Page 15 - Sonoma County Gazette - May, 2018

HOUSING cont’d from page 14
If we are to build 30,000 new homes in five years, the county and cities need to engage everyone in creating a vision and plan for how and where they meet the affordability challenge and how they will fit into our existing cities and towns.
Here is a recap of some of the housing policies underway at the county and several cities:
Santa Rosa: The Resilient City Code proposed for the city of Santa Rosa reduces permitting and public review provisions for three years for both new temporary and permanent housing and commercial construction. It covers citywide housing, offices, day care facilities, senior care facilities, emergency shelters, mobile home parks, and hotels, lodges and bed and breakfasts.
Temporary structures can now be placed where needed for a maximum of five years with reduced permitting and staff review. The structures will need to be removed after five years.
The streamlining for permanent new development across the city is being revised in response to community objections over removal of most public and design review in favor of simply staff approval. Several organizations also called for requirements for affordability and to confine the streamlining to
the downtown area and other priority development areas. Doing so would support city policies to focus most of its growth near jobs and transit. It will be finalized soon.
Santa Rosa Downtown Station Area Specific Plan
The City of Santa Rosa is planning to update the Downtown Station Area Specific Plan passed 10 years ago. The vision is to reinvigorate and implement the plan by increasing housing density and community benefits focused in the downtown near the SMART train, which could be a huge boon to the city and affordable housing. A public process will get underway later this year.
Petaluma – Fees for Affordable Housing: The city of Petaluma recently held a public workshop to consider revising its affordable housing policies and housing impact fees. The city has built plenty of market rate housing, but is falling far short on affordable housing. It needs to build 413 new affordable housing units below moderate level by 2022. The city is considering increasing fees for affordable in-lieu fees and commercial projects in order to build more low income housing at its June 4 City Council meeting.
Cities Back Down on Requiring Developers to
Provide Affordable Housing
Rohnert Park:
Rohnert Park has a strong plan for its downtown that was developed through a lengthy public process and has in the past built hundreds of affordable units. But this approach was reversed, in part, when the Rohnert Park City Council recently abandoned requirements for affordable housing in the new downtown district that is slated for development in coming years.
HOUSING cont’d on page 16
City Planner Patrick Streeter is providing a public briefing at 4 pm, Wednesday, May 2, at the Sonoma County Transportation and Land Use Coalition meeting at the Environmental Center 55A Ridgway, Santa Rosa.
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