Healdsburg Ballot May Ask for More Market-Rate Housing

KRCB public radio ran an interesting piece last week on the lack of market-rate housing options in Healdsburg right now, and how “local rules passed over two decades ago… to protect Healdsburg from overdevelopment” seem to be making our housing problems worse. So city leaders might put some kind of item on our November ballot that would seek to “roll back or scrap the city’s growth management ordinance” — which was “approved at the end of the 1990s housing boom” — so that developers can come in and build more market-rate housing. They might focus on loosening the rules in certain parts of town, such as the mainly commercial corridor of Healdsburg Avenue. And “the second option would be to look at removing the income restriction for the middle income rental,” says Scott Duiven, Healdsburg’s community development director. However, city officials are skeptical that we the constituents will go for any of this. In the words of Stephen Sotomayor, the city’s housing director: “There have been a lot of questions raised by the community — everything from, ‘Where’s the water coming from?’ Concerns about height. ‘What about parking?’ ‘What about traffic?’ ‘What about the infrastructure?’ ‘Will it cater to the wealthy?’ ‘Will it be second homes and not for locals?’ [And] defining affordable housing and middle income. They are very good questions and they are very legitimate questions that community members have.” (Source: KRCB)