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Home Resource Center In the News Home Greenbelt Alliance in the News |
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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
February 5, 2004 City adopts affordable housing ordinance
STAFF WRITER The City Council showed Tuesday night that it hasn't given up hope of attracting new office users to the Shadelands Business Park, but it does think housing prices in the city are so high that it's necessary to force developers to build affordable housing. In unanimous votes, the council denied a request to amend its general plan to allow housing in the Shadelands Business Park, and agreed to adopt an ordinance that would mandate affordable housing in new projects with 10 or more units. The council also unanimously agreed to adopt an in-lieu fee resolution, which will require developers of smaller projects to pay a fee into an affordable housing fund. In the first decision, the council agreed that Shadelands is underused, but said it would be premature to change the zoning now, since the city is in the process of updating its general plan. During this process, the appropriateness of zoning throughout the city will be analyzed. Castle Companies of San Ramon had asked for the amendment to build a 200-unit housing project at Ygnacio Valley and Oak Grove roads. spokesman Steve Garrett characterized the development as "smart growth," because it could allow lower-income residents to move into the area, and possibly walk to work. But residents from surrounding neighborhoods protested the proposal, which included 68 apartments and 132 town homes, saying it would worsen an already horrendous traffic problem on Ygnacio Valley Road during commute times. Most said they would not mind a business development on the site, however. Michael Fisher, a former Shadelands small business owner, said he has trouble attracting employees because Shadelands is far away from the freeway and is difficult to access through public transit. Duane Fitch, of CB Richard Ellis, pointed out that the vacancy rate of 21.6 percent at Shadelands is the second-highest for similar office space in the surrounding Central County area. And a spokesman for Safeway, which owns the property, said the company has not been able to attract a business developer in recent years. But council members, some of whom live or work near Shadelands, agreed with staff's recommendation to let the general plan process take its course before resorting to possible rezoning to revitalize Shadelands. "I'm a bit concerned that the parcel has stayed vacant for so long," Mayor Pro Tem Gary Skrel told Garrett. "Stay in contact. We are going to do something with this parcel sometime." The council did agree, however, that more affordable housing is necessary in the city. And with vacant land nearly gone, they agreed an inclusionary housing ordinance is the best way to ensure that housing affordable to people with moderate to very low incomes will be built. Walnut Creek's ordinance received support from members of the Greenbelt Alliance, the Nonprofit Housing Association, and the Home Builders Association of Northern California. This broad support reflected months of revisions to the draft ordinance, with recommendations from the Planning Commission "It's great to see a community of this size take a leadership role on this issue," said Evelyn Stivers, of the Greenbelt Alliance. "I hope we can work together to get other communities to follow suit." Geeta Tadavarthy, of the Nonprofit Housing Association, said Walnut Creek's ordinance is more flexible, and also more complicated, than ordinances in other California cities. And Bob Glover of Home Builders of Northern California said that while many inclusionary housing ordinances discourage developers from building, his organization thinks Walnut Creek's ordinance is fair and reasonable. In Contra Costa, the cities of Brentwood, Danville, Hercules, Pleasant Hill, Richmond, and San Ramon have adopted inclusionary housing ordinances. Concord is drafting one now. Walnut Creek's ordinance requires 10 percent of new projects with 10 or more units to include affordable housing. Developers of projects with two to nine units can pay a fee into an affordable housing fund. Councilwomen Kathy Hicks and Gwen Regalia pushed for a 12 percent requirement on projects with 50 or more units, but the rest of the council decided 10 percent was sufficient. And while Mayor Charlie Abrams thought the in-lieu fees were too high, his colleagues were satisfied with the sliding scale fee structure. The ordinance is expected to go into effect March 18, but the council agreed to revisit the issue if it thinks adjustments are necessary. "We're stepping into new territory and in many ways we may be testing
the waters," Abrams said. "I am looking forward to putting this
into place and seeing how the marketplace responds." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ### |
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