Millbrae working toward more affordable housing

During a March 14 City Council meeting, City Manager Tom Williams said the low-income category goal would have been met if high-speed rail’s need for parking space didn’t block a city approved project. The California High-Speed Rail Authority aims to create a fast railroad system to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles, with stops along the Caltrain line primarily on a shared, two-track configuration. One of its biggest stops is planned for Millbrae, where there is already a shared Caltrain and BART station.

“This is uniquely Millbrae and I think that story needs to understood because of the impact that high-speed rail has, it’s not going to be here for 30 years … and we can’t produce housing and that’s a blighted 8 acres adopted in high-speed rail’s environmental impact report for surface parking,” Williams said.

Not only is the city restricted on the ground but the area around the BART Station is in two of San Francisco International Airport’s runway flight paths limiting the height of buildings, Williams said on Thursday.

“The one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always work,” Williams said.

The city was short 31 units in the low-income category for its last RHNA cycle and Williams explained it would have exceeded the category by 42 housing units if the Millbrae Serra Station located at 150 Serra Ave. wasn’t blocked. The development was a 3.6-acre mixed-use development with plans to construct 444 housing units; 71 would have been low income units. It also provided more than 270,000 square feet of offices and up to approximately 30,000 square feet of retail space in three towers reaching up to 10 stories. It was entitled in 2019, according to the city’s website. Williams clarified the project was approved for 444 units and the City Council approved 10% more units, equaling 488. He believes if the project was able to proceed, the developers would have built the additional 44 units.

Additionally, Williams said one of the flaws in the California Department of Housing and Community Development is the city exceeded its market-rate goals of 257 units by permitting 314, however the excess goes unaccounted for the next year’s goals.

“So, Millbrae, as small as we are, has 57 units that are not counted for in the housing production … it just isn’t counted,” Williams said.

The city presented its annual progress report during Tuesday’s meeting and the state uses the information to determine the Senate Bill 35 category for the following year. Since the city met its market-rate goals but fell short in the affordable categories, city staff assume under the state law that HCD will determine all affordable housing developments streamlined under SB 35 next year will need to offer 50% affordable units. This is one way the city can catch up to its affordable unit goals.

Previously, the city was under 10% affordability for SB 35 projects because it was short in both affordable and market rate categories. Every year the annual progress report is used to collect the data from each city of the progress it made toward providing opportunities for affordable housing.

The city has also made its own efforts to bump up its affordable housing production. In 2021, it passed an inclusionary housing ordinance which requires all future developments to offer 15% of its base density units as affordable, 5% more than the state’s mandate. Any additional state granted density bonus doesn’t count toward the city’s 15%.

Some of those efforts in 2022 included the city entitled 654 housing units in two developments along El Camino Real. At 959 El Camino Real, a 278-unit building was proposed with 26 very-low-income units. At 1100 El Camino Real, 376 units are proposed, 19 of those units very low income. Gateway at Millbrae Station is an 11-acre mixed-use development at 200 Rollins Road on the east side of the BART station. It is proposed to have 320 rental units, 80 of them affordable, according to the city’s website. Williams said the developers applied for additional funding for the project through CORE National housing. During the application process, the Gateway project was one of 120 applications and only 11 were accepted.

“That’s not even 10%,” said Williams who added there needs to be another way to help subsidize affordable housing projects.

SB 35 expedites the development process by requiring the city to approve it without review and design standards. The bill allows for this if a city falls short in meeting its housing goals. Two SB 35 projects are being streamlined at 130-140 El Camino Real, a six-story building producing 30 housing units. 20 of those units are the base density and the other 10 is a state granted density bonus. The 15% inclusionary the city requires means 3 of those 20 base units will be offered for very-low income affordability levels. The other project, 1301 Broadway is another six-story building that will create 99 housing units, 14 of which will be offered for very low-income affordability level and five units at the low-income level.

nick@smdailyjournal.com

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