Burlingame prioritizes preserving affordable housing, then production

Councilmembers supported the establishment of separate funding buckets — with $9 million for preservation, $3 million for affordable housing production and $2.3 million for city staff to work on existing affordable housing programs.

The City Council also approved a Notice of Funding Availability process for potential developers and partners, which sets up an application process for the funds with criteria like capacity, experience, design and amount of affordable units.

The affordable housing fund, which generates revenue via residential impact fees and commercial linkage fees, is a fluid account that the City Council can use at its discretion to fund projects that bolster the city’s affordable housing stock. If one pathway for affordable housing is deemed more productive, the City Council can choose to allocate more funding to it.

Vice Mayor Michael Brownrigg made it clear that while it’s typically considered safest and best practice when choosing development partners, the city doesn’t legally need to follow the NOFA process as it allocates out the affordable housing fund.

In fact, taking on slightly more risk when it comes to building new housing is what has made Burlingame so successful in the past, he said.

“I think we punch above our weight in housing and land development, because we don’t always follow the rules,” he said. “We don’t always layer on a bunch of red tape.”

When it comes to purchasing existing multiunit residential properties to keep the units naturally affordable, utilizing the NOFA process might be unrealistic, several councilmembers warned. That’s because the council-sanctioned procedures could simply take too long, leading to another applicant being awarded the property.

“This process would be too slow in a hot real estate market,” Councilmember Donna Colson said.

The council discussed the possibility of pre-allocating the preservation funding to an organization like the Housing Endowment and Regional Trust of San Mateo County, which could move more quickly on property purchases with council approval.

Ultimately, however, councilmembers said that the approval decisions made during the meeting would not preclude an organization like HEART from submitting a proposal for a $7 million to $8 million preservation purchase.

Preserving Burlingame’s naturally occurring affordable housing was delineated as a priority during prior meetings of the city’s Hope Community Advisory Committee, which identified obtaining affordable housing as quickly as possible the city’s top goal.

“One message that came through” Brownrigg said. “It was: do it now. People are hurting now.”