Santa Clara County sets affordable housing requirement on new developments

October 6, 2020December 23, 2020

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors meeting chamber is pictured in this file photo.

Housing developers who want to build in unincorporated parts of Santa Clara County next year will, for the first time, have to set aside units for low-income residents or pay an in-lieu fee.

The Board of Supervisors on Oct. 6 approved the requirement that low-income housing make up 16 percent of new developments containing three or more units. Otherwise, developers must pay an in-lieu fee of $259,000 per unit. The rules apply to developments with units intended both for sale and for rent.

Supervisor Dave Cortese dissented in the 4-1 vote.

An independent study presented to the county in July calculated and suggested the amount of the fee, which will be placed in a fund dedicated for affordable housing. That figure accounts for 100 percent of the cost to create a replacement unit, according to the county.

The rule would apply to unincorprated areas of the county. Most of Santa Clara County’s 15 cities already have their own affordable housing ordinances in place.

“Most residential development takes place within limits of those 15 cities and towns,” said District 5 Supervisor Joe Simitian. “So I don’t want you to think that it will involve significant numbers because it will not. But I also I think it has become increasingly clear that relying on the market isn’t going to get us the affordable housing stock we need.”

San Jose adopted a similar rule in 2010, requiring residential developers who create new, additional or modified sale or rental units to dedicate 15 percent as affordable, based on the area’s average median income.

Developers in San Jose have the option of paying an in-lieu fee of $157,858 per for-sale unit and $125,000 per rental unit.

The county’s new rules take effect June 1. The in-lieu fee will be reviewed and adjusted annually to reflect current building costs.

“We want to provide flexibility and we acknowledge that it won’t be practical in every instance to create the affordable housing as part of a particular development,” Simitian said. “But I want to make it clear that I’m not looking for fees, I’m looking for housing.”

Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese.

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Comments (9)

Steven Goldstein Oct 06, 2020 at 6:58PM

Its about time we make developers build multiple quality levels of housing, like “inclusionary” housing on ALL projects.

Selling only 93 octane gas in a neighborhood that cant afford it will result in low sales of the gas. That is happening NOW in Santa Clara County regarding housing.

Housing projects should be like gas stations, they offer 87 Octane, 89 Octane, 91 Octane, and 93 Octane at each market prices. Why housing didn’t do this is my biggest question?

Base the proportion of each “Income Category” with the statistical needs computed by the RHNA of each City.

Meaning if the needs are 25% “Very Low Income Housing”, 25% “Low Income Housing” 30% “Moderate Income Housing, and 20% “Above Moderate Income Housing”, then each project must provide these portions until the RHNA statistics show better than 80% met needs in all groups.

It makes sense because these diverse housing packages will greatly reduce the likelihood of vacancies due to only building the “Above Moderate Income Housing” which may end up being permanently vacant given the COVID/Fire/AB5 market situation from this point on.

Just a thought

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- hoapres Oct 07, 2020 at 11:59PM
  
  We need more single family homes and not high rise apartments.
  
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  - Steven Goldstein Oct 08, 2020 at 12:27PM
    
    HOAPres,
    
    Single Family Homes are the least land efficient housing there is, at minimum they take 1/4 an acre. And lets say you have 4 persons in that unit.
    
    Realize that Santa Clara County has 1,290 Square Miles of land per Wikipedia found here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County,_California). But 35% of that is usable land if you look at the County zoning map found here (https://www.sccgov.org/sites/dpd/DocsForms/Documents/zoning_atlas.pdf). So lets say that out of 1,290 Square Miles you have 451.5 Square Miles usable.
    
    HOWEVER looking at that map only about 45% of the usable land is residential zoning. So you have only 203.2 Square Miles. For each Square Mile you have 640 acres which means we have 130,032. BUT here’s a little known fact that at least 20% of that land is for roads/streets, walkways, and infrastructures required for those living there to survive. I played Sim City as a game and understand this. Thus, you have only 104,025.6 acres for actual units
    
    NOW let’s say with the Wikipedia page indicating that we have an estimated 1,927,852 people living here. And that there are 4 persons per household, we need 481,963 housing units, if you want all people living in a Single Family Home. OK then say you divide that by 4 for the number of acres to build Single Family Homes that comes to 120,490.8 acres.
    
