Sonoma County Board of Supervisors poised to vote on new housing blueprint

Months behind a state deadline, Sonoma County officials are close to finalizing a housing plan intended to support affordable housing development.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will be asked to approve the blueprint, called a housing element, which outlines where and how to facilitate the creation of 3,824 housing units outside city limits over the next eight years.

“The goal of the housing element is to facilitate development of housing that is targeted toward growth,” said Bradley Dunn, a policy manager with Permit Sonoma, the county’s planning agency. “So that we are creating housing for all income levels, all residents, affirmatively furthering fair housing.”

Once approved by the Board of Supervisors, the housing element must go to the State Department of Housing and Community Development for review before final adoption.

Its passage would make Sonoma County eligible for state funding earmarked for affordable housing projects.

It would also mean that developers could no longer submit projects under a builder’s-remedy law allowing projects to move forward under certain conditions despite the lack of an updated housing element.

The county’s deadline to update its housing element passed Jan. 31. So far the county has received applications for six projects under the builder’s-remedy rules.

State law requires cities and counties to update their housing elements every eight years. The plans have become a key pressure point for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration as it seeks to hold local jurisdictions more accountable for housing production.

Under the same state law, local jurisdictions are assigned a certain number of housing units ranging from low-income to above-moderate income, to be built by a deadline.

This cycle, the Association of Bay Area Governments allotted 3,824 housing units for Sonoma County to approve outside of cities, more than seven times the mandated 515 units in the area during the past cycle.

Of those 3,824 units, the state requires that 1,024 must be very low income units, 584 must be low income, 627 must be moderate income and 1,589 must be above moderate income.

The plan identifies nine areas across unincorporated Sonoma County that could accommodate more housing within the next decade. The areas include Sonoma Valley, the outskirts of Santa Rosa and Cloverdale, and the lower Russian River stretching from Guerneville to Forestville.

Some have criticized the plan’s inclusion of more rural communities over concern about the strain it would put on limited infrastructure, including sewer, and the lack of access to resources, including public transportation, that urban centers offer.

“We believe that city-centered growth makes sense, but we also believe we need to make low and moderate income housing in these other areas,” Dunn said. “We are pursuing both of those policies.”

There are a few paths to satisfying the 3,824-unit allotment. The county is able to apply projects already in process — totaling 1,388 units — and projected accessory dwelling unit creation — totaling 816 units — to the quota.

For the remaining units, the county's plan has identified a number of parcels that could accommodate development sites but about 31 of those sites will require rezoning.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.