Sebastopol City Council
January 3, 2023

9 Kari Svanstrom
From: Collin Thoma <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2022 8:57 AM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: City of Sebastopol Housing Element
Attachments: City of Sebastpol Housing Element.docx
Dear Kari,
My name is Collin Thoma and I am the Systems Change Advocate with Disability Services and Legal Center. I have attached the comments I have made on the Housing Element.

My apologies for not getting this to you by 8/20/22 I thought I had sent it to you on the 20th but I just that it didn’t.

Sincerely.

Collin Thoma
Systems Change Advocate
Disability Services & Legal Center (DSLC)
521 Mendocino Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
(707)636-3076

Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

City of Sebastopol Housing Element
Dear City of Sebastopol Planning team,
My name is Collin Thoma and I am the Systems Change Advocate with Disability Service and Legal Center. My following comments are to highlight the needs and challenges that people with Disabilities face when it comes to housing.

One of the biggest challenges that people with Disabilities face is the lack affordable housing for those who fall into Very low and Extremely low-income categories. It would also be good to see some housing be designated as Acutely low income (0-15%) of the AMI. Many people with Disabilities fall into these categories as many rely on Social Security Insurance (SSI) and/or other public benefits. These benefits often pay several hundreds of dollars les the average rent in both the city of Sebastopol and County of Sonoma. Furthermore, these benefits may pay after rent is due resulting in late fees which will further reduce one’s budget for the month. These befits also often pay once a month so the recipient doesn’t have the luxury of getting paid every two weeks. Affordable housing is important so people are able to have money left over for food and other essential items. For people with Disabilities this can also include medical costs, to pay for services, to pay for equipment or assistive technology tools to help them with their disability.

The Workforce Housing Overlay program can be benefitable to people with disables as it presents a good opportunity for affordable housing development. In addition, being close to transit, shops, jobs and other amenities is important for people with disabilities. This because they may not be able to drive due to their disability and rely on public transit to get around.

Walking or rolling can also be much more convenient and faster than taking public transportation. The city should prioritize this program as well as other sites where mixed use can Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

be developed to maximize the city’s housing capacity. Another important priority should be to keep affordable units that are at risk of becoming market rate homes. The city should also provide incentives and encourage landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers and other housing vouchers. Many of our consumers and people with disabilities use these vouchers to obtain housing but is challenging since it can be hard to find a landlord that will accept them.

It is also important to make sure that homeless services are able to get people housed and to support them so they don’t fall back into homelessness. Homeless shelters should be reviewed to ensure they are acesaaible to people with Disabilities. An acesaaible shelter are able to support those with medical equipment such as an oxygen tank and/or use a mobility device. It is also important for shelters to provide access to wrap around services.

Another huge need is having acesaaible housing for those with mobility and/or vision disabilities. An easy way to create accessible housing is to use the Visitability method which requires 32-inch width doorways and pathways, a zero-step entrance with a slope no great then (1:12). Furthermore, bathrooms will have grab bars and climate controls, light switches are low enough to pressed by someone in mobility device. Visitability is similar to Universal design but has less extreme design requirements. This can make the home more appealing for abled body residents. Other benefits of a home build using Visibility it won’t increase construction costs and will allow us to age in place. The city of Petaluma passed their own Visitability ordinance and is a great example as it has width measures several inches greater than the minimum 32-inch requirement.

Walkability is to parks, shops and other amenities is another important feature of a neighborhood. An acesaaible and walkable neighborhood will have complete sidewalks with no sidewalk gaps. Crosswalks are high visible by being painted large bold stripes, and have curb cut Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

outs or curb extensions. They should be signalized and adequately timed as someone may need 20 seconds safely cross instead of 10 seconds. Streets should also be to designed to slow driver down by being smaller or have landscaping separating opposite sides of travel. This will make streets safe for everyone and especially for people mobility, vision, and/or sight disabilities. This is because they may use a mobility device which motorists may not easily see. Furthermore for those with sight and/or vision dishabilles they may not see or hear oncoming traffic. This is especially true in cases where they may need to go onto the street to avid heavy foot traffic or an obstacle on the sidewalk.

Thank You,
Collin Thoma
Systems Change Advocate
Disability Services & Legal Center (DSLC)
521 Mendocino Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95401
(707)636-3076

Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

12 Kari Svanstrom
From: Renee Schomp <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2022 4:17 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Cc: Elliott Pickett; Jane Riley; John Jay; Building
Subject: Re: Housing Element Public Comment | Sebastopol | Napa Sonoma ADU Center Attachments: Jurisdictional Support for ADU Services Napa Sonoma ADU Center_Apr 2022-Version 3.pdf; Menu of incentives to invest in development of affordable ADUs_Apr 2022.pdf Attachments!
On Fri, Aug 19, 2022 at 4:13 PM Renee Schomp <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello Sebastopol Housing Element team!
I'm reaching out to provide input on your Housing Element process as you continue the iterative drafting process.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions whatsoever, or want to hop on the phone to chat. Can you please share this with all other relevant parties as well? • When outlining ADU program plans in your HE for the beginning of the cycle versus two years into the cycle (if you're not hitting your ADU numbers) my recommendation is that you make a commitment from Day 1 to:
o (1) collaborate with a local entity "such as the Napa Sonoma ADU Center or other organization(s) providing ADU help/services to homeowners," and
o (2) link to the Standard Plans Program from your website and offer expedited permit approval and/or capped permit fees for pre reviewed ADU plans (for example, Cloverdale guarantees a 4 week ADU permit turnaround for pre reviewed plans and advertises that on their website here). City of Napa is likely going to offer a cap on permit fees for use of a pre reviewed plan.  Reminder: The Napa Sonoma ADU Standard Plans Program features 50 diverse ADU plans sets, half of which are pre reviewed based on input from YOU, our local jurisdictions -- and these plans help your city or county affirmatively further fair housing, including housing that is specifically designed to be accessible.  Also, ADUs & JADUs come in many shapes and sizes - we help homeowners build a wide range of units that create housing for our community, including the MicroADU 150 sf and Junior ADUs like the one Marian built in City of Sebastopol which allows her to age in place in the city (it cost her $10K to simply put in an efficiency kitchen to create the unit out of existing space in her house; she shares a bathroom with the main house.) o (3) when you update your webpage for ADUs, link to the Napa Sonoma ADU Center free online tools & resources, and if you'd like use the template graphics and materials we created for you which are located right here
• Then I recommend that in your Housing Element you indicate that if you are not hitting your target ADU numbers two years into the HE cycle, you plan to change your ADU ordinance to make it easier to build ADUs. Key changes I recommend are below my signature in this email. You can pick and choose just a couple that you prefer!
We have detailed recommendations for how to include ADUs in your Housing Element effectively available here plus attached are the two sets of recs we have for financial support of ADUs -- and I am available to answer any questions you may have at any time. We are here to support you!
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13 PLUS - if you really want to incentivize affordable ADU development, reach out to me for info on the San Diego model that has contributed already to development of WAY more deed-restricted affordable ADUs. It stands out from the crowd.

