February 15, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The City of Santa Rosa has agreed to major changes in its land use and zoning ordinances in order to bring its housing element into compliance with state law by the end of this year under the terms of a settlement agreement reached in a lawsuit filed by the Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group.

The settlement was announced today by the Housing Advocacy Group ("HAG"). Under the terms of the settlement, the City will simplify the approval process for higher density housing developments which reserve at least 25% of their units for lower income families. Developers will no longer be required to apply for conditional use permits for these types of developments. By law, cities must provide for housing by using their zoning power to accommodate a range of housing choices, removing local government obstacles to housing, and carrying out programs to assist in the development of affordable housing.

HAG spokesperson Margo Warnecke Merck said "the City's agreement to provide sites for development by right will save developers of affordable housing both time and money. This will encourage both private and non-profit developers to provide more units affordable to people at 80% or less of the city's medium income." The sites "by right" will apply to all land currently zoned for medium and medium high density in Santa Rosa -- land sufficient to hold over 3,000 units of housing where the developer agrees to reserve at least 25% of the units for lower income families.

Most of the housing built in recent years in Santa Rosa has been for upper income households. According to HAG, there were 1,100 new homes built in Santa Rosa in 2000. Of these, 1,030 were for above moderate income households. Middle and lower income families - 70% of the population - got only 7% of the housing built that year.

Stephen Harper, a retired stockbroker who is chair of HAG, said "clearly the city's housing programs and policies for developing a balance of housing for all income levels weren't working. We hoped the City would address these problems when they adopted the housing portion of the new Santa Rosa General Plan last year, but the Council decided to continue with the status quo. That left us no alternative but to file a lawsuit."

In addition to providing sites for lower income housing, the City has agreed to other changes in its housing policies including:

- specifying a site for an additional 40+ bed homeless shelter and assisting with its acquisition.

- encouraging development of "SRO" housing as a low cost option for some lower income persons living with with disabilities, seniors and seasonal farmworkers.

- the city will consider establishing a Housing Trust Fund which would receive funding from both public and private sources and which would support development of housing for lower income households. They will also consider imposing a fee on new industrial and commercial development to support development of housing affordable to the workers of in the new facility.

- the city will adopt other new policies to facilitate development of affordable housing, and housing for persons with disabilities and other special needs, including giving affordable housing developers priority for water/sewer hook-ups and facilitating site acquisitions for shelters and transitional housing.

Santa Rosa is the latest target for lawsuits brought by HAG recently. According to Margo Merck, HAG first tries to work with cities to get them to voluntarily comply with state housing mandates. "Santa Rosa has generally tried to encourage affordable housing over the years, but the housing crisis continues to get worse, and the City needs to double or triple the rate of affordable housing production. We applaud the City Council for now agreeing to look for new approaches."

Harper said "solving the housing crisis requires two things: land and money. This settlement will make a lot of land available for affordable housing in Santa Rosa. We hope the City will now address the need for money by instituting a Jobs/Housing Impact Fee and other funding mechanisms so that we can do more building. These impact fees have generated thousands of units of affordable housing in Sacramento and other cities which have passed them."

Attorneys for HAG included David Grabill of Santa Rosa, Neil Herring of Sebastopol, and Michael Rawson at the Affordable Housing Law Project in Oakland. The agreement provides that if the city does not carry out its commitments with respect to changing the zoning code and providing a site for a new homeless shelter, HAG can seek further court orders directing them to do so.

For further information contact HAG at 707 528 6811 or by e-mail to:

schag@egroups.com