How Bay Area Cities Are Dealing with the Housing Crunch

Last year, the Bay Area’s population increased by over 90,000 residents. The 2015 median price for an existing single-family detached house in the region was $1.25 million.  It's not just San Francisco or San Jose, writes Bay Area preservation architect Holan. Other Bay Area cities are confronting the shortage of affordable housing in different ways, and confronting backlashes against increased density and new market housing: 

Oakland – historically the affordable housing bastion in the Bay Area — has finally caught up with other cities and is experiencing a severe housing crunch.  With an influx of residents priced out of San Francisco’s market, housing prices in Oakland are some of the highest in California.  Many long-time residents are being displaced by newcomers.  According to Arlene Baxter, a Bay Area residential Realtor, Oakland rents are rising even faster than home prices.  Last week, the Oakland City Council passed an emergency 90-day moratorium on rent increases in order to study their crisis.  Last month, the Council adopted new housing regulations to ease requirements for adding secondary dwelling units.

Other East Bay cities, too, are deregulating to increase density.  Berkeley’s seven new multi-unit, high-rise projects have residents in an uproar about increased traffic and loss of bay views.  Albany is adopting a new General Plan which significantly increases density around transportation modes.   In Contra Costa County, Concord, planners, developers, residents, and city officials  are arguing over the largest real estate project in Northern California:  the development of the former Concord Naval Weapons Station, a mothballed Navy storage depot.  A 2,200-acre community is planned with 12,000 new housing units that will reshape the entire region.

Holan continues, 

In response, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) will issue its Plan Bay Area 2040 in June, 2017, encouraging a balance between jobs, housing and quality of life in the Bay Area.  The need for direction as well as regional cooperation is critical if adequate transportation, open space, and historic resources are to be preserved.  As expected, some cities want growth, others don’t.  But desired or not, higher housing density is the future reality.

Another arrow in the arsenal of accommodating increasing growth is the increasing popularity and regulatory flexibility toward accessory dwelling units. Holan concludes that the housing crunch, and accompanying conflict to accommodate it won't go away soon.  However, it will increasingly dominate the policies of local government as well as the skylines of Bay Area cities.