Warmly,
Renée
Adopt pro-ADU policies that go beyond state law
State law sets the minimum standards, but many homeowners do not build ADUs because local standards are still too restrictive. In fact, the State’s original intent was that jurisdictions go above and beyond the bare minimum that the state law sets out and enact local ADU ordinances that are more permissive than the state mandates. Successful options for adopting pro-ADU policies include:
• Allowing two-story ADUs (including with minimum setbacks) • ADUs on corner lots (or specifically having a four feet setback on street-facing side) • Front yard setbacks that match the main house
• Reduced side or rear yard setbacks
• No parking replacement required for any ADUs
• Larger ADUs
• Greater FAR
• Allow JADUs in an attached garage and define “attached” as “connected by a common wall, or by a common roof, covered walkway, carport or garage, not more than twenty feet (20') wide.” • Allow more ADUs than permitted by state law
Some successful local examples of pro-ADU local ordinances include:
• Cloverdale - allows 2 ADUs per parcel
• Rohnert Park - no parking replacement is required
• American Canyon - allows 3 foot setbacks
• Sonoma County offers a Cottage Housing Development program that allows multiple detached units clustered around a common open space. These proposals can be approved by staff with no hearings if they meet the relevant standards.
• Sonoma County defines Junior ADUs as being allowed as a conversion of existing space in the primary home or an attached garage and defines “attached” as “connected by a common wall, or by a common roof, covered walkway, carport or garage, not more than twenty feet (20') wide.” • Multiple local jurisdictions (but not all) allow electronic submissions & payment of fees electronically • Multiple local jurisdictions (but not all) don’t charge homeowners for time meeting with the planning department or other agencies regarding ADU rules and processes Similarly, jurisdictions may want to eliminate other barriers where appropriate by reconsidering costly and/or challenging obstacles to building an ADU that may not need to be applied to every single project. For example, many homeowners struggle with the cost and logistics of having a soils report or even a soils waiver completed for their ADU build. Consider whether this or other requirements are necessary for all projects. In addition, soils waivers alone (just the WAIVER) still generally cost over $1,000 and are challenging for some homeowners to obtain as VERY few professionals are willing to complete a soils waiver. To that end, jurisdictions may want to consider whether there is a soils waiver process that does not require the expense and challenge of hiring an outside professional.

Similarly, sewer connection fees, while generally waived for ADUs of less than 500 square feet, remain a very significant financial impediment to some homeowners on ADU projects over 500 square feet. Currently, Napa Sanitation District charges approximately $1,000 per 100 square feet over 500 sf. Our recommendation is that this fee should be waived for ADUs that are less than 800 sf and lowered for ADUs over 800 sf.

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14 --
Renée J. Schomp, J.D.

Director, Napa Sonoma ADU Center | [she/her]
Email: [email protected]
Website: napasonomaadu.org
Phone: 707.804.8575
To help protect your privacy, Microsoft Office prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.

Donate here to our nonprofit, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center. --
Renée J. Schomp, J.D.

Director, Napa Sonoma ADU Center | [she/her]
Email: [email protected]
Website: napasonomaadu.org
Phone: 707.804.8575
To help protect your privacy, Microsoft Office prevented automatic download of this picture from the Internet.

Donate here to our nonprofit, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center.

Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

Jurisdictional Support for ADU Services
The Napa Sonoma ADU Center was launched as a three-year pilot in 2020 by Napa Valley Community Foundation, with support from Community Foundation Sonoma County, to catalyze ADU development across the 16 jurisdictions in Napa and Sonoma Counties. This pilot project was designed to identify and test services that would address the barriers that prevent homeowners and jurisdictions from ADU development. Funding during the pilot phase was provided mostly by philanthropy, with key initial support from a few jurisdictions. Planning has begun for continuation of the services to jurisdictions and homeowners that have proven most effective beyond the pilot period of 2020 - 2023. The intent of this nonprofit pilot project was that sustainability of these ADU services beyond the pilot phase would rely on financial support from jurisdictions that find such services useful.

This document covers three key topics:

1. How we’ve helped our local jurisdictions build ADUs so far

2. ADU services we envision continuing with your support

3. Potential funding structure to support ongoing ADU services “Honestly, if it weren't for the Napa Sonoma ADU
organization, I doubt this project would get off the
ground. The feasibility report is such a vital
stepping stone for everyday people confronting a
complicated ADU world. Please keep doing this
great work!” – Local homeowner
How we’ve helped our local jurisdictions build ADUs so far The nonprofit Napa Sonoma ADU Center provides technical assistance to homeowners on their ADU projects and also does significant proactive community outreach and education to ensure that local homeowners across all 16 jurisdictions in Napa and Sonoma Counties are aware of their local ADU rules, processes, and resources. It also serves as an innovative public/private partnership that bridges the government, philanthropic, nonprofit and private sectors in order to advance ADUs.

