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By Annalize Freimarck. San Jose Spotlight.
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Campbell is adjusting its affordable housing policy in hopes of creating more homes and raising more funds for development, despite an official recommendation not to do so.
Last week, Campbell City Council voted 4-1 to expand its inclusionary housing policy, which would require smaller projects to convert at least 15 percent of homes into affordable housing or contribute to the city’s housing efforts. The change applies to projects with five or more homes, lowering the current threshold of 10 or more homes, and is expected to generate about $237,000 annually. Campbell will implement it in about a year. Vice Mayor Sergio Lopez voted against it.
Last month, council members opposed the Planning Commission’s unanimous recommendation to keep the threshold the same. The recommendation was largely because commissioners said they were unclear about the ramifications of the policy change. Some commissioners also said it could hinder development because small developers would have to pay an additional fee or shoulder the extra costs of affordable housing.
Planning Commission Chairman Alan Zisser said commissioners needed more time to understand and analyze the important policy, leading to the recommendation against it. Zisser, however, said he accepts the council's decision.
“That’s the beauty of the system: We can disagree and it will go to the council,” he told San José Spotlight. “Sometimes the council has more information and is the one who makes the final decisions.”
Mayor Susan Landry said she voted for the change because building more affordable housing is critical, adding that council members sometimes disagree with the commission's recommendations.
The policy nexus study concluded it would not harm city development, but Landry said if it did, the council can make adjustments during its annual reviews.
“The hope is that we basically start to accumulate money and units to help our housing,” Landry told San José Spotlight. “We have people who desperately need housing, and it’s been shown that in order to build affordable and low-income housing, you need some type of financial support or subsidies. And this is one way to accomplish those goals.”
Campbell could advance its housing goals with the policy change. The city aims to create 3,870 units by 2031 to meet state mandates, 1,542 of which must be considered affordable for low-income residents.
Residents do not fully support the change.
Raja Pallela, a Campbell resident since 2018, said she worries about the policy’s effect on a lack of middle-class housing — affordable housing for residents who make too much to qualify for low-income housing but not enough for market-rate housing. She said the lack of middle-class housing often shows up in projects with five to nine homes, which developers can avoid building because of the policy change’s limitations.
“(Middle class) wages, considering the Bay Area, are not very high. They can’t afford a traditional, full-fledged single-family home, but these are couples and young people,” he told San José Spotlight. “By doing this, the city has eliminated the opportunity for young families.”
Vice Mayor Lopez voted against it because he shared similar concerns about the lack of middle-class housing. He supported the other aspects of the policy, including charging $9 per square foot on new commercial buildings, and said he is proud of Campbell's progress on housing.
“What the discussion showed is that Campbell is moving forward in terms of making a commitment to housing and there is no turning back,” he told San José Spotlight. “The progress we have made in that area over the last four years has been really tremendous.”
Campbell has some affordable housing projects underway on major thoroughfares. VTA is working with Campbell to bring 90 affordable apartments to the Winchester light rail station. Another project will add 12 tiny homes near Campbell Park.
Zisser wants politics to succeed.
“We haven’t done a good job in the past when it comes to collecting compensatory fees that we could use to encourage and get affordable housing developed,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll accomplish that without developers thinking it’s too high a price to develop.”
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