Moving Gilroy Forward in 2021

To my council colleagues, city staff, and the public I am very excited to be a part of the many changes coming to Gilroy this year. I will continue to bring to these meeting not just the views of myself but those of my constituents. We have many policies and practices that need to be updated to 2021 standards and fortunately these are finally coming with the recent adoption of the General Plan 2040. Legislating policy in house often times doesn’t require budget allocations, and many best practices are already open sourced. Our entire Zoning Ordinance will be amended to meet the standards of our general plan too, and I look forward to being a part of that process. 

I’d like to find some common ground when it comes to homelessness, affordable housing, climate action, streamlining business permits, technology implementation, and most important our human capital or our employees. Many of these issues we can’t solve alone, and we need to leverage partnerships that currently exist and be flexible when it comes to new partnerships. Many organizations have a for-profit and non-profit side of their business structure. The non-profit side can obtain grant funding for the city and often times are more in touch with grant funding opportunities in places where we aren’t. 

For homelessness, the community has partners like the Gilroy Compassion Center and St. Joseph’s already, but we need to learn how we can become better partners. Destination Home has provided $1.4 million to Gilroy residents since the pandemic began March 2020, that directly prevented homelessness. As stated at a recent Gilroy Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization Committee meeting by Compassion Center’s Tim Davis “Funding is not the biggest obstacle, it is the political will.” We do know the right policies and programs to end homelessness. 

For affordable housing, we have a partnership with HouseKeys, who currently manages our below market rate housing and has brought in just shy of a million dollars recently to Gilroy. We can work with them to further strengthen our housing options for all residents of Gilroy and make changes to our housing policies with items like a housing inclusionary ordinance which requires a percentage of affordable housing to be built in all developments. 

For climate action we can utilize REACH building codes that require all electric construction of new buildings, join the other cities within Silicon Valley Clean Energy and adopt clean building codes that keeps cost of construction low, prevents pollution, and utilizes the grids clean energy. Installing infrastructure to City assets like solar and EV charging capabilities will move us in the right direction. Grant funding is available. State Law is once again ahead of us by requiring EV capabilities in multi-family residential and commercial developments but we still have time to further strengthen it and set a good example. 

For streamlining the business permit process, we need to cut out the parts that slow down the grand opening days for a business. It’s not a fair playing game when a potential business that knows a council member can get special attention, while those that don’t have any connections are subject to delays. After completion of the building checklist, the business should be allowed to open, and not prevented from opening their doors based on subjective findings. When we remove barriers to opening businesses quickly, then local jobs of all incomes will be more readily available. Everyone should have access to jobs that pay a living wage, and the ability to expand their skills. 

Lastly, we need to continue to invest in smart technology and human capital of our workforce. Our ability to manage our assets and infrastructure by email, phone calls, and log books needs to be in the past. We have a GIS based asset management program called Cityworks that’s not being used to its full potential and our public works crews don’t have that technology at their fingertips yet. This program can take our entire recent citywide sidewalk inspection, and build out budget requests to enhance our sidewalk program. We currently can’t take care of an aging city and at the same time future projects that are here at our doorstep today.

Hear my full statement in English & Spanish above.

Housing For All in Gilroy

We are in a housing crisis and the dream of owning a home is not a realistic opportunity for everyone. We need to continue to promote all options for housing solutions that benefit everyone. Gilroy must continue to promote the development of more affordable housing for all income levels while looking at creative polices that we can control to make them more livable, bikeable, and walkable. State standards like SB 330 and SB 35 that streamline housing by requiring City’s to adopt a checklist and design standards allows for needed housing to be developed at a lower cost, quicker, and efficiently. 

Recent State changes to the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) process supports the building of ADU’s on single family and duplex residential lots while having the additional option for junior accessory dwelling units. As more residents want to age in place, having the option to move into a smaller unit on your property while being able to rent out the larger home, allows income and stability for you to stay in your neighborhood. The building of ADU’s in multi-family developments like in single family lots will provide additional needed housing by infill. Our housing crisis is not going away soon, and many of these ADU’s are needed for the “missing middle” who need housing too. Around the Downtown there are many examples of 2-5-unit complexes that were built many years ago, and simply you aren’t allowed to make those conversions today. Those types of units are needed for the “missing middle”, and address the root cause of the housing crisis, there aren’t enough homes.  