The Napa Sonoma ADU Center has a comprehensive ADU website with many ADU tools and resources available on it today, including an ADU Workbook, ADU Calculator tool, frequent ADU webinars, ADU feasibility consults, ADU Home Match, ADU newsletter & blog, spotlights of Napa and Sonoma County neighbors who have built ADUs, forthcoming Napa Sonoma Standard ADU Plans program, and much more. Homeowners and jurisdictions can Contact Us for more information or help with ADU questions.

Our educational information for local homeowners helps reduce jurisdiction staff time expended on answering questions about the ADU permitting process. One local building official recently commented, “If it wasn’t for the Napa Sonoma ADU Center, my phone would be ringing off the hook!” 1 Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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In collaboration with multiple Napa and Sonoma County jurisdictions, in May 2022 we will launch a comprehensive Napa Sonoma Standard ADU Plans Program (“pre-reviewed” plans program) with a gallery of diverse ADU plan sets available at low cost to homeowners. This program stands to significantly reduce jurisdiction time and resources expended on the ADU permitting process. Not only will your staff become more familiar with streamlined ADU plan sets submitted, we have also set up a relationship with a third party consulting firm that will be available to conduct the individual plan check review process for submittals on an as-desired basis for your jurisdiction.

As of April 2022, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center has helped over 400 unique homeowners across Napa and Sonoma counties with one-on-one assistance, and 180 homeowners have received a completed individualized ADU feasibility consultation (another 37 are currently in the pipeline, with more being added every day). A survey of 53 homeowners who have received ADU feasibility consultations in the 3-6 months prior to survey indicated that 70% of them were moving forward with their ADU projects.

Applying this success rate to the total number of ADU consults we’ve conducted so far, that equates to over 125 potential new ADUs being built coming out of just the first 18 months of our pilot program.

So far, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center has already supported our local jurisdictions with:
● Housing Elements ADU Recommendations including sample language ● Technical assistance on understanding complex new ADU state laws ● Technical assistance and development of webpage copy to educate local homeowners about your ADU planning, permitting and building process, including a customized:
○ ADU Process Map
○ ADU Building Checklist
○ Jurisdictions also routinely refer homeowners to the Napa Sonoma ADU Center to answer ADU questions and link directly to our web tools and resources such as our ADU Calculator tool
● Holding 20 webinars with 1,790 registrants to educate local residents about ADUs including:
○ How to Build an ADU in Napa & Sonoma Counties
○ ADUs 101 for Napa & Sonoma County Homeowners
○ How to Create an ADU Permit Application
○ How to Finance Your ADU
○ And many more – view our full on-demand webinar library ● A subscriber list of 1,640 individuals who receive our monthly educational ADU newsletter and blog
“If it weren’t for the Napa Sonoma ADU Center, my phone would be ringing off the hook!” – Local Building Official
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ADU services we envision continuing with your support
With funding support from local jurisdictions, as part of our planning for the next iteration of ADU services we are considering the following:
● Ongoing development & management of the Napa Sonoma ADU Standard Plans program (including “pre-reviewed” plans)
● Public education & community engagement in multiple languages with local homeowners on ADUs
● Continued provision of 1:1 assistance to homeowners via our ADU feasibility consults and ADU office hours
● Development of improved ADU educational & reference materials for your website ● Proactive education & community engagement to local residents about your ADU planning, permitting & building processes and the benefits of building ADUs ● Trainings for your staff on ADU laws and best practices ● Partnership in the rollout and maintenance of the Napa Sonoma ADU Standard Plans Program ● Support with improving your ADU processes & programs
● Support with interpretation of state laws applicable to ADUs ● Ongoing updates and improvements to our comprehensive toolkit of ADU resources & information for local residents
Nonprofits can be more nimble than local government and once formed can help reduce the number of hours expended by jurisdiction staff on educating homeowners about local rules and the ADU permitting and building process. Countless homeowners and other stakeholders recently interviewed about our services have stressed that the fact that we are a neutral third party resource separate from government or for-profit institutions is key for building trust in our services. Nonprofits are beneficial in that they serve as a neutral resource for local homeowners who may be mistrustful of local government agencies and housing professionals alike. We hope our local jurisdictions will join us to continue advancing our local RHNA targets for ADUs and create housing for our community. “We received some very valuable feedback [from your ADU feasibility consult] and we DEFINITELY intend to proceed.” – Local homeowner 3 Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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Potential funding structure to support ongoing ADU services Jurisdiction Total Residential Parcels Annual Funding Proposal X Small Jurisdiction 750 - 1,500 $5,000
Small Jurisdiction 1,500 - 3,000 $10,000
Medium Jurisdiction 3,000 - 5,000 $15,000
Large Jurisdiction 5,000 - 12,000 $20,000
X Large Jurisdiction 12,000 - 30,000 $30,000
XX Large Jurisdiction 30,000 - 50,000 $40,000
Total Annual Funding $300,000
Please feel free to reach out to Renée J. Schomp, Director, Napa Sonoma ADU Center with any questions:
[email protected].
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Menu of Ideas:

Incentives to invest in the development of affordable ADUs The goal of this document is to provide concrete ideas for local jurisdictions regarding how they can invest in the development of affordable ADUs. Some jurisdictions may be overwhelmed by the potential cost of investing in ADU development, and this menu of options illustrates a wide range of investments jurisdictions can make without having a large impact on budget, staff time or other resources.

The menu includes options ranging from an investment of as little as $150 per ADU to as much as $50,000 per ADU or more, with those funds going directly to the homeowner to incentivize ADU development. Each incentivization can be tied to an affordability restriction on the ADU that matches the level of incentive. Best practices for such affordability restrictions are discussed below.

