Imperial scores $15M for housing and transportation project

IMPERIAL — A $15 million grant from state Cap-and-Trade funds will be used toward a green transportation and affordable housing project here.

The Worthington la Luna Rural Housing and Transportation Partnership will consist of 114 high-density units of net-zero-energy affordable housing on a 3.5acre lot at West Worthington and Nance roads. The plan calls for building more than 3/4 mile of new sidewalks, 2.74 miles of new bikeways and three crosswalks. Grant money will also be applied to purchasing 50 hybrid vans for CalVans vanpool service.

The developer is Roben Real Estate. Of the total grant award, $10 million will go toward housing, about $4.8 million will go to transportation and the rest will go to program funding.

Imperial Assistant City Manager Alexis Brown said the project’s three-story affordable housing development will include 18 one-bedroom apartments, 16 two-bedroom units and 36 three-bedroom units. There will be 66 units dedicated to USDA farmworker housing.

Brown said the city’s decision to select an affordable housing project for the Worthington and Nance site fulfills critical housing needs for farmworkers and the local low-income community.

The grant money comes from the state of California’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, which is funded by the state’s Cap-and-Trade carbon emissions auction program. Administered by the Strategic Growth Council and implemented by the Department of Housing and Community Development, the AHSC Program funds land-use, housing, transportation and land preservation projects to support infill and compact development that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The SGC received more than $1 billion in proposals for the fifth round of AHSC funding, which opened Nov. 1, 2019. Of those, about $550 million in grants were awarded.

The city of Imperial submitted its application in partnership with an entity called CRP MHP Sponsor LLC and the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee on Anti-Poverty of San Diego County Inc.

The $15 million award represents only the second AHSC award within Imperial County since the program began in 2014. Last year, nearly $12.8 million was awarded to the city of Brawley for the Ocotillo Springs transportation and housing project.

Eduardo Garcia, Democratic Assemblymember for the state’s 56th District, which includes Imperial County, said he believes there’s more where that came from.

“A little bit of money brings in a lot more money,” he said.

Garcia’s Assembly Bill 398 not only extended the Cap-and-Trade program, but it also made critical modifications to ensure that disadvantaged, environmentally burdened communities are prioritized for grants.

He said there have also been adjustments in the way the SGC evaluates proposals to make it easier for smaller, rural communities like those in Imperial County to compare favorably with those from more densely populated areas. For instance, he explained, SGC has tended to favor “building up, rather than out,” but rural development doesn’t favor fiveand six-story tall housing projects, so it has been necessary to convince the council to review proposals through a different lens.

“We’ve been advocating for this to happen since day one,” Garcia said. “This is a major milestone in our advocacy efforts for the district.”

Altogether, Garcia said he has helped secure $42.6 million in AHSC program grants for his district, including projects approved in 2019 for Coachella and Brawley.

Brown said the Worthington la Luna project is expected to break ground by March 2021.