SAN MATEO, CA - The San Mateo City Council has approved a 5 percentage point increase in the number of affordable units required in new housing developments. On Monday night, the council unanimously voted to bump up the required percentage of below market rate housing, or BMR, from 10 percent to 15 percent in residential development projects with more than 10 dwellings. Council Member John Lee said the move could give working people with modest salaries a rare opportunity to live in San Mateo. "There is so little affordable housing," said Lee, while acknowledging that the requirement could pose challenges for developers.
Under the ordinance, new developments with more than 10 for-sale units would need to make 15 percent of those homes available to families with moderate household incomes. Two-person households earning about $61,000 to $80,000 and four-person households with incomes of about $76,000 to $114,000 would fall into that category, said Sandra Council, the city's neighborhood improvement and housing manager.
New developments with rental units could either allocate 15 percent of apartments to lower income households or 10 percent to very low-income households. The changes will affect projects submitted after January 2010. Council said the city decided the move wouldn't drive developers into neighboring towns after hiring an economist to research the matter and interviewing real estate brokers and developers. She added that San Mateo's current BMR requirement is one of the lowest in the county. "Most cities had 15 to 20 percent, and we were at 10, we were just kind of meeting the trend," Council said. "We haven't seen it impact development in those cities."
The added cost associated with offering the more affordable units will likely lower land values by $2 to $21 per square foot, she added. The city will require developments with 10 or fewer units to pay a pro-rated fee, which will go to an affordable housing fund. "We have office building and retail in San Mateo that require people to work here, and they have to live someplace," Council Member Jack Matthews said. "By far the best solution is to have people live and work in the same community." But those hoping to score low-cost homes may have to sit tight. While the city estimates 350 such units will come onto the market in the next 10 years, the average wait is two to three years, Council said.
Source: MercuryNews.com