Fair Share 100K+, an environmentalist group, is trying to help the Bay Area provide homes for low-income residents.

November 16, 2000

By Lisa Vorderbrueggen

A new set of housing goals set to be adopted for Bay Area cities and counties tonight has spurred a coalition of environmentalists to launch a region-wide affordable housing campaign.

State housing officials have said the Bay Area needs to build 230,743 houses by 2006, with a third of those affordable to families earning $50,640 or less annually.

The Association of Bay Area Governments is expected to adopt a plan that distributes the numbers throughout the Bay Area. Under ABAG's allocation plan, Contra Costa, Solano and Alameda counties must plan for 100,184 houses, nearly half of the region's total. Santa Clara County has the highest obligation 57,991 units.

The latest set of numbers shifts some housing away from unincorporated land on the edge of cities into communities that have had tremendous job growth.

But there remains widespread discontent over the formula used to determine how many houses each city and county must accommodate.

Most city and county officials say the numbers are too high and unacceptable to their constituents.

ABAG is governed by a board of elected officials from throughout the Bay Area whose constituents are largely fed up with the effect of growth.

Many of the cities designated for thousands of units of affordable housing are already beset by traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and burdened public services.

And with every election, more communities adopt growth-control measures designed to stop sprawl.

But regardless of anti-growth sentiment, every city and county in the Bay Area is required by law to accommodate the number of houses determined in the fair share allocation process.

If ABAG finalizes the numbers, as it is expected to do, cities and counties will have until 2002 to revise the housing elements in their general plans.

"It is time to stop arguing about this and go out and do it," said Contra Costa Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier, who also serves on ABAG's executive board. "We have a regional problem and trying to move the numbers around through bureaucratic hocus-pocus isn't going to solve that problem."

Coinciding with ABAG's adoption of its plan is an effort being launched today called the "Fair Share 100K+," in which an environmental coalition hopes that by pushing communities to find room for affordable housing, the Bay Area can ease its housing crisis while helping the environment.

"In the old days, environmentalists worked to protect open space in one city only to see the housing travel to the Central Valley or elsewhere," said Stuart Cohen, chairman of the Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition, one of four groups involved in the project. "That outcome is no longer acceptable in terms of the impacts on transportation, air quality, families or the environment.

"The environmental community more than ever is going to start promoting growth in existing cities and ensuring that it is designed well and centered around transit."

The "Fair Share 100K+" Housing Campaign is being launched by the Greenbelt Alliance, Bay Area Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Urban Ecology and the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California.

It is designed to help Contra Costa and the rest of the Bay Area find room for affordable housing in their communities, said Tim Iglesias, spokesman for the Non-Profit Housing Association.

"We have to undo some of the mythology out there which says that density is ugly and bad," Iglesias said. "There are many examples of beautiful developments that are affordable and attractive."

They will argue for higher densities near BART and train stations, pedestrian-friendly design, mixed-use neighborhoods and other "smart growth" urban planning tools.

After the housing elements are finished, the coalition plans to push for the zoning changes needed to incorporate the new designs.

"It doesn't do any good to have a great housing element if the zoning prohibits good planning such as mixed-use and transit-oriented development that puts housing, jobs and retail within walking distance of each other," said Janet Stone, the Greenbelt Alliance's livable communities program director.

The coalition says it will also testify at public hearings in favor of developments that meet "smart growth" criteria.

The Greenbelt Alliance has already endorsed 68 housing projects in the Bay Area, most of them in the Silicon Valley.

"People think that environmentalists are opposed to housing, but to protect our greenbelt, we need to have housing in the appropriate locations," Stone said. "We're stepping up our efforts to shape urban planning. It's the only way that we make smart growth really happen."

To view your city's draft housing allocation numbers, visit www.abag.ca.gov and click on "Current Issues" and "Regional Housing."

Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers growth and transportation. Reach her at 925-228-6179 or lvorderbrueggen@cctimes.com.