                     

The goal of CA Senate Bill SB 330 and SB 35 are to streamline the residential development process, and still allow cities to develop clear objective standards. Gilroy needs to take full advantage of it now. Otherwise whatever a developer proposes based off of our current standards, it will automatically be deemed complete on submittal. Many Cities across California including our neighbors, established their design standards checklist at the end of 2019 before the law went into effect. The City of Gilroy and Gilroy City Council have not done this yet, and should have done this back in 2017 when SB 35 was signed into law. A recently proposed affordable apartments project at the southwest corner of Hecker pass and Santa Teresa, wouldn’t have to conform to City Council’s objective standards because it can become vested prior to those standards being adopted.

California has a housing supply and affordability crisis of historic proportions. The consequences of failing to effectively and aggressively confront this crisis are hurting millions of Californians, robbing future generations of the chance to call California home, stifling economic opportunities for workers and businesses, worsening poverty and homelessness, and undermining the state's environmental and climate objectives. 

                                   

In 1969 a state mandate called the Housing Element and Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA was created. As part of RHNA, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, determines the total number of new homes the Bay Area needs to build—and how affordable those homes need to be—in order to meet the housing needs of people at all income levels. Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), working with the Housing Methodology Committee, then distributes a share of the region’s housing need to each city, town and county in the region. Each local government must then update the Housing Element of its general plan to show the locations where housing can be built and the policies and strategies necessary to meet the community’s housing needs. Ours from 2015 is located here https://www.cityofgilroy.org/DocumentCenter/View/6022/Residential-Land-Inventory---November-2015?bidId=  According to our general plan we should be updating this annually.

We are currently meeting the above moderate above 120% AMI. However, the City is not meeting the RHNA goal for affordable housing below 80% AMI. Therefore, at this time, projects providing on-site affordable housing at 80% AMI are eligible for streamlining in Gilroy provided they meet all of the eligibility criteria.

AMI – 2019 Area Median Income in Santa Clara County 

In 2019, the Area Median Income (AMI) for a four-person household in for Santa Clara County, as defined by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) was $131,400. Based on this, the following are the income limits for the various affordable housing categories (family of four): 

• Extremely Low Income (ELI) 0–30% AMI – $43,900 

• Very Low Income (VLI) 31–50% AMI –$73,150 

• Low Income (LI) 51–80% AMI – $103,900 

• Moderate Income 81–120% AMI - $157,700 

• Above Moderate- Above 120% AMI 

Cities and counties subject to SB 35 streamlining provisions when proposed developments include ≥ 50% affordability. Gilroy is one out of 221 jurisdictions that has insufficient progress toward their lower income RHNA (Very Low and Low income) and are therefore subject to the streamlined ministerial approval process (SB 35 (Chapter 366, Statutes of 2017) streamlining) for proposed developments with at least 50% affordability. 

Here’s the numbers below in a chart. As you can see, your feelings of building residential units in Gilroy is happening too fast are validated. We need housing in all categories built but we need a balance for all levels of affordability. RHNA total allocated 1088 units, we have built 1698, with a remaining 610 to build in the right categories needed. We are not on pace to meet our RHNA numbers.

