Jobs-housing imbalance creates long commutes

Conference on March 25 will encourage regional
approach
by BARRY DUGAN, Managing Editor
Runaway housing costs and stagnant wages have created a dramatic
increase in the length and number of daily commutes made by workers
seeking affordable housing outside Sonoma County.
A new study of jobs and housing patterns in the four-county
region of Sonoma, Napa, Lake and Mendocino shows that while jobs in
the region increased by 31 percent in the 1990s, new home
construction increased by only 12 percent.
Average wages climbed from $21,000 to $33,000 during that time,
but came nowhere near to keeping up with the rapid rise in median
housing prices, which rose from $190,000 to $301,000.
The study released by a new regional planning group, the Wine
County Interregional Partnership (IRP), outlines a dramatic
increase in the number of workers commuting to Napa and Sonoma
counties from Lake County and the Ukiah corridor, where housing is
more affordable but jobs are scarce. The median value of a home in
Lake County is $128,000, less than half the regional median price
of $301,000.
Daily commute trips from Lake to Sonoma County increased from
990 to 1,415 during the 1990s, a 43 percent increase. Daily
commutes from Mendocino to Sonoma rose from 739 to 1,023, a 38
percent rise.
The increase was even more dramatic in Napa County, where
commutes from Lake to Napa increased by almost 200 percent from
1990 to 2000.
“It all adds up to added miles and hours of freeway and surface
street travel,” said Laurence Wright, program manager for the Wine
Country IRP. “People in all four of our wine country counties are
saying, ‘My children can’t afford to live here,’ and they want
something done about it.”
The Wine Country IRP will release the complete study at an
all-day March 25 “Stakeholder General Assembly” at the Villa
Chanticleer in Healdsburg. The group has invited elected officials,
industry and labor leaders and environmentalists to the day-long
event.
The goal of the conference is to get leaders from the public and
private sector to start thinking about regional approaches to the
jobs-housing problem, said Wright.
“We want both the public and the private sector to start
discussing and doing some joint planning across the interregional
and jurisdictional boundaries … efforts are now restricted to
individual areas and counties,” he said.
The Wine Country IRP conducted the study with a grant from the
California Department of Housing and Community Development, and
funds from Lake and Mendocino counties.
Guiding the process was an interim leadership team. Among the
members on the team was Allan Hemphill, a longtime Sonoma County
vintner, and a member of the North Coast Railroad Authority. “This
is an attempt to take the regional certainties of transportation
and housing and deal with them on a regional basis,” he said.
“We’ve witnessed in Sonoma County the commute from Marin to Sonoma
impacting Sonoma in a very big way as Marin tightened up housing
and encouraged big companies to locate there without providing the
housing … the same thing is happening now that we are importing
housing to Lake and Mendocino counties …. what the group is trying
to do is look at a solution to jobs and transportation
balances.”
Hemphill said the IRP wasn’t designed to provide specifics, and
the March 25 conference is intended to “get the dialogue going and
start the process. There will be some broad, general solutions. It
will be a chance to look at the myriad of things that might be done
about it.”
Projections for growth for the next 20 years will be presented –
but Wright declined to reveal any of those figures.
“The prerequisite disclaimer is that if everything stays the
same – there are no changes in policies, or building approaches or
densities – two things are going to happen. Work trip commutes are
going to get a hell of a lot longer and housing demand is going to
shift dramatically to areas where housing costs are low today. And
wage levels are going to be relatively flat with moderate to slow
growth.”
There is a $50 fee for the March 25 conference, which lasts from
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes morning refreshments, lunch and
copies of the presentation. To register, call 707-464-1859 or go on
line www.mendocinocog.org.