Belmont considers housing mitigation fee increase

Councilmember Davina Hurt agreed, noting ensuring competitive and comparable housing mitigation fees would benefit the city.

“I wanted to align my thoughts with Councilmember Lieberman. I was thinking along those same lines,” Hurt said.

Developers pay housing mitigation fees when building residential developments that do not include affordable housing units on site. The City Council in 2017 passed an Inclusionary Housing Ordinance establishing residential and nonresidential housing mitigation fees. The ordinance calls for new developments to build affordable housing units as part of the project or pay an in-lieu fee.

Lack of affordable housing remains a crucial issue in Belmont, with state laws pushing to make it easier to build affordable units amid a lack of options in many Peninsula cities. Belmont has a state-mandated 1,785 new housing units it must accommodate by 2030 as part of its Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA. A city staff report noted housing mitigation fees are vital to generating funding for new affordable units.

Vice Mayor Julia Mates noted that many people are priced out of housing options in Belmont. She wants Belmont to be a place where teachers and all types of professionals can live, rather than just a wealthy enclave. With so many people priced out of housing, affordable housing remains a priority for her and the council. She concurred that the current fee rates were too low and wanted to see something moving forward in the middle to high middle range.

“I think we need to bump it up a little. We don’t want to be the highest. We want to be fair,” Mates said.

According to a comparison of 2022 Belmont housing mitigation fees to other cities, a Belmont hotel pays $4.50 per square foot, office and industrial $13.47, retail and restaurants $5.61, while single-family residences and multifamily residents like apartments pay $22.45. All except the office and industrial fall into the lower range of the city’s 2017 estimated fee range and are well below the maximum fee levels. For example, San Bruno, Burlingame and San Mateo hotels all have fee rates above $11 per square foot, compared to Belmont’s $4.50 rate. Single-family and multifamily residents rates are also below San Bruno and Redwood City. Office and industrial fee rates for San Carlos, Redwood City, Burlingame and San Mateo are all above $20, while Belmont is at $13.47.

Finance Director Grace Castaneda said it was too early to tell what increased rates would be or how much revenue it would generate. She noted the special meeting was to confirm the council’s desire to begin planning for fee increases.

“It’s very much an initial where are we at?” Castaneda said.

Councilmember Tom McCune asked the city to study a residential fee option versus a nonresidential option and whether the options should be lower or higher than average.

“We might want to think about where we are relative to other cities,” McCune said.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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