Healdsburg voters asked to loosen growth cap

Healdsburg voters will face a pivotal choice on the November ballot asking whether they want to retain a 16-year-old growth-control measure or replace it with a looser ordinance intended to usher in more affordable housing.

The growth amendment would remove the rigid limit on the number of new homes and substitute it with a housing plan designed to provide more multifamily rentals units, smaller single-family lots and increase the number of affordable units developers must include.

The City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to place the growth amendment on the ballot, scrapping a measure approved by voters in 2000 limiting the number of new market-rate homes to an average of 30 per year.

The amendment, along with an accompanying strategic housing plan and “growth regulator” that would kick in, would allow more than twice that number of market-rate homes - 70 per year over an initial six-year period.

Developers also would have to double the percentage of affordable units in their projects from the current 15 percent to 30 percent.

“It will do much to address the crisis of affordability and diversity,” said Jon Worden, the Healdsburg architect who chairs the Community Housing Committee that has grappled for more than a year with how to create housing options in a city with sky-high real estate prices.

The housing plan’s objective is to ensure more than half of new dwellings are multifamily rather than the more expensive single-family homes that have defined construction in Healdsburg over the past couple decades.

But forces are already lining up to oppose the changes, including Jim Winston, who authored the current growth ordinance and is planning a campaign against the November ballot measure.

“It’s a misleading, false narrative that people will get the affordable housing they want,” he said, asserting the changes would position Healdsburg for “an explosion of growth.”

Winston said the city has a limited amount of developable land and it will put undue pressure on changing the voter-approved urban growth boundary, leading to sprawl and loss of agricultural lands.

But city officials say those fears are overblown.

Worden said the existing growth-management ordinance, which came in response to large subdivisions built or proposed on the edge of town, was a well-intended citizens’ initiative, a reaction to concern that unbridled growth would destroy Healdsburg’s character.

But the unintended consequence, he said, is that only single-family homes have been built since the ordinance passed. The median price of a home in Healdsburg and its immediate environs was $805,000 in 2015, according to The Press Democrat’s housing report.

City officials say development of rental apartments has become impracticable because of the lack of certainty in the availability of permit allocations needed for financing and construction.

The housing action plan unanimously approved Monday by the City Council would kick in if voters amend the growth-management ordinance to allow more home construction. It would result in an approximate 1.5 percent annual growth rate in the town of almost 12,000 population, according to city officials.

Its objectives over the next six years include creating 200 affordable units restricted to occupants of low-to-moderate income, as well as building 135 units in a new category of affordable housing for the “missing middle,” or people who make between 121 percent and 160 percent of Sonoma County median income. That ranges from approximately $99,000 to $132,000 for a family of four.

The latter category is designed for families that can’t afford market-rate housing, or qualify for state-defined, deed-restricted housing.

The housing plan also seeks to create 125 secondary units, and 100 new rental units in four developments by 2022. It aims to encourage single-family homes on smaller lots, cottage courts and “creative density.”

The housing action plan would be modified every eight years along with revision of the housing element of the city’s general plan, which outlines housing needs and available land.

Councilwoman Brigette Mansell, the sole vote against placing the matter on the November ballot, said it needed to include a reference to the cap on the number of new homes allowed.

“You need to tell people what is the cap on all of this, how many (housing units) you get in a certain time frame,” she said. “Without knowing that, voters won’t pass this thing.”

But other council members, such as Mayor Tom Chambers, said stating a fixed number “won’t get the nuance” of what the housing plan aims to achieve.

Councilman Shaun McCaffery said the plan is the culmination of more than a year of community involvement and collaboration to figure out Healdsburg’s needs.

“It’s a powerful document that outlines a very significant vision for the future of housing in our town,” he said.