SAN JOSE, CA - Convening for a rare and particularly contentious Monday session, the San Jose City Council rebuffed calls to immediately slow a monthslong push to require a portion of all new housing in the city be set aside for below market buyers. But while the council, in an 8-2 vote, agreed to take up a proposed draft of the controversial policy at its regular Dec. 9 meeting, what shape the plan will take and on what timeline remains less clear.
In a sour economy, many developers remain steadfastly opposed to the idea, saying any new rules would stifle construction. While the council voted in June to explore the idea, some council members have since loudly questioned whether enough has been done to seek out and listen to concerns from critics and the community. Others wondered whether Dec. 9 leaves enough time to answer such questions as when the policy would take effect and how it would affect projects already in the works.
"We don't seem to have reached a place where we have any agreement on this," said Mayor Chuck Reed after Monday's vote. "But we still have until Dec. 9 to work that out." Approval of an ordinance could come as soon as Dec. 16. Friday, the city's Housing Department will release a series of alternatives and recommendations for the council to weigh, including new proposals submitted Monday by Vice Mayor Dave Cortese. Those proposals, which cap nearly four months of meetings with developers, housing advocates and community members, then will be aired before city commissions and residents in a nearly a dozen more meetings.
San Jose already requires builders in redevelopment areas to set aside 20 percent of their market-rate projects for affordable housing or else pay a fee to build such housing elsewhere. San Jose has seen about 2,700 affordable units built in redevelopment areas since 1980 and about 17,000 citywide.
The proposal to expand so-called "inclusionary zoning" to the rest of the city came from Councilman Sam Liccardo, whose downtown district includes a significant amount of the city's affordable housing. This is the third time a citywide plan in some form has been proposed since the early 1990s. The council scheduled Monday's special meeting after councilmen Pete Constant and Pierluigi Oliverio raised questions about the timing of the proposal and the process the Housing Department used to craft it.
Both men, along with Cortese and Councilwoman Nancy Pyle, voted against seeking a policy this summer. Monday, both repeated complaints from previous meetings that discussion of the policy had been too narrow, failing to fully consider potential downsides. They also said meetings to date had not been adequately advertised and poorly attended. Because of their concerns, future outreach meetings now will be scheduled for 7 p.m. instead of 6.
"There was a quantity of outreach. I don't believe there was a quality of outreach," said Constant, the council's lone Republican, who often aligns himself with business interests. He and Oliverio cast the dissenting votes Monday.
In a hint of the passion awaiting council members next month, several dozen people, ranging from neighbors to builders to housing advocates, joined the debate Monday. They quickly expanded what was supposed to be a discussion on when and if to schedule a vote into a philosophical talk about affordable housing.
Just as opponents invoked the economy to buttress their claims, so did those who support the plan, saying tough times make providing affordable housing more important than ever. "Have there been hitches? Undoubtedly. We'll have more opportunities to do more outreach," Liccardo said. "But what we've seen is that inclusionary zoning works. It produces a lot of units, a lot of housing, for families who need it."
Source: MercuryNews.com