Last month the Metropolitan Transit Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments presented the CASA Compact, a 15-year policy package to confront the Bay Area housing shortage. The compact presents a 10-point plan for housing production, preservation and renters’ protections that was developed by a group of mainly non-elected, self-interested housing industry and policy advocates. The document purports to be a prescription for future mandated housing legislation, taxation and financial penalties that the state will impose on cities that do not comply. This mandate is all within a framework that creates a new Regional Housing Enterprise bureaucracy and costs taxpayers an additional $1.5 billion a year in fees and taxes. The CASA Compact team, while well intentioned, did not account for the fact that progressive local jurisdictions were already successfully advocating for many of these changes within our communities.
In 2011, San Mateo County was producing about 24 jobs for every one new unit of housing. We were in the Bay Area’s most explosive growth region and saw the immediate result of a stagnant housing supply. In response, San Mateo County leaders joined forces with local elected officials to create the Home For All initiative and, for the past five years, it has been laser focused on helping cities evaluate and implement strategies that effectively develop more housing options at all income levels. These strategies have included implementing affordable housing linkage fees on new development or requiring developers to include affordable units in new projects, easing restrictions on new accessory dwelling units, contributing land for low-income housing and helping cities bring residents together and find common solutions to increase the supply of workforce, senior and affordable housing. San Mateo County has also invested more than $100 million in new transit-oriented affordable housing projects.
Why is this important? San Mateo County communities had no voice in the CASA Compact process. Not a single elected from San Mateo County was included on the leadership team, steering committee or technical committee which is frustrating as many small cities were already taking the initiative to craft viable housing solutions for their communities. Some cities are allowing teacher housing, others are embracing renters protections to limit gentrification, while some, like Burlingame, are updating their general plans to allow for up to 20 percent more growth near transit while protecting the character of existing single-family neighborhoods. The result of the last five years of this work is that the county jobs/housing gap has been reduced to 7:1 and at the county alone, more than 4,400 new units of housing have been developed or permitted in the last three years.
MTC is now taking their show on the road in San Mateo County. At one recent meeting, many local officials were dismayed and frustrated that a group of housing industry executives, large nonprofit leaders and mega-city mayors would advocate for state laws that mandate a one-size fits all solution which imposes excessive new taxes, strips local officials of zoning authority and project review, and requires rent control — the expansion of which was resoundingly rejected by voters both at the state level in 2018 and in several local elections over the past few years. The CASA Compact has provided a comprehensive set of tools available to cities that can expedite housing development — let the cities select from these options the ones that work best in their community and start there. On several occasions, the governor and MTC have noted that non-compliance would result in a takeaway of public transit funding. This threat is not productive and does not recognize the hard work that local agencies are doing to meet housing demands. The risk we run is that the pendulum will swing and the voter momentum we now have will be lost.
We would invite Gov. Newsom to visit San Mateo County and see the progress we have made to close the jobs/housing gap. It is an opportunity to thank our residents who have committed to creating inclusive, diverse and welcoming communities. The San Mateo County Home For All Initiative exemplifies how bottom-up, grassroots, neighbor-to-neighbor conversations can move the needle on important public policy questions like housing.
Donna Colson is the mayor of Burlingame and a member of the Home For All Steering Committee since 2015. She also serves on the San Mateo County Housing and Community Development Committee.
Reject regional influence on a decision that should be local. I appreciated the article by mayor Donna Colson but she is being way to nice. I wish the public would be aware of these meetings where regional unelected bureaucrats try to shove this regional idea down our throats. Please let us know when the next meeting is scheduled anywhere in San Mateo County, I and many others I know will surely be there.
Completely agree! Wait, if Scott Wiener's housing bill Sen Bill #50 were to pass, that bill could affect our residential neighborhoods drastically. Sen Bill #50 is an application of CASA Compact.
Mayor Carlson: Thank you for shining a bright light on the recent actions taken by the MTC. Clearly their road map is ideologically driven and with at least one recommendation, rent control, counter productive. Rent control (soundly rejected by voters in San Mateo, Burlingame, and Pacifica) does nothing to improve the jobs - housing imbalance which is the underlying cause of the high cost of housing in our area.
The highest single contributor to the high cost of housing in this area is the unbridled expansion of commercial office space in this area.
Providing quick and convenient mass transportation from the central valley, with its relatively affordable housing, to the the bay area would help but Sacramento can't seem to figure out how to do this. If the current complement of public officials were in charge in the 1800's the transcontinental railroad would likely never have been built.
Thank you Mayor Colson for educating San Mateo County residents of this very real threat to our cities and wallets. CASA is also proposing a multi-BILLION dollar price tag to implement these laws. We already pay enough taxes to live in the peninsula. Why would we want to be charged more and worse, create a new bureaucracy to manage these billions in taxpayer money that CASA wants to collect from us? No thanks! I guess that's what happens when these so-called regional bodies get together and don't include everyone. It's a shame that San Mateo County didn't have a representative.
When you said, "In 2011, San Mateo County was producing about 24 jobs for every one new unit of housing." Were these new jobs being created within the housing industry i.e. construction?
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(8) comments
Reject regional influence on a decision that should be local. I appreciated the article by mayor Donna Colson but she is being way to nice. I wish the public would be aware of these meetings where regional unelected bureaucrats try to shove this regional idea down our throats. Please let us know when the next meeting is scheduled anywhere in San Mateo County, I and many others I know will surely be there.
Completely agree! Wait, if Scott Wiener's housing bill Sen Bill #50 were to pass, that bill could affect our residential neighborhoods drastically. Sen Bill #50 is an application of CASA Compact.
Mayor Carlson:
Thank you for shining a bright light on the recent actions taken by the MTC. Clearly their road map is ideologically driven and with at least one recommendation, rent control, counter productive. Rent control (soundly rejected by voters in San Mateo, Burlingame, and Pacifica) does nothing to improve the jobs - housing imbalance which is the underlying cause of the high cost of housing in our area.
The highest single contributor to the high cost of housing in this area is the unbridled expansion of commercial office space in this area.
Providing quick and convenient mass transportation from the central valley, with its relatively affordable housing, to the the bay area would help but Sacramento can't seem to figure out how to do this. If the current complement of public officials were in charge in the 1800's the transcontinental railroad would likely never have been built.
7:1 only counts as "closing the gap" if you expect most workers to live with at least 6 roommates, plus any children they may have.
Thank you Mayor Colson for educating San Mateo County residents of this very real threat to our cities and wallets. CASA is also proposing a multi-BILLION dollar price tag to implement these laws. We already pay enough taxes to live in the peninsula. Why would we want to be charged more and worse, create a new bureaucracy to manage these billions in taxpayer money that CASA wants to collect from us? No thanks! I guess that's what happens when these so-called regional bodies get together and don't include everyone. It's a shame that San Mateo County didn't have a representative.
The clowns at MTC were the ones that screwed up the Bay Bridge Eastern span replacement...CASA is a front for developers.
Thank you Mayor Colson. Your sincere compassion for this issue is evident.
When you said, "In 2011, San Mateo County was producing about 24 jobs for every one new unit of housing." Were these new jobs being created within the housing industry i.e. construction?
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.