Sunnyvale has a unique strategy to support affordable housing development: purchasing the land for developers.
Most recently, as part of a $29.5 million roundup of affordable housing expenditures, the Sunnyvale City Council unanimously approved spending $12.5 million to buy a lot at 1171 Sonora Court, to help developers MidPen Housing build 170 affordable apartments. It will be the sixth 100% affordable housing development in Sunnyvale where the city government owns the land. City officials and advocates said government land ownership helps keep the property affordable over the long term.
Sunnyvale Mayor Larry Klein said this approach shows a long-term commitment to affordable housing from construction through preservation.
“In the last five or six years, we’ve made it a priority to have that control, but also to make sure that affordable housing projects can move forward faster as well as spend our housing mitigation fees,” Klein told San José Spotlight.
Meridian Apartments, which opened in April, is the first of the six developments. For that project specifically, Klein said the city had been buying single-family homes next to each other since the 1990s, eventually forming a 1.44-acre development.
The city has to account for 11,966 new homes by 2031, with 6,709 below market rate, based on state requirements. The city would have to facilitate building 1,496 homes, with 839 below market rate, every year to hit that goal.
There are a few ways a city government could own the land that an affordable housing project sits on, according to SV@Home Policy Director Mathew Reed. He said a city could actively purchase properties and then look for a developer to turn it into affordable housing, which is a form of “land banking.”
He said a city sometimes invests in affordable housing projects with developers and part of the agreement is for the city to buy the land. A third way is for a city to take over as the landowner on a project if the land is deeded to the city for affordable housing as part of a larger land agreement with a big company such as Google.
Reed said pursuing ways to own land can be challenging. For example, purchasing land in the area isn’t common because it’s so expensive. But he added that more governments should look to buy land for affordable housing because of its efficiency and cost-effectiveness for developers.
“Anything that makes affordable housing development more efficient in terms of process and less costly in terms of investment is a good way of making sure that we’re getting more,” Reed told San José Spotlight.
City spokesperson Jennifer Garnett said Sunnyvale takes a “proactive and opportunistic approach” when it comes to buying land for affordable housing developments. She said the city buys land in parcels that seem suitable for affordable housing as they become available, or it can purchase the land from a nonprofit developer — both help the city control the parcel’s affordability long term.
Sandy Perry, board vice president of the South Bay Community Land Trust, said taking land off of the commercial real estate market is an important step toward ensuring that land gets used to support the local community. He added the biggest risk is if the city later sold the land for a profit, but otherwise, this could be a tactic for other cities could look at.
Klein said the city plans on buying more plots of land for affordable housing in the future. As with the sites the city has already supported, he said the property’s location is key, especially if it’s next to public transit.
“Our city has a long history of commitment to affordable housing, so purchasing that site affirms that commitment, but it also ensures that the location is affordable for generations to come,” he told San José Spotlight.
Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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