Those who attended Hollister’s inclusionary housing ordinance workshop received a presentation on the various technical requirements, such as in-lieu fees, percent of required affordable units and design standards.
About 14 residents came to the workshop held at Veterans Memorial Hospital on Aug. 3, while 24 attended via Zoom.
The presentation was led by David Early of Placeworks, Inc., the firm hired by the city to develop the ordinance, which would require private residential developers to allocate a certain percentage of their project to affordable housing.
Affordable housing is based on an area’s median income (AMI), which in San Benito County is $101,923. The income categories vary depending on the size of a household, but the formula for affordability provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is as follows:
- Acutely low income: 0%-15% of AMI
- Extremely low income: 15%-30% of AMI
- Very low income: 30% to 50% of AMI
- Lower income: 50% to 80% of AMI; this designation may also be used to mean 0% to 80% of AMI
- Moderate income: 80% to 120% of AMI
Given this formula, a household in the county making $122,307 is considered moderate.
Early began by noting that Hollister is required to plan for 2,350 below market rate units by 2031. This means though the city is not required to build that many units, it needs to show the state it has prezoned to accommodate those units.
Overall, San Benito County was assigned the planning of 5,005 units, with 4,163 in Hollister, 754 in the unincorporated San Benito County and 88 in San Juan Bautista. Of those units, 22.2% are to be very low income housing units, 17.8% low, 18.9% moderate and 41.1% above moderate.
Early said there are misconceptions about what affordable housing is.
“People say ‘I don’t want affordable housing in my community, low income housing because I don’t want unemployed people, I don’t want homeless people, I don’t want people who aren’t pulling their share.’ That’s not what we are talking about,” he said. He noted that there are people in the community who have important jobs but still qualify as low income.
According to the workshop, some of the current draft ordinance requirements include:
- Any developer that builds 10 or more units for sale or rental needs to include 20% of affordable housing.
- Developers can pay in-lieu fees for fractional for-sale units only. For example, if they are required to build 22.75 affordable units, they may pay for the .75 unit rather than build one. Developers may pay in-lieu fees for all or any portion of affordable rental units. The fee would be set by the Hollister City Council based on a study and can be adjusted annually.
- The standards of the affordable units must be similar in size and proportion as market rate units and have the same access to common and open spaces.
While Hollister is drafting its inclusionary ordinance, Early said over 200 cities and towns in California have adopted such an ordinance. He said its benefits include increased housing equity and options, and more mixed neighborhoods throughout Hollister.
A question period followed the presentation, and attendees asked Early to clarify some of the data presented and how in-lieu fees are determined. One asked if prioritizing or setting aside affordable housing for San Benito County residents is allowed. Early said it was legal, but not part of the current draft ordinance.
In the final part of the workshop attendees completed a questionnaire about their preference on several requirements, such as a minimum percentage of affordable units required per development; how affordable housing units should be distributed across the different income levels; whether the affordability requirement should stay at 10 units; and whether parking standards should be reduced.
The city is planning to hold a study session on revisions to the draft ordinance but there is no set date.
City staff noted at the meeting that Zoom was having audio issues and said the video would be made available at a later date. Videos of previous workshops are available here.
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