As part of the Oakland Community Investment Alliance (OCIA) led by East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), Public Advocates continues to push for a strong housing impact fee on new market-rate development to help fund affordable housing. Specifically, OCIA called for $24,000 per market-rate unit.
After a year of work on a “nexus study” and feasibility assessment, a long awaited proposal for impact fees finally got its first hearing at City Council’s Community & Economic Development (CED) Committee meeting on February 9th. But on March 22nd, the CED Committee voted to recommend an impact fee that fell short on a number of counts: it redirected some of the funds away from low- and very low-income housing to moderate-income housing, it incentivized on- or off-site units for moderate-income households as an alternative to the fee, and it included a reduced fee for large swaths of the city that are poised for major new development, including the Coliseum City area, potentially steering development to communities that are particularly vulnerable to displacement.
The full City Council voted in April to approve the impact fee, which will reach $22,000 per unit in most of the city. It also capped the percentage of impact fees that could be used for moderate-income housing at 15 percent.
Documents
- Letter to the City regarding the impact fee and NOFA (March 18, 2016): oakland_impact_fee_and_affordable_housing_funds
Articles
- “Housing Groups Slam Proposal to Redefine Affordable Housing in Oakland,” East Bay Express (March 23, 2016), quoting David Zisser: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2016/03/23/housing-groups-slam-proposal-to-redefine-affordable-housing-in-oakland?utm_content=buffer8f18a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