The document covers the following:

1. Best practices for affordability restrictions on ADUs

2. Menu of incentives for development of affordable ADUs Best practices for affordability restrictions on ADUs
The menu of ideas below are all developed with a few crucial best practices in mind based lessons learned from prior ADU programs developed in CA. Those overarching best practices are:
● Avoid long term affordability restrictions – Homeowners do not want to make long-term, particularly multi-decade, commitments
● Offer an out for homeowners – Ensure they can pay back the loan and exit the system when desired
● Match the incentives to the requirements – If a jurisdiction wants to offer more restrictive conditions (e.g., renting to a Section 8 tenant, etc.), the incentives need to be large ● Reduce uncertainty in the process for the homeowner -- The more fixed costs and clarity in the permitting process, the better
For further background, we spoke with a prefab company recently that shared these thoughts, which resonate very much with what we've seen statewide:
● The simpler the better when it comes to a successful affordable ADU program. All of these conditions (must be rented to low income tenant, homeowner must be 80% of median income, etc.) are discouraging and confusing for homeowners, and that confusion prevents qualified homeowners from even applying to use it. So simpler and straightforward will generate more interest, and in addition more qualified usages. 1 Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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● Grants have seen much more success than loans. The model is the recent changes to the CalHFA ADU grant. First version, almost no interest nor applications. Second version, everyone is sprinting and scrambling to get access to it, and people couldn't previously build an ADU now can.
● $10k not only covers significant up front hard costs, but will also move the needle much more for customers than $5k.

Affordability requirement options to mix and match with the menu of incentive options
● Requirement to rent ADU to Sec 8 tenant
● Requirement to rent ADU to low-income tenant
● Requirement that homeowner be lower income
Characteristics to consider:
● Limit requirement timeline to 5 - 7 years
● Option to opt out of requirement by paying off loan or paying back grant ● Match the requirement to the incentive appropriately
With this in mind, below are some ideas we have (which may be mixed and matched).

Menu of Affordable ADU Incentives:

Incentive 1: Cover costs ancillary to the new RCU ADU loan product (~$3,500 - $4,500 per ADU) Cover ancillary costs for the homeowner associated with Redwood Credit Union's ADU construction loan product, which is designed to help homeowners who don't have sufficient income or equity in their existing home finance building an ADU. These costs are normally paid by the homeowner directly to RCU. These ancillary costs for the loan range from about $3,500 - $4,500 depending on the project. This total includes an origination/processing fee ($120 fixed fee), lender fee paid to 3rd party (includes tax service contract & flood zone check)($60), title insurance (~$500), notary fees (~$150-200), government recording fee (~$400), property appraisal (~$1,000), RCU construction management & 3rd party inspection fees ($1,500 fixed fee).

Incentive 2: Fee waiver for use of Napa Sonoma "pre-reviewed" ADU plan (prefab or site built) (~$5,000 - $47,000 per ADU)
The fee waiver amount can vary but could include coverage of: Sewer district connection fees (can be ~$5,000-$12,000); impact fees (varies widely but could be up to ~$30,000); school district fees (varies 2 Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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but can be up to ~$5,000). This has the added benefit of incentivizing homeowners to use "pre-reviewed" plans which will also save time and money for the jurisdiction itself (reduced staff time spent on ADU permit processing).

Incentive 3: Cover license fee for use of Napa Sonoma "pre-reviewed" ADU plan (prefab or site built) (~$500 - $2,000 per ADU)
This has the added benefit of incentivizing local homeowners to use "pre-reviewed" ADU plans which then saves the jurisdiction staff time and resources during the plan check process. The license fee is paid directly from the homeowner to the designer, architect or prefab company that created the plan so this can be a reimbursement from the jurisdiction to the homeowner.

Incentive 4: Free ADU Feasibility Consult ($150 - $500 per ADU) At the moment, the Napa Sonoma ADU Center provides free ADU feasibility consults but soon we will be beginning to charge homeowners a flat fee of around $150 to cover partial costs of the consults. The consults themselves cost our nonprofit around $500 and costs can be higher as well depending on the consult. The jurisdiction could reimburse the fee paid by the homeowner directly to the homeowner.

Incentive 5: Capped ADU fees (~$0 - $42,000 per ADU)
One of the deterrents for homeowners to build ADUs is that it is often impossible for them to get concrete information from a jurisdiction upfront about the likely fees they'll have to pay for the ADU. If the jurisdiction could guarantee that ADU fees would be capped at ~$5,000 and any additional fees would be waived or subsidized, that would be a significant help to homeowners by reducing uncertainty and risk in the ADU process.

Incentive 6: Grants to cover upfront costs of a prefab ADU (~$1,000 - $20,000 per ADU) (note that some prefab options may not fit on smaller city parcels, sloped properties, or properties with access barriers) One of the key barriers for homeowners to build ADUs is the level of risk and uncertainty in terms of cost, timeline, complexity, and unforeseen obstacles that can arise during site built construction. As prefab ADU companies take off, we're seeing prefab options as a key way to overcome these barriers and thereby foment ADU development/increase innovation in construction practices. One of the best elements of prefab is that most companies offer a turnkey solution ("concierge service") that takes the time, cost and energy of construction management and getting through the permitting process off the shoulders of the homeowner. If the jurisdiction covered some of the upfront costs of prefab ADUs it could help incentivize homeowners to build ADUs:
● $1,000 refundable charge for an estimate and proposal from the prefab company ● $9,000 service charge for the prefab company to manage design and permit submittal 3 Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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● $5,000 - $10,000 possible additional costs to submit permit e.g., soils report, survey, foundation engineering costs
● And then permit costs which can range up to $47,000
I'll just note of course that prefab ADUs won't work on every lot -- e.g., they don't work well if there are challenges with site access or a slope. They also won't work on smaller lots -- more common in city limits where we really want to increase density from a climate resiliency standpoint -- because on smaller city lots we really should be building up, not out (e.g., above garage, 2 story units, etc.) For this reason, I think it makes most sense to apply financial assistance to any pre-reviewed plans in the Napa Sonoma ADU Standard ADU Plans Program since this includes both prefab and pre-reviewed site built plans.