    HERE IS REALITY:
    
    We have a land shortage of 16,465.15 acres. The REALITY is that we can’t do your advice, if we did we would have to lose as many as 263,442 people to comply to your constraints.
    
    Please do some thinking before you jump to an unrealistic conclusion, Especially if you want the Tech Industry to grow in the future.
    
    Your ideas are simply UNREALISTIC
    
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  - Steven Goldstein Oct 08, 2020 at 3:03PM
    
    HOAPres,
    
    Single Family Homes are the least land efficient housing there is, at minimum they take 1/4 an acre. And lets say you have 4 persons in that unit.
    
    Realize that Santa Clara County has 1,290 Square Miles of land per Wikipedia found here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Clara_County,_California). But 35% of that is usable land if you look at the County zoning map found here (https://www.sccgov.org/sites/dpd/DocsForms/Documents/zoning_atlas.pdf). So lets say that out of 1,290 Square Miles you have 451.5 Square Miles usable.
    
    HOWEVER looking at that map only about 45% of the usable land is residential zoning. So you have only 203.2 Square Miles. For each Square Mile you have 640 acres which means we have 130,032. BUT here’s a little known fact that at least 20% of that land is for roads/streets, walkways, and infrastructures required for those living there to survive. I played Sim City as a game and understand this. Thus, you have only 104,025.6 acres for actual units
    
    NOW let’s say with the Wikipedia page indicating that we have an estimated 1,927,852 people living here. And that there are 4 persons per household, we need 481,963 housing units, if you want all people living in a Single Family Home. OK then say you divide that by 4 for the number of acres to build Single Family Homes that comes to 120,490.8 acres.
    
    HERE IS REALITY:
    
    We have a land shortage of 16,465.15 acres. The REALITY is that we can’t do your advice, if we did we would have to lose as many as 263,442 people to comply to your constraints.
    
    Please do some thinking before you jump to an unrealistic conclusion, Especially if you want the Tech Industry to grow in the future.
    
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Jill Oct 07, 2020 at 8:41AM

“Supervisor Dave Cortese dissented in the 4-1 vote.”

Why did he dissent when all others voted for it? It would be nice to have at least a quote or two as to why. This is a really important issue to understand right before the election. What was his reasoning?

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Holly Hartman Oct 07, 2020 at 9:04AM

It’s true we need low income housing…I’m not challenging that. Reminding everyone that this is part of the reason construction costs are so high here. The requirements and fees are astronomical. Cities’ Planning Department processes are sloooow even if a project meets all criteria. Special consultants, studies (noise, environmental, trees, soils, water wells, illumination, photosimulation, HERS, etc) contribute to the cost of building an affordable home, which can be double the affordable purchase price. Developers need deep pockets to get through the years-long approval process. Streamlining those processes will go a long way towards enabling affordable housing to be built.

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- hoapres Oct 08, 2020 at 12:00AM
  
  We don’t need low income housing.
  
  IF you can’t afford to live here THEN move.
  
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  - Steven Goldstein Oct 08, 2020 at 12:40PM
    
    Then I tell all the workers here making less than 80% the median earnings in San Jose, QUIT your work never look back and go away.
    
    OHH, that will kill every small business in the city or county.
    
    OHH, that will mean all restaurants, beauty parlors, an etc providing the “quality of life” of Silicon Valley will close.
    
    OHH the tech workers will not want to work here anymore and since they really don’t need to be here, they leave too.
    
    OHH that is already happening due to COVID/AB5, it will accelerate it.
    
    HOAPres, you know the only reason why prices of homes are high is because the Mortgage Rates or low, and those BUYERS are suckers to overspend on the property. BUT if the population decreases for the long term as little as 5%, those properties will devalue as much as 10% from the purchase prices. Didn’t we see this before? Oh yes, 2007-9.
    
    Lets do as you suggest and watch another Real Estate bubble burst, see the long term value of the valley plummet, And eve see all the Tech offices relocate to out of state?
    
    Let’s go.
    
    Ohh by the way how’s your buddy Donald Trump doing after he spread COVID during the Supreme Court outdoor event?
    
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Anonymous Oct 08, 2020 at 10:07AM

That’s the perfect way to get the housing prices go UP!

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Santa Clara County sets affordable housing requirement on new developments

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