How will Santa Rosa add 4,700 homes? New blueprint outlines 8-year housing strategy

Santa Rosa has experienced a housing boom in the past few years, despite challenges brought on by wildfires and the pandemic, but how does the city keep that momentum going?

A new housing blueprint the City Council will consider on Tuesday is meant to sustain that housing production over the next eight years, in part by clearing red tape and spurring creation of granny units and other alternative home models.

“As a city, we’ve done a good job of embracing the need and desire to build housing but there is more to do,” council member Jeff Okrepkie said. “We all understand that as our city grows, as the county seat and the economic center, we need to have housing. And not just market-rate housing, but housing to accommodate everybody that lives and works here.”

The plan is known as the city’s housing element, and residents can weigh in on it during the council meeting, where the public hearing is expected to start at or after 5 p.m.

Santa Rosa must plan for 4,685 new units by 2031 under state-mandated housing goals. That’s a nearly 8% decrease from the previous eight-year housing cycle, unlike most jurisdictions in the Bay Area which saw a significant jump.

The housing shortfall remains a critical challenge in the region despite a now five-year drop in Sonoma County’s population, which has gone from 503,500 in 2017 to 480,261 last year.

Santa Rosa has about 70,000 existing homes, including apartments, granny units and mobile homes. Longer term plans call for adding as many as 24,000 new homes by 2050, mostly in downtown and neighborhood centers, to keep pace with projected slow population growth.

While the city expects to exceed its state-mandated housing goals with projects on the rise and in the pipeline, plus land zoned in the city for future projects, development challenges such as rising interest rates and regulatory hurdles mean there’s no guarantee all the new homes will be built.

The city didn’t meet housing goals for the previous state cycle despite increased construction activity, including issuing building permits for 1,404 new housing units in 2021 — the most since 2005 — in what one city official described as a “banner year” for the city. (The figure does not include permits to rebuild any of the more than 3,000 homes lost in the city due to wildfires since 2017.)

Elected leaders and city administrators have said housing is a top priority but it will take a concerted effort to meet the overall goals, and particularly affordable housing needs.

Of the 4,685 allotted units, 1,218 must be reserved for very low income, 701 must be designated as low income, 771 must be moderate and 1,995 must be above moderate income.

The plan calls for more streamlined plan reviews for certain types of construction, such as affordable housing projects, easing regulations for alternate housing models like granny units and tiny homes and revamping development fees.

Programs and policies to preserve existing housing and protect renters and homeowners, especially lower income residents, are also included in the plan.

New housing under the plan is largely focused in downtown, along transit corridors and around commercial centers, such as in areas along Guerneville Road. Development is also prioritized in southwest Santa Rosa and along Santa Rosa Avenue south of Highway 12.

City officials have said these areas offer the city the best opportunity to add density close to existing infrastructure and services.

Large-scale development in areas with high wildfire risks is limited.

About 1,800 units are under construction, including 162 affordable senior apartments at the former Journey’s End mobile home site on Mendocino Avenue and 128 apartments for low-income families on Morgan Street as part of the downtown Caritas Village project.

Other major projects nearing completion or getting off the ground this year include:

• Pullman Lofts, 154 units between Eighth and Ninth streets and Wilson Street.
• 888 Fourth Street, 108 units.
• The Cannery at Railroad Square, 129 affordable apartments on West Third Street.

Another 1,900 units are under review.

The city also identified dozens of vacant and underutilized lots across the city that can be transformed into housing as part of the plan.

Together, the plan is expected to generate 7,029 units, a surplus of 2,577 units, over the next eight years.

Local jurisdictions across the state are assigned a certain number of housing units to be built within the housing cycle. Sonoma County and its nine cities must approve over 14,500 new homes, a 72% jump over previous goals, to alleviate chronic housing shortages.

Cities and counties are required by state law to submit a housing plan, which have become a focal point for state leaders as they seek to hold jurisdictions more accountable for housing production.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development will have 60 days to review and certify Santa Rosa’s plan once adopted.

Just 14 of the North Bay’s 109 cities and counties, including Rohnert Park and Sebastopol, met the Jan. 31 state deadline to adopt the plans, according to the department.

Jurisdictions that fail to adopt a plan or whose plan doesn’t comply with state law could face losing state funding or even open the door to developers to bypass city regulations to build housing.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.