Cities To Swap Cash For Meeting Housing Requirements

San Mateo County, lodged between San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties, had the worst record in affordable housing production in the Bay Area (see Planetizen link)this year. Requirements are determined by Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the regional planning agency for the 9-county Bay Area. A county-wide planning organization, City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG), is working out the new plan to boost housing production within the county.

"ABAG will hand down new housing requirements for very-low-income, low-income, moderate-income and above-moderate-income housing in mid-2007. Countywide, cities fared poorly in achieving the last set of targets established in 1999; only 52 percent of the required units were built countywide, the lowest percentage of any county in the Bay Area, according to a report from Mark Duino, (San Mateo)county manager of special projects"

“Now we can look at the entire county to work out where the affordable housing really makes sense, rather than dictating to cities what they should do,” Hillsborough Vice Mayor Kitty Mullolly said.

Few rules have been set for the new group, though C/CAG will work with city managers, planners and other officials to establish some ground rules."

"Although ABAG officials said they don’t know what the new housing requirements will be, it should amount to the sum of what each city would be asked to build, Kirkey said. In 1999, ABAG required 16,305 new units be built by 2006. Of those, 8,443 were built â€" something officials are anticipating will change."