Wine Country IRP

Wine Country Inter-Regional Partnership

Existing Conditions
These following factors have contributed to the jobs/housing imbalance in the Wine Country region:

Wage Growth and Change. In the Wine Country, the influx of high wage jobs associated with the dot-com boom along the US-101 corridor overlaid an existing employment base dominated by low-wage jobs. The loss of these jobs has returned the economic base to reliance on tourism, the wine industry, retail and service sector activities.
Housing Cost Dynamics. The volatility of the Wine Country is now of such a nature that in 2004 the average cost of housing has increased by over $100,000 in a single year. With ever-shrinking income levels based on the real value of wages, buyers are looking across jurisdictional boundaries and regional boundaries to find affordable housing that meets buyers' needs.
Housing Affordability. The relatively low wages earned in the Wine Country region limit the ability of workers to enter the home-ownership market. The dramatic increase of housing prices within the Wine Country region have far exceeded wage gains and left housing unaffordable to the majority. Long distance work trip commutes will be inevitable if current patterns persist. Until building workforce housing becomes a priority on a level with other public need priorities, the conditions creating jobs-housing imbalance and separation will significantly worsen.
Workforce Housing Shift and Work-Trip Commute Impact. The Projections data show sub-areas of the Wine Country that stand out as contributing to the process of jobs-housing imbalance and separation. The Santa Rosa Metro sub-area and the Petaluma Metro sub-area will be the areas of employment concentration within the Wine Country area. The Calistoga and Saint Helena sub-areas will also be subject to a workforce housing shift because of the relatively high costs associated with each sub-area. The sub-areas that will provide locations for shifted housing supply are Cloverdale, Ukiah Valley, Middletown, Hopland, Lower Lake, and American Canyon.
Transportation Impacts. The most prevalent symptom of jobs-housing imbalance is the impact on the roadway system connecting sub-areas of high housing affordability with sub-areas where housing is significantly more affordable. Indeed, for the majority of the other IRPs statewide, the issues that triggered interest in pursuing an IRP work program were roadway congestion and safety issues.