Rohnert Park becomes hub for construction of new homes

In a field on Rohnert Park’s eastern edge, workers using heavy equipment have connected large pipes within a labyrinth of deep trenches, a critical step toward a remarkable milestone in the city’s recent history.

The “wet utility” work at the corner of Rohnert Park Expressway and Petaluma Hill Road is in preparation for a housing subdivision and the first single-family homes to be built in Sonoma County’s third-largest city in at least 15 years.

You heard that right.

The United States has held three presidential elections, fought two wars and gone into and out of a recession in the amount of time it has taken to break ground on a single-family home in the Friendly City.

Many California communities suffered similar fates when the housing market crashed and projects stalled or died. And many communities have failed to recover from the blow. But in Rohnert Park, developers are taking advantage of a more favorable economy and an enviable amount of undeveloped land within the city’s urban growth boundary to kick-start new construction.

“The city of Rohnert Park is where the action is,” said Keith Woods, executive director of the North Bay Builders Exchange.

All told, 4,350 housing units ranging from single-family homes to apartments have cleared at least the first stage of the city’s approval process.

Were every housing unit to be built, the city’s population of 43,000 could swell by 25 percent, or nearly 11,000 people. Already, the transient population has ballooned due to an influx of construction workers from around the region.

“It’s huge. This is all union jobs out here,” Tom Hyland, general superintendent of Ghilotti Bros., Inc., said last week while overseeing work at the Rohnert Park Expressway field. “Especially after the recession, there were a lot of people out of work. Now, union halls are starting to get empty, and they’re struggling to fill the demand.”

However, what appears to be an overnight housing boom in the city encompassing seven square-miles actually is a longer story. The city’s 2000 general plan called for thousands of housing units to be built, but hardly any projects got off the ground. City officials said the most recent single-family homes constructed in Rohnert Park were in the M Section, which was completed in the mid-1990s.

Mayor Amy Ahanotu attributed the dearth of new homes built in his city to government regulations, political infighting and the recession. But he said those problems are in the past and predicted the city will soon reap the economic benefits related to the new construction.

“There’s going to be a new day for the city of Rohnert Park,” he said.

Approval in 2004

Brookfield Homes, the company behind the Rohnert Park Expressway subdivision, originally received approval for the work in 2004, according to city engineer Mary Grace Pawson.

“The city, frankly, is really pleased to see its general plan come to fruition,” she said. “This gives an opportunity for families to locate in Rohnert Park. We know there is pent-up demand.”

Representatives for Brookfield did not respond to numerous phone calls and email messages seeking comment.

Just shy of 400 single-family homes are planned for the first phase of the project, which is in the city’s University District. According to the developer’s website, the master plan calls for 1,236 single-family homes on the 260-acre site, which is across the road from the Green Music Center, Sonoma State University’s sophisticated performing arts center.

Plans also call for 100,000 square feet of commercial space, two public parks and three miles of trails linking to the university and the city’s core.

Affordable housing

The homes in the first phase will range in size from 1,777 to 2,838 square feet. The largest include five bedrooms and two-car garages.

Selling prices have not been disclosed. But city officials said the project will meet city and state mandates for affordable housing.

Rohnert Park’s municipal code requires 15 percent of housing in new development to be “affordable” to low- and very low-income residents. The state’s generally accepted definition of affordability is for a household to pay no more than 30 percent of its gross annual income on housing. That’s complicated by actual family size and income.

According to California’s Health and Safety Code, a household earning the 2013 median income for a family of four in Rohnert Park, which was $82,600, could afford to spend up to $24,780 a year, or $2,065 per month, on housing without being considered “overpaying.”

Pawson said plans for the Brookfield project also call for high-density housing units, which could include apartments.

More than half of the 4,350 housing units planned in Rohnert Park are of medium or high density, ranging from single-family homes on small lots to townhomes, duplexes and apartments. City officials trumpet this housing as being more affordable, and thus within easier reach of more homebuyers, compared with large homes situated on large parcels.

Rohnert Park Councilman Jake Mackenzie referred to the housing boom in Rohnert Park as an “interesting story” that goes back to the planning done for the 2000 general plan.

“We’re seeing the beginning of the renaissance, if you will, of the University District,” he said.

Overall, the construction in Rohnert Park points to mixed signs in the region’s housing market.

In 2014, housing officials in Sonoma County issued just 251 permits for new single-family homes, according to the California Homebuilding Foundation. That was the lowest total in at least 45 years and a far cry from the average of 1,900 single-family homes built in Sonoma County annually in the two decades before residential construction tanked in 2008.

But the situation appears to be improving. A building official in Santa Rosa, the county’s largest city, said the buzz around home-building has gotten louder as demand continues to outpace supply.

In Santa Rosa, the number of new planning applications increased by 13 percent from 2013 to 2014, and by 12 percent the prior year.

“At first, it was just apartments, and now, it’s housing of all types and at different affordability levels,” said Clare Hartman, deputy director of planning in the city’s Community Development Department.

Rising median price

Sonoma County’s median home sale price hit $550,000 in June, as tight supplies and ongoing demand have helped increase the median for four straight years. That’s the highest the median has been since February 2007.

Rohnert Park stands out among Sonoma County cities for the amount of undeveloped land it has for new home construction. After anticipated annexations, the city will have 883 remaining acres of undeveloped land in six different development areas. Housing is planned as the primary use on 858 acres of that total.

Other major projects in the works include Sonoma Mountain Village, a $1 billion mixed-use project with 1,694 homes on the former Hewlett-Packard campus in south Rohnert Park, and a 475-home subdivision on the city’s southeastern flank. That project, led by Redwood Equities, envisions a mix of single-family homes, town homes and apartments, half of which are to be affordable housing. It also would include 10,000 square feet of commercial space and a five-acre park.

Impact of drought

One wrinkle in Rohnert Park’s housing boom is California’s ongoing drought, which has sparked new building regulations statewide.

Rohnert Park officials said the city’s housing forecast under the 2000 general plan accounted for drought years. And they made the argument that the city’s current water supply is in relatively good shape. The city is a customer of the Sonoma County Water Agency and also relies on recycled water and groundwater supplies.

Pawson, the city’s engineer, said the Brookfield project includes features designed to minimize demand on the water supply. She said parks and parkways within the development will be irrigated with recycled water and that homes will feature landscaping that includes low-water plants instead of large lawns.

Hyland’s priority is making sure the water and sewer lines work as intended. He said Ghilotti Bros. is being paid about $4 million to do the utility work, which he anticipated will wrap up next month.

Hyland, who lives in Cotati, said the last time he could recall working on a housing development of this magnitude was in the 1980s in Vallejo. He said the company’s main source of revenue in the intervening years has been Caltrans projects.

“To finally have private industry after the recession is huge,” he said, straining to be heard over the roar of an earth roller.