Incentive 7: ADU Rescue Program & fee waivers or grants for unpermitted ADUs (~$500 - $80,000 per ADU)
As we know there are a number of unpermitted ADUs that need to be brought up to code in order to be permitted. Sonoma County recently instituted a new "ADU Rescue Program" which allows homeowners to submit a request for a 5 year stay of enforcement on their unpermitted unit (based on the Jan 2020 state law that states a homeowner can be granted a 5 year stay of enforcement on an unpermitted ADU if the jurisdiction determines there is no health & safety issue with the unit). Sonoma County's program allows the homeowner to hire a licensed professional (architect, contractor or engineer) to conduct a 3rd party assessment of the unit for habitability and submit a form to the county requesting the state of enforcement. Other jurisdictions could institute a similar program, with the added benefit of (1) reimbursing the cost of the 3rd party professional to conduct the habitability assessment & submit the required form; and/or (2) covering the costs of the fees to get the ADU permitted (~$5,000 - $47,000); and/or (3) covering the cost of the architect/designer to draw up plans and submit the ADU Permit Application required to get the unit permitted (~$5,000 - $20,000). Note that none of these options includes the cost of any other professionals required to do the work to actually bring the unit up to code, which can include plumbers, electricians, GC, structural engineers, etc. (I bring this up to note the extremely high cost of getting an ADU permitted for some projects.) Please feel free to reach out to Renée J. Schomp, Director, Napa Sonoma ADU Center with any questions:
[email protected].
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15 Kari Svanstrom
From: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2022 12:50 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: HLT Housing Element Comments
Hi Kari,
This is Kaitlyn with HLT, hope you’re doing well! Here are our comments on the draft Housing Element, thank you! Dear Director Svanstrom, Sebastopol City Council, Planning Commission and staff, My name is Kaitlyn Garfield and I am Housing Administrator for Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County. I am writing to you in regards to the 2023-2031 Housing Element. Thank you for all your excellent work on this Housing Element draft as well as your continued partnership and the addition of the Program D-3.1 First Time Homebuyer Program. The lack of affordable homeownership options in Sebastopol and Sonoma County as a whole has led to an exodus of younger households, with Sebastopol experiencing a 30 percent decrease in households with children since 2000. Sebastopol also has a lower rate of owneroccupied homes compared to the rest of the Bay Area. These statistics show the need for Sebastopol to support first time homebuyers through programs like this. Homeowners are less likely to be cost burdened than renters, and can build equity and wealth that will be reinvested in the community. This First Time Homebuyer Program will ease the barriers to entry for ownership and expand the opportunity to income levels that would otherwise be priced out, combating income inequality.

By combining this program with the City’s Inclusionary Housing policy of building affordable units onsite of market rate developments, Sebastopol can create affordable homeownership that is truly integrated into the community, rather than relegated to resource poor areas. Utilizing both the First Time Homebuyer Program and Inclusionary Housing policy will have a compounded positive effect on housing affordability, economic integration, and individual and community mobility. Sebastopol is poised to make great strides regarding its housing affordability by implementing these strategies, we ask that the City uses both to their full potential. Thank you again for all your work on this and we look forward to continuing to work with you on providing affordable housing for all.

Regards,
Kaitlyn Garfield
Housing Administrator
Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County
P.O. Box 5431
Petaluma, CA 94954
707-766-8875 Office
707-922-0171 Fax
www.housinglandtrust.org
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August 2, 2022
Sebastopol City Council
1020 N Street, Room 502
Sacramento, CA, 95814
RE: Draft Housing Element
Dear City Councilmembers:

North Bay Leadership Council is an employer-led public policy advocacy organization committed to providing leadership in ways to make the North Bay sustainable, prosperous and innovative. As business and civic leaders, our goal is to ensure economic health by building more housing, promoting better education, and creating jobs to make our region a better place to live and work. Collectively, our members have over 25,000 employees.

I am writing to express what our organization believes would be important items to include in your draft housing element. Our first comment would be that this element should support the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County. This can be achieved by providing inclusionary conditions that encourage on-site development such as:
• Lower inclusionary trigger threshold where appropriate • On-site development should be the default and in-lieu fees should only be option when on-site isn’t feasible
• Other alternatives like changing the mixture of income levels provided for shall also take precedent over in-lieu fees or any other alternative that involves off-site development
We urge that the preservation of existing units and conversion to model that is affordable in perpetuity. You can make this work by creating a fund that is prepared to save affordable units as they expire and monitor units at least annually and steward owners through the processes.

We ask that affordable units to be scattered throughout developments and indistinguishable from market rate. They should be comparable in size, finishes, quality, and exterior design to other onsite market rate units. Units will be selected after plans are completed: a true set aside model where BMR designations occur after map is created.

Convert more R-4 zoned parcels (Single Family Residential) to R-5 (Single Family and Multifamily Residential). This should be a more upgraded priority and provide clarity on the (#/%) of properties that will be sought out for conversion to an R-5 designation to help support opportunities for more plex-style (or workforce) housing to be developed.

