‘Builder’s remedy’ housing proposed in Wine Country
A prominent Sonoma County family that has been a force in philanthropy and politics for decades is proposing California’s biggest “builder’s remedy” project, a 1,464-unit affordable housing development that would create a new neighborhood on a flat vacant parcel near the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma Airport.
Gallaher Companies, which has developed 6,500 units of housing and 62 senior and assisted care facilities, has filed an application for a 40-acre community targeting local workers who are priced out of Sonoma County’s housing market, according to Cindy Gallaher, cofounder of the company with her husband Bill.
The proposed project, Airport Village, will be fast-tracked under California’s builder’s remedy, which lets developers bypass local building rules and receive streamlined approval for residential developments in jurisdictions that are out of compliance with state housing law. While Sonoma County currently has a state-certified housing plan, it did not have one when the Gallaher Companies filed the preliminary application.
The proposed development “is intended to be responsive to the housing crisis and the demand we have today,” said Efren Carrillo, chief executive officer of Gallaher Community Homes, a new nonprofit created for the project.
The project would consist of three distinct neighborhoods with a total of 20 residential buildings, a recreation center, picnic areas, playgrounds, athletic fields and pickleball courts. There would also be a grocery store and other retail. And it would be less than a halfmile from the airport’s SMART train station.
While proposed homes would target households earning 100% of the area median income — currently $128,000 for a
family of four — the developer is hoping to include more deeply affordable units as well. In order for that to happen, however, the developer is requesting that Sonoma County lower fees for smaller units.
Genevieve Bertone, a spokesperson for Permit Sonoma, confirmed that the application is being processed as a builder’s remedy project. The county has 30 days to review the application and respond to the applicant with any follow-ups.
Cindy Gallaher said her family company had been focused on senior housing “for many years,” but returned to the residential building business after the 2017 Tubbs Fire destroyed more than 5,000 homes.
“There was already a housing shortage and after the fire there was a tremendous immediate need,” Gallaher said. “Throughout that whole process we started feeling like we needed to do more to somehow meet the severe need in the county.”
The median home price in Sonoma County is $800,000, nearly twice what it was in 2013. A 2021 report from the nonprofit Generation Housing determined that Sonoma County would need 38,000 units to meet demand and will need 20,000 more by 2030.
“This was a place where, when we grew up, the middle class could afford to buy houses,” said Gallaher. “Teachers, nurses. A middle-class income could afford housing. It’s so different now.”
Gallaher said that some of the motivation for Airport Village was rooted in the family’s experience buying Hope Village, an addiction treatment center that was facing closure and would have likely displaced 40 women. While the family was able to keep the place open, the program only lasts 18 months and most of the women can’t afford Sonoma County rents upon leaving, Gallaher said.
“We bought the property to keep them housed,” she said. “These women have jobs, they are stable, they are doing all the work that it takes to go through recovery. But the question is, ‘Where are they going to move?’”
She added: “We feel like we are beneficiaries of so many great things about the county — wonderful restaurants, grocery stores. But the people who work in those places can’t even afford a decent apartment.”
Generation Housing has been pushing Sonoma County jurisdictions to lower development fees in order to facilitate more building. The Santa Rosa PressDemocrat reported that the Gallahers are behind a new billboard that recently went up north of Golf Course Drive in Rohnert Park. The billboard appears to put pressure on the Board of Supervisors to make affordable housing easier to build.
It reads: “Sonoma County Supervisors claim they want affordable housing. Will they act?”
Jen Klose, executive director of Generation Housing, said there is a lot to like about the Gallager proposal.
“I like that it will be mixed income, I like that it’s close to the SMART train, and I’m really pleased they are looking at it as a community, rather than just a housing project, with the market and sports fields and community rooms — that is how you build a strong community,” she said. “It’s 1,500 units close to jobs and transit — it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Sonoma County has a population of about 450,000, with more than a quarter of its residents living in its unincorporated areas. Under state-mandated housing goals, unincorporated Sonoma County must plan to create 3,881 units by 2031.
The proposed Airport Village development would be between a food bank and a pharmaceutical manufacturing business, and would also close to the Sonoma County Office of Education. There are upward of 8,000 jobs within a mile, according to Carrillo.
Carrillo said the project would be built over six or seven phases and that construction would start as soon as possible. “We would like to be in the ground by next spring.”