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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 5.1 Tri-Valley Affordable Housing CITY OF DUBLIN AGENDA STATEMENT CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: OCTOBER 10, 1991 SUBJECT: Draft letter with regard to Tri-Valley affordable housing. REPORT PREPARED BY: Dennis Carrington, Senior Planner EXHIBITS ATTACHED: A) Letter dated September 18 , 1991 , from the City of Pleasanton. B) Draft letter to State HCD. RECOMMENDATION: 1) Receive the Staff Report. 2 . Review the Draft letter to State HCD. e 3A) . Direct Staff to send a letter to the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee indicating the City Council's concerns, OR 3B) . Authorize the Mayor to sign the Draft letter as proposed. FINANCIAL STATEMENT: None at this time. DESCRIPTION: On May 30 , 1991 , a meeting was held at the request of Pleasanton Mayor Ken Mercer to address a joint approach to the provision of low-income housing. Mayor Mercer proposed a joint approach where the participating cities have similar ordinances, belong to a Joint Powers Authority and jointly provide affordable housing for the entire Tri-Valley area. Mayor Snyder attended that meeting. It was decided at that meeting to call the organization the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee, to pursue a joint approach at the Staff level and to include elected officials at all meetings. The meetings have been chaired by Deborah Acosta, City Manager of the City of Pleasanton and staff has been provided by the City of Pleasanton. -------- - ------------ -------------------------------------- ITEM No. COPIES TO Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee file TVAHC2 CITY CLERK FILE D B Meetings have since been held on June 12, 1991; June 27, 1991; August 1, 1991 , and September 5, 1991 . Mayor Snyder and other members of the City Council have attended these meetings. At those meetings presentations have been made on the Community Reinvestment Act, the "fair share" determination methodology of ABAG, State Housing and Community Development views of the possibility of Tri-Valley cities receiving credit for joint efforts at the provision of housing, statutory housing requirements for Housing Elements, and the preparation of a Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Survey. Presentations have also been made on the function and projects of the non-profit builder Eden Housing, and Contra Costa County's experience with start-up non-profit housing agencies. The next meeting of the committee is on October 10, 1991, and will address affordable housing foundations, the Draft letter to State HCD, the future goals and objectives of the Tri-Valley Housing Committee and the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Inventory. It is important to note that to date the City of Dublin and several other Valley cities have not formally sanctioned the committee or its purpose. Staff has the following concerns with regard to the Draft letter: 1 . In the Draft letter, the proposed means of providing affordable housing should be stated clearly. 2. The Draft letter mentions some cities that are close to build-out and have only small in-fill parcels remaining for development while other cities have vast tracts of potentially developable land in their fringes. Staff has a potential concern that Dublin could be required to provide the sites for much of the proposed housing in eastern Dublin while other cities would not, resulting in both an unfair burden to Dublin and a credit for other cities toward their fair-share quotas. Further, some non-profit builders have said that placing affordable housing and senior housing in fringe areas might not be as desirable as placing them in smaller in-fill sites near activity centers. The Tri-Valley Council is a forum to address regional issues important to the Tri-Valley area. The Tri-Valley Transportation Council, an out growth from the Tri-Valley Council, was designed to specifically address multi-jurisdictional transportation issues in the Tri-Valley area. If the City Council is interested in pursuing a joint housing strategy with other Valley cities, Staff would recommend that this concept be discussed at the next Tri-Valley Council meeting. Staff recommends that the City Council either Direct Staff to send a letter to the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee indicating the City Council's concerns, OR authorize the Mayor to sign the Draft letter as proposed. ti 'ASAN�o _ , w D =` CITY OF PLEASANTON S E P 19 1991 P.O. BOX 520 PLEASANTON, CALIFORNIA 94566-0802 a -- CITY nc DUBLIN 0 4 CITY OFFICES September 18 , 1991 123 MAIN STREET CITY COUNCIL 484.8001 CITY MANAGER Richard Ambrose 484.8008 City Manager CITY ATTORNEY City of Dublin 484.8003 P. 0. Box 2340 CITY CLERK Dublin, CA 94568 484.8235 FINANCE Re: Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee 484-8033 PERSONNEL Dear Mr. Ambrose: 484.8012 During the past several months, the Tri-Valley CITY OFFICES AVE.200 OLD BERYAI, Affordable Housing Committee has discussed the opportunities for jointly developing affordable housing. PLANNING Unfortunately, in order to develop such housing and, at 484.8023 the same time, ensure that each participating ENGINEERING