Caltrain board to consider affordability requirement

Staff members propose requiring a minimum of 20% of new housing units near stations have nominal costs

Housing advocates on Thursday pushed the board that oversees Caltrain to prioritize affordable housing projects on land along the Peninsula’s train corridor.

In a move hailed as a good starting point by housing advocates, staff for the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, which operates Caltrain, recommended requiring that at least 20% of units in future residential projects on agency land at any station be affordable.

“There is a tradeoff,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, manager of real estate and property for the board who presented the recommendation.

Affordable housing projects, he pointed out, can mean accepting lower rents for limited land that could otherwise hold, say, a grocery store or office space. But the projects also have the potential to add badly needed housing in an area where more people are being forced into tent encampments and van living.

“That’s the reality for thousands of families in the Bay Area,” said Leora Tanjuatco Ross, organizing director for the Housing

Leadership Council of San Mateo County.

The recommendation, presented at a committee meeting at the San Mateo County Transit District offices in San Carlos, is expected to come before the full board, which is made up of officials from San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, early next year.

“They’ve definitely picked up the pace,” Ross said.

But Ross’s group would like to see the board go further, prioritizing housing along the transit corridor by giving affordable housing projects the right of first refusal for available land and increasing density around stations to bolster the number of affordable units.

Kelsey Banes with the group Peninsula for Everyone

agreed. “People don’t live in percentages,” Banes told the committee. “They live in homes.”

Melinda Henning wants to see the board consider affordable housing projects that could provide support but also some independence — like easy access to transit — and a sense of community for adults with mental health challenges who live with aging parents.

“They’re at risk of homelessness if we die,” Henning said. “What I care about is the humanitarian issue.”

The Housing Leadership Council wants the board to pursue housing development at stations up and down the rails. But staff suggested looking at a limited number of locations, especially a few acres in Redwood City and Mountain View, arguing that they need to preserve enough space along the Caltrain tracks to accommodate future rail needs, whatever those might be.

“I think when it comes to developable land, our cup does not runneth over,” said Charles Stone, a Belmont councilman who sits on the board, choosing the words “our cup” for their similarity to RCUP, the acronym for Caltrain’s Rail Corridor Use Policy.

Fitzpatrick’s team stopped short of suggesting a portfolio-wide goal for affordable housing, citing a lack of sufficient developable sites. Other agencies like BART and VTA are aiming for 35% of housing units on their land to be affordable, with a minimum of 20% of units near any given station being affordable.

When the board does green-light housing projects, staff urged them to retain ownership of the land and use long-term leases, standard practice across most transit agencies.

The proposal could change before it is formally approved by the full board, with board members attempting to balance a variety of options, from parking for transit riders to housing demands to meeting the needs of surrounding communities. Housing advocates see an opening to push for stronger housing policies.

“Caltrain is like the backbone of our county,” Ross said. “I hope they understand their power to build and shape the community.”