More local government officials need to move housing up in priority

Yuba City is working on a playbook to entice more housing development, and it’s sorely needed

Atelling question was asked last week at one of the candidates’ forums sponsored by the Appeal-democrat and Chamber of Commerce. It was suggested by a respondent to an online survey asking for questions to ask candidates.

“Housing is most often tied to homelessness in the Yuba-sutter area. But it goes beyond that. People who come to this area for jobs have a tough time finding available and affordable housing. But housing is also integral to the homelessness issue ... you can’t help someone into a home if there are no homes to be had. Talk about housing!”

Candidate responses to the question varied from having government get more involved to getting government entirely out of the way of the private sector.

There’s another possibility: have local government partner up with the private sector as much as possible.

We’re happy that seems to be Yuba City’s aim.

The city, it was noted in a Thursday news story, has been struggling to entice homebuilders to start new projects ever since the recession hit – that was a decade ago (and we’re not entirely sure there’s been a whole lot of struggle up to now).

City Council members last week directed staff to go ahead with a five-year strategy that seems pretty basic to the cause. It doesn’t seem like it’s that complicated, but it makes a statement and we’d like to see other local governments do the same ... and follow through.

In the building guide Yuba City staff is producing, they’ll communicate to builders what the city can offer: how much land is available, what development fees are in place and other plans for enticement. The latter could include paring back those fees, considered by many to be overly onerous on builders and investors.

Over the last few years, the issuance of single-family dwelling building permits in Yuba City has held at just 50 or so a year. The city’s peak year was 2004, when 991 permits were issued. But it’s not the comparison with a decade earlier that’s important; it’s, rather, the importance of providing greater housing availability in a market that, at present, is stymied.

The challenge is definitely enticing investors – the cost to build a home here is the same as in Sacramento ... even though the sale price of the home would be less. There’s not as much profit to be had here. And the local development impact fees seem high – more than $57,000 for a single-family residence.

Much of the plan seems to be a stir-the-pot strategy. One plan is to hold quarterly meetings with builders and developers; and to go to where homebuilders are and talking to them about Yuba City ... road show style.

Our situation isn’t unique ... housing development is needed everywhere and even with the city’s ideas for enticing them, investors don’t have any solid reason to choose this place over any of a hundred others ... including communities not so far away where housing was wiped out by fire.

It’s a complicated problem. We’re happy city officials are talking about it and putting together an actual plan ... so long as they keep after it.

It’s an issue that needs to be on the top three list of all local government officials. If you want to concentrate on economic development? Housing. If you want to solve homelessness? Housing. If you want to improve the local quality of life? Housing.