We strongly support Program A-3.4 Workforce Housing Overlay Zone. This would remove the Use Permit requirement for all residential development in the Office Commercial zone for the purpose of supporting by right development of workforce housing. This could provide robust incentives and density bonuses for all projects that offer 100% affordable housing and eliminate parking standards.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Chair

PATTY GARBARINO
President
Marin Sanitary Service
Vice Chair

ALON ADANI
Owner
Cornerstone Properties
Secretary/Treasurer

MICHELLE AUSBURN
Partner

BPM LLP
Executive Committee

BARRY FRIEDMAN
President & CEO
Friedman’s Home Improvement
Executive Committee

PAT KENDALL
Medical Group Administrator
Kaiser Permanente
Executive Committee

JORDAN LAVINSKY
Partner
Hanson Bridgett LLP
Executive Committee

KATHRYN LOWELL
Vice President, Government Affairs & Advocacy
BioMarin
Executive Committee

STEVE PAGE
Chairman Emeritus
North Bay Leadership Council
Executive Committee

MARK WOOD
Chairman Emeritus
North Bay Leadership Council

KARLEEN ARNINK-PATE
Chief Revenue Officer
Sonoma Media Investments

TONY BARTENETTI
President of Business Development and
Strategic Partnerships
Nelson Family of Companies

JOHN COSTA
Government Relations Manager
Pacific Gas & Electric

AIMI DUTRA KRAUSE
Public Relations Director
The Dutra Group

INGRID ESTRADA
CAO
Keysight Technologies

STEVE FALK
CEO Sonoma Media Investments
Press Democrat

JASON FOSTER
President for Napa, Marin, & Sonoma
Bank of America

JILL GREGORY
General Manager
Sonoma Raceway

CHUCK KASSIS
CEO
Providence Sonoma County

DAVID KLEIN, MD, MBA
CEO
MarinHealth

DARREN LASHELLE
President & CEO
Northern California Public Media
DR. YUNG-JAE LEE
Dean, Andrew P. Barowsky School of Business
Dominican University of California

BRETT MARTINEZ
President & CEO
Redwood Credit Union

MEAGAN MOORE
CAO
Buck Institute for Research on Aging

LESLIE PERRY
Partner
Perry, Johnson, Anderson, Miller
& Moskowitz LLP

DAN PETERSON
CAO, Santa Rosa Regional Hospital
Sutter Health

JUDY SAKAKI
President
Sonoma State University

FRED STEMMLER
General Manager
Recology

FRED VELA
Regional Vice President
Wells Fargo Bank

AARON WALKER
VP President, Field Operations - CA Region
Comcast

CYNTHIA MURRAY
President & CEO

KATE MURRAY
CAO
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

775 B aywood D r., Sui t e 1 0 1 ● Pe ta lu ma, C A 94 954 707. 283 .00 28 ● Fax : 7 07.7 63.3 028 ● www.no rt h bay l ea de rs h ip .or g NBLC believes it is important to put more research grant opportunities that will support the creation of a down-payment assistance program tailored to black families. Explore creating a position for someone solely dedicated to grant writing in order to help secure state and federal funding streams that support BIPOC down-payment assistance. This is key to building intergenerational wealth and reversing discriminatory lending policies that have resulted in BIPOC communities having some of the lowest rates of homeownership in Sonoma County We would be thrilled to see Sebastopol create and maintain a Robust Monitoring System for Affordable Housing. This would ensure an adequate system is in place to support the community with affordable housing.

We ask you revisit the ADU ordinance. Consider increasing allowable height, increasing maximum square footage to 1,100 for all properties that can do so and remain zoning compliant, and reducing setback requirements. This all aligns with the policies recommended by Napa Sonoma ADU.

To better support the planning of housing relative to parking need, conduct a city-wide analysis of existing parking conditions to determine if and to what extent surplus parking does exist. If surplus parking does exist, explore reducing/eliminating parking requirements for downtown residential or mixed-use development. Implement a program that supports shared parking on private surface parking lots using a permit.

Identify commercial properties available for purchase and work with owners to redevelop these sites. As an example - work with Westamerica Bank and the subsequent purchaser of their property on creating a plan to redevelop the property into a mixed-use or all affordable residential project.

Lastly, explore Tax Increment Financing as an option for generating additional funding streams that can support housing production and infrastructure improvements.

We appreciate your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Cynthia Murray
President & CEO
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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16 Kari Svanstrom
From: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2022 11:23 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: Public Comment for Housing Element Update
Hello,
My name is Richard McMurtry. I have lived in Sonoma County for 5 years in the City of Sebastopol.

I support Community Land Trusts because these organizations are versatile in serving the needs of our community such as homeownership, affordable housing, and sustainability. CLT partnerships will result in more affordable housing than housing policies that restrict land use. I advocate for the municipality to partner with the local nonprofit CommonSpace Community Land Trust because they are a pro-housing organization working to balance sustainability and urbanism. Their mission is to steward land in solidarity with the workforce, and they seek to fast-track funding for affordable housing development serving Sonoma County residents at every income level.

The Housing Element Update requires a process that stabilizes communities through economic instability. Community Land Trusts work to prevent housing displacement for Sonoma County residents. These are community membership-based nonprofits, not corporations or individuals with a profit-seeking motive. The Housing Element Update may fail to prevent 100% affordable projects from being blocked by the City Council or the Planning Commission. Innovative affordable housing projects will continue to be politicized and delayed rather than promote a more sustainable community. Being pro-housing and pro-sustainability, I support Community Land Trusts and oppose the commodification of land use. Please partner with these nonprofit organizations to generate:

1. (Apartments/ Multi-unit buildings/ Small Sites)

2. (Acquisition and Rehabilitation/ Preserved and Restored Buildings)

3. (Junior ADU/ Home-Conversions/ Attached single family units)

4. (ADU/ Tiny Homes/ Grandmother Units)

5. (Mobile Home Lots/ Safe Parking Sites)
Finally, parking requirements are detrimental to the success of these organizations that are seeking to serve low-income groups and sustainability goals. I advocate for Transit-Oriented Development to supply housing near transportation centers, and safe routes for cyclists.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

17 Sincerely,
Richard McMurtry
8769 Bower Street
Sebastopol, CA 95472
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

18 Kari Svanstrom
From: kkyates <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2022 2:53 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: Public Comment for Housing Element Update
Greetings!
I have been in the housing trades for 39 years, including creating affordable housing. Some years ago, I participated in a number of county-wide town hall meetings to address the housing crisis. I was initially inspired, but eventually became turned off because virtually none of the many creative solutions proposed by county residents were considered. Instead, the county officials went with the company they’d always done business with, the one that proposed the most expensive construction, and because of the cost per unit to build, would create the fewest number of affordable units.

