City responds to razing of affordable apartments
New rules aim to pressure developers to include more below-market-rate units
“I still want to give folks that chance to own a home, because at the end of the day, that is the most security you can have.” — Margaret Abe-Koga, vice mayor
After approving the demolition of more than 100 rent- controlled apartment units this year, Mountain View is putting more pressure on developers to build affordable units into their project plans .
From December to April, the Mountain View City Council approved three separate marketrate housing projects by the Morgan Hill-based developer Dividend Homes that all called for razing rent- controlled apartments and replacing them with townhouses estimated to cost more than $1 million each.
The decisions sparked a great deal of backlash from the community so the council vowed to look at its policies and find ways to curtail the displacement of residents moving forward.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the council voted unanimously to amend the city’s below-market-rate housing ordinance and require that for-sale townhouse projects — such as the three approved earlier this year — must have 15 percent of the units available to residents earning between 80 to 120 percent of the area’s median income, which is about $120,000, and 10 percent of units available to residents earning between 120 and 150 percent of the area’s median income.
Vice Mayor Margaret Abe-Koga said the new policy will allow residents in the market for a home to more easily achieve that dream while also opening space in the rental market for residents who may be more in need of affordable housing.
“When I hear from folks now in their 20 and 30s that buying a home is just not even in their realm of possibilities, it bothers me,” AbeKoga said during Tuesday’s meeting. “…I still want to give folks that chance to own a home, because at the end of the day, that is the most security you can have.”
The council’s decision Tuesday night marks the second step in their effort to modify the city’s below-market-rate housing program, which requires developers to set aside affordable units for residents with low or moderate incomes. Developers who do not build the affordable units into their projects have an option to pay an in-lieu fee, which goes into a city fund to finance affordable housing developments elsewhere within the city.
In Feb. 2018, the council adopted the first phase of modifications, which increased the affordable housing requirements for rental housing developments from 10 percent to 15
percent and rose the rental in-lieu fees that developers must pay if they opt not to build the affordable units into their development.
Pat Sausedo of the Building Industry Association Bay Area spoke at Tuesday night’s meeting in opposition of raising the affordable housing requirements for the ownership townhouse projects above 15 percent and against the council’s high in-lieu fees that were adopted last year.
“For BIA (the Building Industry Association), that just seems irresponsible considering the serious housing crisis that we’re facing and we still don’t know how we’re going to get out of this,” Sausedo said.
Councilmember Lucas Ramirez saw the requirements on for- sale townhome developments as a way to serve more families in the community. Most of the city’s newly approved apartment complexes consist of studios and one or two bedroom units but families may require three or more bedrooms, he said.
“As much as I’d like to serve (families) with the rental market, we’re just not providing those units,” Ramirez said. “So I like this idea of providing access to the ownership market not only across a range of incomes but also for families who I think are particularly struggling to find those opportunities.”