DATE April 26, 2022
TO CITY OF COTATI PLANNING COMMISSION
ATTN Noah Housh, Director of Community Development
FROM Doug Elliott
OF WORK FORCE HOUSING ASSOCIATES
REGARDING PA # 21/6 COTATI STATION – PROJECT OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW Cotati Station is an approved 74-unit housing project on Santero Way with 5000 square feet of commercial space.
HISTORY The project, developed by the Colvin Group, the developer of Cotati Station Phase One on Santero Way envisioned Cotati Station Phase Two as an affordable housing project, to be built with tax credit equity, local and regional financial subsidies. Bridge Housing https://bridgehousing.com was in contract to purchase the property and build the project.
After two years of effort, they were unable to secure the necessary public financing to proceed.
Subsequently, Douglas Elliott of Elliott Associates, doing business as Work Force Housing Associates (WFH) entered into contract to purchase and develop the property, dependent on revisions to the current approvals to make the project and financially feasible as a market rate project geared towards work force housing- ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES Page
71 CENTRAL AVENUE, SUITE 2, SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA 94965-2337 DIRECT LINE: (415) 717-3515 EMAIL: [email protected] 2 the “missing middle”, households that earn too much to qualify for low-income housing and too little to afford market rate housing. WFH was the developer- before constructionof the small lot single-family project on the immediately adjacent Breen Way and of the townhouse & single-family housing at the corner of East Cotati Avenue and Lipton Way.
REVISIONS In order for the project to be financially feasible, the unit mix needs to be revised from the unit mix required for tax credit affordable housing financing. The current approval project is comprised of 74 units as follows:
• 6 one-bedroom units
• 40 two-bedroom units
• 38 three-bedroom units
• 5000 square feet of commercial space.
The proposed revision maintains the identical buildings as approved, with no changes to the footprints, height, bulk, mass, site plan or overall square feet. The modifications are a reconfiguration of the interiors, where three-bedroom units are replaced with one and twobedroom units, for a unit mix as follows, as shown on the comparison chart below. • 58 one-bedroom units
• 33 two-bedroom units
• 7 three-bedroom units
• 5000 square feet of commercial space.
This unit reconfiguration accomplishes several objectives:
• It provides more entry level units that target the local workforce. The primary employers in the area generate jobs affordable to workforce level incomes. • It reduces the number of three-bedroom units that lend themselves to being utilized as dorms, with four of more students living in three-bedroom units. • It reduces the total bedroom count by 25 bedrooms, reducing impacts on all levels; less parking demand to impact the immediate neighbors and less traffic • And most importantly, along with some modifications to the conditions of approval, it makes the project financially feasible, so it can actually be built ad added to Cotati’s much needed entry level housing stock and goes a long way towards achieving compliance with Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) requirements.
ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES Page
71 CENTRAL AVENUE, SUITE 2, SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA 94965-2337 DIRECT LINE: (415) 717-3515 EMAIL: [email protected] 3 In an effort to value-engineer costs and improve commercial use viability the project includes the following requests for revisions:
• Reduction of approximately half the waterproof balconies • Differentiation of the commercial frontage to make it more easily identifiable as commercial space; different siding treatment, commercial fenestration, and awnings to differentiate it from the residential units sharing the same buildings.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
The current approvals include 14 units of deed restricted affordable housing. The project approvals were based on granting a density bonus by use-permit, rather than by SB35 state mandate, put complied with the SB35 requirements to allow a 35% increase in density, plus discretionary density granted by the City.
The revised affordable component provides 19 units of affordable housing, complies with the current State Density Bonus that provides for a 50% density bonus. A matrix of the current affordable component and revised distribution of affordable units is shown in the graph below.
ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES Page
71 CENTRAL AVENUE, SUITE 2, SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA 94965-2337 DIRECT LINE: (415) 717-3515 EMAIL: [email protected] 4 This revised affordable housing mix correlates closely to the unit mix in the current approvals, increasing overall affordable units from 14 to 19 and most importantly increasing the very low-income units from 5 units to 8 units. The current approvals allocate 29.2% of the project zoned density for affordable housing. The revised proposal allocates 39.6% of the project for affordable housing, a substantive increase in the affordable component of the project. The key metrics for comparisons are shown in the chart below:
ADDITIONAL
BENEFITS The revised project maintains the following benefits that are incorporated in the current approvals:
• Creation of a public community park, with a commitment to provide public art This revised application provides for public art expenditure up to $20,000 in total cost including installation.
• Creation of an overflow parking lot with 31 parking spaces. The project proposes to grade and pave that lot, with the City funding the lighting and landscape improvements.
• Construction of Depot Way, which provides an additional 16 parking spaces and connects Cotati Station Phase One and the current project with Santero way. • Increased road width. The improvement plans provide for widening Santero Way to reduce the current bottleneck and improve fire safety, which will allow Santero Way parking to be utilized by the community overnight. The roadway, as currently configured requires no-overnight parking on Santero Way, creating a negative impact for the local community.
• Improved fire safety by installation of new hydrants on Santero Way and the creation of a secondary EVA and evacuation route with direct access from Depot Way to East Cotati Avenue.
ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES Page
71 CENTRAL AVENUE, SUITE 2, SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA 94965-2337 DIRECT LINE: (415) 717-3515 EMAIL: [email protected] 5 PARKING We conducted a community meeting to inform the neighbors of the project specifics. The key concern raised at that meeting was the impact on parking. The parking impact was the primary focus of the letters the City received as well after public notice was circulated. The project significantly improves the neighborhood parking, both by widening Santero Way, which allows for overnight parking, and by creating more parking spaces overall. The new spaces provided are shown in the graphic below:
We calculated the current utilization of parking by the neighbors along the unimproved shoulder of Santero Way adjacent to our property and factored in the parking that would be eliminated when Santero Way is widened and presented that to the neighborhood. The net effect of our project will provide an increase of 59 additional parking spaces. This recap is shown in the chart below:
ELLIOTT ASSOCIATES Page
71 CENTRAL AVENUE, SUITE 2, SAUSALITO, CALIFORNIA 94965-2337 DIRECT LINE: (415) 717-3515 EMAIL: [email protected] 6 FISCAL IMPACTS The project will generate in excess of $2 million dollars of impact fees. The revised proposal includes the following requests:
• The City’s Housing Fund will pay the impact fees for the 10 very low and low-income units. Impact fees are approximately $30K per unit, which results in a City contribution of approximately $300K for an increase of affordable units from 14 to 19 units.
• To defer the balance of the impact fees to be paid at issuance of certificate of occupancy.
CONCLUSION The revised proposal provides a significant enhancement of the current approvals to the City, the local neighborhood impacts to the local workforce that in need of entry level housing and to increase the deed restricted affordable housing stock.
We look forward to presenting the project to the Planning Commission on May 2nd and to answering any questions and providing additional details.