I sincerely hope Sebastopol won’t do the same thing. Whatever path the city takes to create additional, affordable housing, it should be affordable to build too, so as many as possible can be built. And there are lots of affordable solutions being designed and built around the globe. Just go on YouTube to check some out.

When you look at the various options, ask yourself which of them are both the most affordable to create, and which model of ownership or renting will remain the most affordable for its occupants over time. Here are two examples of smart, practical solutions:
- For ‘new’ construction, use shipping containers. Or purchase used tiny homes. They often cost considerably less than what it cost the owner to build.
- For models of ownership or renting, set up community land trusts. They are the only model I know of that guarantees affordability in perpetuity.

It doesn’t so much matter which of the categories you choose to create more housing (building on empty land, converting existing buildings, setting up tiny homes, ADUs, etc). They all have a role to play. What matters is how you go about it. For agencies like yours, history has shown repeatedly that your greatest impediment to success is the high likelihood of failing to think creatively, and of being afraid to try new things. You need look no further than this county for a typical example. So I hope you keep this in mind as you discuss this urgent issue among yourselves.

Sincerely,
Katherine Yates
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

19 Kari Svanstrom
From: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2022 9:15 AM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: Public Comment for Housing Element Update
Hello,
My name is Morgan L. Meadows, M.Ed. I am new to Sonoma County and I am actively hoping to live in Sebastopol, within a CLT/Affordable Housing program. I am 62 years old and have been car free for over 12 years, as a lifestyle and an environmental concern. I rely on bicycling, walking, and public transportation to get to and from my work, as well as to run common household errands. I support Community Land Trusts because these organizations are versatile in serving the needs of our community such as homeownership, affordable housing, and sustainability. As a former homeowner through the OPAL CLT in San Juan County, WA (2009-2017), I know first hand how valuable such programs are to keeping a community healthy with income diversity and opportunity. This is especially so for the children raised in such promising and stabilizing environments. I became a CLT homeowner as a suddenly single mother of 4 in 2009, but I also provided employment for other members of my community through my professional business. From what I understand, CLT partnerships result in more affordable housing than housing policies that restrict land use. The municipality needs to partner with the local nonprofit CommonSpace Community Land Trust. They are a pro-housing organization working to balance sustainability and urbanism. Balance is the key note here! Their mission is to steward land in solidarity with the workforce, and they seek to fast-track funding for affordable housing development serving Sonoma County residents at every income level. There are a host of CLTs in our nation that can affirm these values in practice. They work!

The Housing Element Update requires a process that stabilizes communities through economic instability.

Community Land Trusts work to prevent housing displacement for Sonoma County residents. These are community membership-based nonprofits, not corporations or individuals with a profit-seeking motive. The Housing Element Update may fail to prevent 100% affordable projects from being blocked by the City Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

20 Council or the Planning Commission. Innovative affordable housing projects promote a more sustainable community. Please avoid the catch-22 of politicized and delayed efforts. Because I am pro-housing and pro-sustainability, I support Community Land Trusts and oppose the commodification of land use. Please partner with these nonprofit organizations to generate the following:

1. (Apartments/ Multi-unit buildings/ Small Sites)

2. (Acquisition and Rehabilitation/ Preserved and Restored Buildings)

3. (Junior ADU/ Home-Conversions/ Attached single family units)

4. (ADU/ Tiny Homes/ Grandmother Units)

5. (Mobile Home Lots/ Safe Parking Sites)

Finally, parking requirements are detrimental to the success of these organizations that are seeking to serve low-income groups and sustainability goals. I advocate for Transit-Oriented Development to supply housing near transportation centers, and safe routes for cyclists.

Your time and consideration of these matters is crucial to the whole community’s well-being. I am confident that other CLT directors across the US, such as Lisa Byers (or OPAL CLT) would be eager to assist with any questions and processes that support affordable housing in Sonoma County.

Genuinely,
Morgan
Morgan L. Meadows, M.Ed.

A Lucid Tree, LLC
Reflexologist
Transformational Leadership Facilitation
Educator – Consultant - Writer
Ph: (920) 212-5644
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

22 Kari Svanstrom
From: Katherine Austin <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2022 5:35 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Cc: [email protected]; Jane Riley
Subject: Sebastopol Housing Element Comment
Hello Kari,
Thank you for your email regarding the Housing Element comment period and the links to the various power points and City Council meeting. I watched the CC meeting portion on the Housing Element. I have made comments previously at the beginning of this process but I would like to reiterate my comment with regards to impediments to developers of housing relating to Section B1 of the City's goals.

A very large impediment in the past has been the roll of Design Review Board. As currently structured a development proposal is required to go to Preliminary DRB and then proceed to Planning Commission and City Council and after City Council approval a Final Design Review hearing. That creates four public hearings not counting the preliminary staff review. Unfortunately this takes a great deal of time and money. Additionally the DRB process is notorious for being subjective and not objective. I recognize that you are making attempts to change that however, in such a small city as Sebastopol, not many folks want to serve on DRB. Often the same people remain for many years and often have biases on style and what they would like to see rather than what is appropriate for a specific site and product. Additionally having final DRB after CC approval opens a project up to endless review. This happened to me on my project at 961 Gravenstein Hwy South that included 8 living units over 8 commercial spaces in a mixed use building. After initial approval and condo map being recorded DRB wanted an entire re-design. This went on for a full year and 3 additional hearings costing enormous time and money.

I have had multiple projects approved and built in Sebastopol and the DRB process has repeatedly stretched out the time to final entitlements. This includes the Barlow which is one of the biggest economic generators for Sebastopol. I have had housing developments approved in the similar size city of Healdsburg that does not have a Design Review Board. Instead Planning Commission reviews the design with it's planning review. This cuts out two public hearings and shortens the time frame significantly and it's approved before going to City Council.

