Gilroy
– A task force of local developers and residents has signed off
on a policy mandating minimums for affordable housing.
Gilroy – A task force of local developers and residents has signed off on a policy mandating minimums for affordable housing.
Last week, the Neighborhood District Policy Task Force unanimously approved a recommendation by city staff to require certain areas earmarked for residential development to have at least 10 percent of homes priced as affordable.
“I think it is a policy expansion that takes into account a much broader realm of housing needs within our community,” City Planning Manager Bill Faus said. “I think it reaches down further to grab hold of the housing needs of individuals that are in the low-income to very-low income categories of our community.”
The task force’s original policy recommendation, submitted at the beginning of the year after 18 months of review, encouraged the 10-percent minimum but did not mandate any level of affordable housing, according to Bill Reimal, a task force member and developer.
“The language we had sent up was more permissive,” he said, adding that he thought the stronger language is “acceptable.”
The task force is an advisory group, but city officials chose to allow the group another round of review since the 10-percent mandate is a “significant” departure from the original recommendation, Faus said.
Council members directed staff to incorporate the baseline requirement in the wake of a lawsuit alleging that Gilroy’s planning policies violate fair housing laws.
The city emerged victorious from that case in November, although councilmen continue to decry soaring home prices and the shortage of homes within reach of lower income levels.
Officials hope to even out the mix by incorporating the 10-percent minimum into the Neighborhood District Policy – a set of guidelines that will govern 1,400 acres that make up the vast majority of land earmarked for new homes in Gilroy.
Combined with a proposed increase in the number of homes allowed per acre, officials hope the 10-percent minimum will spur a greater number of smaller units naturally priced at lower levels.
City councilmen are expected to vote on the Neighborhood District Policy by May 16.
