Close to Home: Funding alternatives for Sonoma County

As The Press Democrat suggested in a recent editorial: Santa Rosa and Sonoma County “should proceed with caution on tax measures, including those that support affordable housing” (“Advice to Santa Rosa, Sonoma County on tax hikes: Go slow,” March 10) The Santa Rosa City Council and the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors will hopefully also recall the report from two urban design consultants retained by the city: Urban3 and Strong Towns.

The city of Santa Rosa recently commissioned an analysis of the relationship between current urban development trends in Sonoma County and property/retail tax production. In a series of public workshops presented in January, alternatives to tax increases were clearly outlined.

The higher per-acre value of inner-city, mixed-use buildings can produce “more revenue in the form of property and retail sales tax per acre than those located away from the city center,” said Joe Minicozzi of Urban3 at the January workshop.

For example, in a 3D county diagram we saw that, according to 2015 assessor's data, the six-story Rosenberg Building in downtown Santa Rosa was assessed at $26.3 million per acre, theoretically bringing in at least $263,161 in property taxes per acre each year. The Lowe's Home Improvement store along Highway 101 in Cotati is assessed at $1.4 million per acre, yielding about $14,000 in property taxes per acre each year. Both buildings came online in their current iterations about the same time. The Rosenberg building was sold in 2007 and converted to its present use as affordable housing shortly thereafter. Lowe's was opened as a new “big box” retail store in 2006, with a generous parking lot included.

While the Lowe's store also brings in sales tax revenue, parking lots have a much lower taxable base than buildings, despite the fact that the cars parking there require decent roads to reach their destinations, and as we all know, roads are expensive to maintain.

“If a more valuable urban core is underbuilt, based on its potential, then property and sales tax will not be adequate, leading to lower revenue for the city,” Minicozzi said.

The solution: Sonoma County cities could look again at land-use policies in the urban cores from the perspective of maximizing the urban mixed-use potential, thereby increasing the assessed tax base and revenue generation, eliminating the need to raise taxes

Strong Towns is a nonprofit that advocates for a model of urban development that results in communities becoming financially stronger and more resilient. Charles Marohn of Strong Towns explained at a workshop in January that the per-acre value of outlying developments such as Santa Rosa Marketplace, Lowe's and even Coddingtown are far less than urban values, and they produce fewer jobs and less tax revenue per acre.

Both consultants alluded to the unique opportunity being presented to our community by the potential for transit-oriented development along the SMART train route, particularly in the Railroad Square area of Santa Rosa. Second only to downtown Santa Rosa in the valuation study by Urban3, the Railroad Square Historic District also produced 88 percent as much retail tax revenue as the Santa Rosa Marketplace on a per acre basis.

“We have to look at underlying transportation assumptions to find better ways to spend what we have,” Marohn said.

So as Santa Rosa begins the long-awaited transformation of Old Courthouse Square and we look forward to the SMART train opening this year, we are moving toward a more people-centric urban environment. Is there a way our community can capitalize on the investment in these projects in a way that maximizes revenue and makes us more resilient?

Kathleen Willett, a longtime resident of Sonoma County, is a science writer and sustainability consultant.