jurisdiction receives proportionate credit toward its 484.8041 State mandated "fair share" affordable housing BUILDING INSPECTION allocation, a modification to existing State legislation 484.8015 is needed. The Committee has therefore decided to pursue COMMUNITY SERVICES 484•E160 this matter with the State. WATER- BILLING 484.8038 Thus far, staff level meetings have been conducted with ABAG and the State Department of Housing and FIFLD SERVICES Community Development. Both agencies assisted in the 3333 BUSCH RD. outline of the attached draft letter of request for SUPPORT SERVICES legislative reform. In addition, Committee members and 484-a067 staff representatives have worked together to evolve the draft. PARKS 484.8056 The Committee is requesting that the draft letter be SANITARY 484.8056 SEWER 484.8061 placed on an upcoming agenda of your Board/Council for review and conceptual support. Your response by STREET 484-8066 October 9 , 1991 would be appreciated. Following the WATER hopeful support by all of the Committee member 484.8071 jurisdictions, a final draft will be forwarded to your Chairperson/Mayor for signature. FIRE RAILROAD AVE. Thank you very much for your time and consideration. 484-3114 Sincerely, POLICE I_I 4833 IIL•RNAI.AVE. P.O.BOX 909 433-8127 Wayne Rasmussen N. NT Advanced Planner City of Pleasanton D R A F T L E T T E R Timothy Coyle, Director State Department of Housing and Community Development P . O. Box 952051 Sacramento, CA 94252-2051 Regarding: Opportunities for Developing Affordable Housing at a Sub-Regional Level in the Tri-Valley Area of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties Dear Mr. Coyle: Representatives from the seven local jurisdictions situated in the Amador, Livermore and San Ramon Valleys of the San Francisco Bay Area recently met and formed the Tri-Valley Affordable Housing Committee. Member jurisdictions include Alameda and Contra Costa Counties , the Town of Danville and the Cities of Dublin, Livermore, Pleasanton and San Ramon. The focus of the Committee is to explore the opportunities for jointly developing affordable housing in the Tri-Valley area. Thanks to helpful input from representatives of the various member jurisdictions, as well as from Mr. Gary Binger of ABAG and representatives from your Department, we are excited about the opportunities for moving forward. However, it is our understanding that a strict interpretation of Government Code Sections 65583 , 65584 (a and b) , and 65584-5 (a,b and c) does not permit cities and counties to pool their resources, and at the same time, receive credit toward their own "fair share" allocations . We are therefore asking that you consider this possibility and recommend the appropriate legislative reform. In the past, Tri-Valley cities have had good success in developing housing for lower-income seniors and moderate-income households . However, providing homes for families that work in our communities but cannot afford to live in them has been much more problematic. There are numerous obstacles to overcome, including: the high cost of land and construction, finding available land, the impact of on- and off-site improvements on the purchase price, and the time it takes to review and approve a project containing affordable housing . The common denominator of all of these obstacles is the high cost of development. As you are aware, communities are faced with the almost impossible task of providing housing for people of all economic levels at a time when federal and state funds are shrinking . In order to overcome these problems , communities must seek creative 7 I solutions. Joint development of iesoworking housing could produce oduce such solution. Cities and coup reater affordable housing would have several advantages . First, g example, one community sources of funding could be applied. For could provide a site, while others might provide funding from sources such as "in-lieu" * affordable housing Another advantage would be early identification of large, available Many cities are close to buildout, and have only small, infill parcels remaining for housing development. However, at the fringe of other cities are vast tracts of potentially developable land. In the early stages of planning for these parcels , affordable housing goals could be identified, and financial commitments could be made with nearby cities . Another advantage would be the savings in terms of the time and effort of processing developments with an affordable housing component. The concept of communities working together and combining their resources, and receiving "fair share" allocation credit in return, would not be intended to supersede or take the place of other efforts by communities to meet theifair share at the same allocations . it would simply augment other ongoing programs, provide another option intended to alleviate the shortage of affordable housing. We would like to thank Tom Cook, Cathy Creswell and Gary Collard of your Department for the assistance that they have provided to our Committee. We look forward to hearing to regarding from you y imporaantn g our issuen dialogue with the of Member Jurisdiction Mayors and Board Chairpersons cc: State Legislators League of California Cities Gary Binger Rich Sybert HCDLETTR222