A coalition of labor, religious, environmental and housing advocates is calling for implementation of a fee on new commercial development in Sonoma County to help build low-cost homes.
A year ago, the city of Santa Rosa endorsed the concept, as long as the county and the other eight cities agreed and some difficult issues could be resolved, but action faltered with the economic downturn and is still months away, officials said Wednesday.
"It is time for our elected officials to take immediate action," said Paul Carroll, field representative for Service Employees International Union Local 707 in Santa Rosa. The union is a leading member of the coalition.
The call for a fee on commercial development to help build low-cost housing came as the coalition prepared to release a study on housing needs in Sonoma County.
The 65-page report, which will be presented to a forum Saturday, concludes that Sonoma County's track record of producing low-cost housing is "dismal," and it makes five recommendations for boosting production:
-Identify a permanent local revenue source for the county's new Housing Trust, which will fund low-cost housing.
-Establish a countywide fee on new commercial development to help build low-cost housing, based on the theory that new jobs increase the demand for housing.
-Increase the money that redevelopment agencies contribute to low-cost housing.
-Establish "limited equity co-ops," where residents get to share in ownership.
-Strengthen affordable housing opportunities in general plans, through such policies as identifying enough sites, zoning for higher densities and requiring developers to include some low-cost housing or pay a fee.
The Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce has opposed a housing fee on commercial development, saying it would raise costs to businesses and could scare away jobs.
Meanwhile, the economy is not cooperating. The county lost jobs last year and commercial vacancies have skyrocketed in some areas.
"When we started, it made a lot of sense," said Santa Rosa Councilwoman Janet Condron, who participates in a countywide group exploring the commercial fee. "Right now, with the layoffs and cutbacks in industry and the economic situation as it is, the timing is terrible. I'm really struggling with this right now, personally. I think there is going to be a lot of debate over it."
The coalition report contends Sonoma County fell more than 7,000 units short of adding the lower-income units it needed between 1988 and 1998, the last year data was available. If that pattern continues, low-income residents won't be able to form wealth through homeownership, workers will be forced into long commutes and businesses will be hurt because it will be hard to recruit workers, the report says.
The shortfall in low-cost housing has meant that demand far exceeds new units, as it did for the 54 homes in the Bellevue Ranch subdivision completed last year by non-profit Burbank Housing Development Corp., Sonoma County's largest builder of affordable housing.
The new report was sponsored by Local 707, the largest union in the North Bay, and New Economy, Working Solutions, a research and public policy organization in Sonoma County that is supported by North Bay labor, religious and other community groups.
The study was funded by the UC Berkeley's Institute for Labor and Employment and prepared by Nari Rhee, a doctoral candidate at the Berkeley who has a master's degree in urban planning from UCLA.
The report was released to coincide with meetings that cities and the county have been holding for about two months to consider the commercial development fee.
"Hopefully, the information will contribute to this policy discussion," said Martin Bennett, acting director of New Economy, Working Solutions.
In the meetings, political leaders are trying to find ways to make the commercial development fee acceptable to all jurisdictions, according to Councilwoman Condron, who represents Santa Rosa in the discussions.
The meetings grew out of a study commissioned by the county and all nine cities and released in December. That study concluded that a fee of $2.08 to $3.59 a square foot could raise $35.5 million over five years, and build 1,200 housing units. The author of the report said the fees would result in only minimal increases in rents.
In her report, Berkeley researcher Rhee said Sonoma County has not shown that it has the political will to make the hard decisions needed to provide affordable housing.
"The grassroots base of the housing movement is weak," she reported.
She said progress will depend on three main groups -- environmentalists who reconcile themselves to higher densities, business leaders who realize that affordable housing is in their long-term interests and labor unions that mobilize an affordable housing constituency.
The coalition advocating for affordable housing includes the Faith-Based Coalition, the Housing Advocacy Group, Greenbelt Alliance, the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy, the North Bay Labor Council, the Living Wage Coalition and the Sonoma County Latino Democratic Club.
The coalition's "Housing Action Forum" on affordable housing will be 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at Santa Rosa Junior College's Doyle Student Center at Elliott and Mendocino avenues.