City of Gilroy Planning Progress 62.5% 

Planning Period 8 years 2015-2022 

Affordability Type	RHNA Housing Units Allocated by ABAG/HCD	Permitted	Left	Percentage Complete
Extremely Low-Very Low 0-50% AMI	236	63	173	26.69%
Low 51-80% AMI	160	487	0	304.38%
Moderate 81-120% AMI	217	24	193	11.06%
Above Moderate above 120% AMI (Market Rate)	475	1124	0	236.63%

Solutions: I think a better way to meet the general plan goals of publicizing the residential sites inventory and facilitate infill development would be to have a 1-2-page document on the landing page of our city website that has all the latest information in it. Including links to all the different sub-sections of the community development website, like zoning, accessory dwelling unit (ADU) checklist/state law info, “objective” standards checklist for residential development, checklist for residential development, info on streamlining development using SB 330/SB 35,  planning, and etc. That would be easier for a developer and resident  (that doesn't already have a seat at the city’s developer’s roundtable) to find out all the information, and for the public to be educated with current state law. We need to update our residential sites inventory annually and promote that.

I want to be able to promote what's available for builders in Gilroy as well. I meet developers and investors often at conferences and meetings. It would be nice to always be able to refer to a link that has all the information in one document. I think it's important to keep reminding the residents of recent state laws and why we are required to grow as a community with housing through an organized fashion. But also, to educate them as to why we need to promote certain types of affordable housing over others to meet the RHNA numbers. 

Adequate Bike Parking in South County

The message was clear from the Bay Area Public Health Officers during the shelter in place issued regarding COVID-19.  Remember to get out for a walk or bike ride.  This was mentioned at many of the press conferences by the Bay Area Public Health Officers. Spending time outside improves mood and well-being, and is particularly beneficial to children. You can go for walks, go to the park, and engage in other similar activities, but you should maintain social distance (more than six feet away from persons who are not part of your household) to avoid spread of the virus.

I couldn’t agree with them more.  In Gilroy we have plenty of off-street bike/ped trails and more that are planned for construction.  Whether you live on the east side, west side, or central, we all have access to these trails.  If you don’t know where they are, check out our website that’s available in English/Spanish.  https://www.cityofgilroy.org/280/Bicycle-Pedestrian-Commission   

The Gilroy BPAC hasn’t lost any momentum and remains committed to advocating for all the projects and policies that we have been working on.  Once City Hall opens back up, we will hit the ground running. This is how government works. Disasters will always happen and government has to react, that's why we try and get as much done during good times.  We are always working on projects and ideas behind the scenes.  Connecting virtually with other advocates around the world is what we are used to. 

In my last column I wrote about the Gilroy Bike Parking Ordinance that I drafted and the Gilroy BPAC approved in January 2020.  Going through my first shelter in place, it has become an even higher priority that we have adequate bike parking for our community.  We don’t have any zoning requirements for bike parking in Gilroy.  The goal of CA Senate Bill SB330 is to streamline the residential development process, and still allow cities to develop clear objective standards. Gilroy needs to take full advantage of it now. Otherwise whatever a developer proposes based off of our current standards, it will automatically be deemed complete on submittal. 

As a South County advocate, I am teaming up with Bike Therapy Owners/Morgan Hill residents Doug & Jodi Hall to make some incremental changes that I think will benefit us all.  Morgan Hill's zoning requirement for multi-family residential is 1 long-term space for every 5 units (regardless if it’s a studio to three bedroom). Do you think that’s enough? Why shouldn’t every unit have access to a long-term bike parking space or better yet each bedroom? In today’s housing market not all families will be able to own a home, and some will stay in these apartments indefinitely. Families, young adults, and seniors all need a safe place to store their bikes and incentives to not drive their cars.

Bicycles are essential transportation for many who need to get around during the coronavirus outbreak. This might include traveling to essential jobs, running crucial errands, or participating in mutual aid for vulnerable people who cannot leave their homes. I am connecting Gilroy & Morgan Hill residents who have an extra bicycle to residents who need one. Whether you have a bike or need a bike, we will match you. If your bike needs a little TLC before it’s ready for a new home, please consider reaching out to a local bike shop to service it. https://bit.ly/BikeMatch 

Until our local government is back open, take care of each other and your health.  Get outside and enjoy the great weather in Gilroy.  Support your local restaurants and café that remained open for to-go orders.  Most have great front row bike parking when you pick up your orders.  If they don’t, then ask them to reach out to me for a free consult.  #GilroyBPAC