HOUSING SUPPLY AND AFFORDABILITY

ISSUES

The lack of an adequate supply of housing in the Bay Area is widely recognized. Strategies are needed to improve the supply and affordability of needed housing.

A locality that restricts or severely limits housing may cause spill-over effects into neighboring communities. Greater cooperation between communities can relieve tensions and serve the larger goal of providing an adequate supply of housing affordable to all the region’s residents.

OBJECTIVES

There are three major objectives in providing adequate housing:
  1. Promote fair and equal access to housing for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age, national origin, or family status.
  2. Strengthen interjurisdictional efforts to ensure a fair, equitable and rational distribution of low-income, moderate-income and special needs housing throughout the region and subregion consistent with land use policies, transportation services and employment locations.
  3. Facilitate the development of affordable housing near areas with superior transit service.

POLICIES

The following subregional policies are intended to maintain and improve adequate housing supply and affordability. 		Choices given for Policies


INCREASING HOUSING SUPPLY
  1. Encourage the designation of land near transit for multi-family housing and neighborhood-serving uses.
  2. Encourage the development of special housing facilities, including small community care facilities for the elderly, mentally disabled, and dependent or neglected children, in residential and mixed-use zones near transit and other services.
  3. Promote the provision of a range of unit sizes, types and lot designs in major new developments.
  4. Promote residential development at or above the midpoint of the designated density range and discourage development at densities lower than the minimum density prescribed for each residential land use category.
  5. Promote the development of second units, and allow shared housing among unrelated adults in single family residential areas.
  6. Designate vacant office and industrial sites for residential use and encourage the reuse of older commercial or industrial buildings for residential or live-work space.
  7. Promote a variety of techniques for increasing the supply of housing such as:

  • incentives for development of multi-family housing with units large enough to accommodate families with children;
  • mixed use developments that combine residential uses with compatible commercial and industrial uses;
  • using air rights to construct housing over parking lots, etc.;
  • minimum density levels;
  • designating land for residential and workplace mixed use developments; and
  • incentives and guidelines for constructing residential uses above ground floor commercial establishments.

  • Establish employer participation programs and offer incentives to encourage employers to contribute in some way to housing that is affordable to its workers (sites, fees, actual units).

INCREASING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY
  1. Encourage coordinated local effort to jointly designate specific sites, including vacant buildings, for the provision of temporary homeless shelters, transitional housing, and housing for seasonal workers and to investigate private and public sources of funding for such facilities.
  2. Encourage the development of programs, such as joint development of affordable units by two or more localities, designed to provide housing for very low-, low- and moderate-income households.
  3. Encourage the construction and preservation of second dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.
  4. Establish a public/private partnership to ensure mutual understanding of subregional housing needs and practices of the development and finance market and to develop ways to improve housing production and lower housing costs.
  5. Promote programs whereby new residential projects involving demolition of moderate- or low-priced single family homes include an equal number of equivalently priced units in any replacement development, and ensure that previous residents are given first priority for occupancy.
  6. Promote the preservation of all existing affordable housing located near transit, and promote institutional and financial mechanisms to provide for additional affordable housing near all transit centers.
  7. Promote the use of new manufactured homes to realize potential cost reductions in housing.
  8. Establish an “inclusionary” program whereby new residential developments must provide a minimum percentage of units affordable to very-low or low income households, either on site or through the payment of in-lieu fees for the construction of affordable units.
  9. Establish housing impact fees on all non-residential developments including office, retail, and industrial uses to be used to assist in providing affordable dwelling units.

Mobility Back to Our Home Page Search Our Site Drop Us a Line Economic Vitality


Copyright © 1996-1998 ABAG. All rights reserved.
cl 07/21/99