapter to that street for the current residents and the future ones.”

To learn more about this project or to apply, visit Habitatgreatersac.org

The next meeting of the Citrus Heights City Council was scheduled for Jan. 28.