Siting affordable housing on the Bay Chapter's agenda

Affordable housing is essential to sustainable communities.

If we believe that all people, of all backgrounds and incomes, deserve a healthy environment, then healthy neighborhoods must include low- and moderate-income housing. Further, every community requires a range of service workers. If they can not afford to live near their work, they must commute longer distances, generating more air pollution and traffic.

Sierra Club Bay Chapter members have worked to get affordable housing approved and built, as part of infill and urban revitalization.

• In Berkeley, Outback Senior Homes, a 43-unit project including 42 very-low- and low-income senior units, is under construction on Sacramento Street. The Sierra Club opposed litigation by neighbors that would have limited the height to two stories in the area, which would have made this transit-oriented project infeasible.
• In southern Marin County, the Marin Group supported the affordable housing project at the Fireside Motel site, and helped to overcome neighbor opposition and solve difficult transportation access issues. The project was delayed because of financing problems, but will soon be under way.
• In downtown Novato, the mixed-use Whole Foods project will include seven very-low-income units, along with 118 market-rate units. The Marin Group conditionally supported the project, advocating a larger number of affordable units, maximum green-building features, and support for a local transit shuttle, but the City Council approved it without these features. The Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative is still trying to work out a way to get more affordable units.

In San Mateo the Loma Prieta Chapter negotiated with the developer of the Bay Meadows racetrack site to get an agreement that 15% of the 1,250 housing units will be affordable. Other amenities in the mixed-use, transit-oriented project will include green building methods and an expansion of local park space. (This project was among those highlighted in the Club's recently released "Building Better: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects") Chapter members also successfully opposed November 2005 ballot measures in Cupertino that would have restricted height, densities, and setbacks needed for affordable housing developments, according to Tim Frank, senior policy adviser for the Sierra Club's national Campaign to Build Healthy Communities.

Bill Smith, a former member of the Northern Alameda County Group Executive Committee, has worked on affordable-housing issues in the city of Alameda for 10 years. A major problem in that city is that voters in 1973 approved Measure A, which prohibits multi-family housing. Only single-family homes and duplexes are allowed, which means that affordable units are generally not feasible. Bill is leading the HOMES (Housing Opportunities Make Economic Sense) group in a campaign to modify Measure A to allow multi-family housing at Alameda Point, the redevelopment project on the site of the former Naval Air Station. Plans for the campaign are still being formulated, including whether it will be an educational effort or a ballot initiative. Bill has successfully raised $17,000 from the community for the campaign, including a $500 contribution from the Northern Alameda County Group.

Three members of the Marin Group Executive Committee are participants in the newly formed Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative, which includes affordable-housing, environmental, and social-justice advocates. The group's initial projects have included the Novato Whole Foods project and development of recommendations on land-use policies for the coming revision of the Marin Countywide Plan, now under way. Members of the Collaborative have held lengthy discussions to understand each other's problems and points of view. An interesting revelation is that affordable-housing advocates sometimes find themselves "used" by developers to promote undesirable projects, just as environmentalists' help is often requested by neighborhood groups who oppose good affordable infill projects.

Environmentalists and affordable-housing and social-justice advocates share a strong common interest in promoting healthy, livable communities. Efforts on specific projects have produced new ways of working together.

Marge Macris, member, Executive Committees of Bay Chapter and Marin Group