I would like to recommend that Sebastopol eliminate it's Design Review Board and instead use the Planning Commission along with staff to review compliance with Design Guidelines. Once approved that would leave City Council approval. This cuts the approval time and hearings in half saving much time and effort. I will say in the local building community the DRB process in Sebastopol is notorious and serves aa a significant impediment to doing business in Sebastopol. Using the PC for Design Review keeps a review process but eliminates multiple hearings. In addition the PC should also serve as the Tree Board when tree removal is required in a development.

I hope you will take this recommendation seriously. I know that the City Council will not want to remove the DRB because it's used as a kind of "Keeper at the Gate." I hope that HCD and 4Leaf consider this very seriously. I have designed and seen built more units of housing and mixed use in Sebastopol over decades than any other architect. I am speaking from deep experience.

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City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

23 Thank you for your consideration.

Katherine Austin, AIA, Architect
179 SE Rice Way
Bend, OR 97702
P 707-529-5565
[email protected]
www.austinaia.com
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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26 Kari Svanstrom
From: Arlie <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2022 9:28 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: Housing Element Update comment
Hello,
My name is Arlie Haig. I have lived in Sonoma County for 49 years in the City of Santa Rosa. I support Community Land Trusts because these organizations are versatile in serving the needs of our community such as homeownership, affordable housing, and sustainability. CLT partnerships will result in more affordable housing than housing policies that restrict land use. I advocate for the municipality to partner with the local nonprofit CommonSpace Community Land Trust because they are a pro-housing organization working to balance sustainability and urbanism. Their mission is to steward land in solidarity with the workforce, and they seek to fast-track funding for affordable housing development serving Sonoma County residents at every income level.

The Housing Element Update requires a process that stabilizes communities through economic instability.

Community Land Trusts work to prevent housing displacement for Sonoma County residents. These are community membership-based nonprofits, not corporations or individuals with a profit-seeking motive. The Housing Element Update may fail to prevent 100% affordable projects from being blocked by the City Council or the Planning Commission. Innovative affordable housing projects will continue to be politicized and delayed rather than promote a more sustainable community. Being pro-housing and pro-sustainability, I support Community Land Trusts and oppose the commodification of land use. Please partner with these nonprofit organizations to generate:

1. (Apartments/ Multi-unit buildings/ Small Sites)

2. (Acquisition and Rehabilitation/ Preserved and Restored Buildings)

3. (Junior ADU/ Home-Conversions/ Attached single family units)

4. (ADU/ Tiny Homes/ Grandmother Units)

5. (Mobile Home Lots/ Safe Parking Sites)
Finally, parking requirements are detrimental to the success of these organizations that are seeking to serve low-income groups and sustainability goals. I advocate for Transit-Oriented Development to supply housing near transportation centers, and safe routes for cyclists.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Arlie Haig
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

31 Kari Svanstrom
From: kee nethery <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2022 4:26 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: Comment: Requested slight modification to Draft Housing Element Background:

We have a rental unit with a house and an ADU. With one water meter, we pay for the water for both tenants. Tenants never see a water bill and thus have no reason to conserve their water usage. This applies to almost all multi-unit rental units, the occupants have no idea how much water they use and no incentive to reduce water consumption. I realize the projections say we are good for water but I believe incentives for conservation are a good idea.

Simple solution is to meter and bill every housing unit separately. Retrofitting all multi-unit housing would be expensive, but for new construction, trivial.

This proposed language change would move Sebastopol towards each unit on a separate water meter by requiring separate meters for each separate unit in a multi-unit property. The exception being a Junior ADU which is part of an existing house. All other units would be water metered separately when newly constructed.

Existing language on page 94:

3.8.1 Water
The City is served by municipal wells and participates in a variety of conservation and planning efforts related to water capacity, including a Groundwater Sustainability Plan. The City’s most recent Water Master Plan demonstrates adequate water capacity for future residential development.

Proposed language on page 94:

3.8.1 Water
The City is served by municipal wells and participates in a variety of conservation and planning efforts related to water capacity, including a Groundwater Sustainability Plan. The City’s most recent Water Master Plan demonstrates adequate water capacity for future residential development.

To promote water usage awareness and water conservation, each new housing unit, excepting JADUs, will meter and bill water usage separately.

Happy to discuss if needed. This is my proposed solution towards natural water conservation, you might have better ideas. The BayREN initiative is nice but my tenants don’t really care since they do not pay for their water usage.

Kee Nethery
510-684-9026
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

32 Kari Svanstrom
From: Mary Gourley
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2022 4:49 PM
To: Una Glass; Sarah Glade Gurney; Neysa Hinton; Diana Rich; Patrick Slayter Cc: Lawrence McLaughlin; Kari Svanstrom; John Jay
Subject: FW: Draft Housing Element
Attachments: Sebastopol Draft Housing Element Public Comment.pdf Good afternoon
Please see email related to City Council agenda item.

Due to the COVID-19 Shelter in Place Orders by the County of Sonoma and State of California, City Administation Offices are closed to the public; but City staff is answering phones and emails and making in person appointments when needed. Mary Gourley From: Kate Murray <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2022 4:25 PM
To: Mary Gourley <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Draft Housing Element
Hi Mary,
I hope you’re having a good day. I’m emailing to share North Bay Leadership Council’s public comments for the draft housing element. Would you please share this with the city council? Thank you for your time. -Kate Murray
Kate Murray
North Bay Leadership Council
775 Baywood Dr., Suite 101
Petaluma, CA 94954
707.283.0028
707.763.3028 Fax
[email protected]
www.northbayleadership.org
"Employers committed to making the North Bay sustainable, prosperous, and innovative." Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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33 Kari Svanstrom
From: anthony stewartspoint.org <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2022 1:16 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Cc: vaughn stewartspoint.org
Subject: Senate bill 18 Consultation, Sebastopol Housing Element Update, Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California
The proposed project at 6th cycle Housing Element in the city of Sebastopol is out of the aboriginal territory of the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of Stewarts Point.

We have no comment or concerns at this time. We reserve the right to comment at a later time.

Thank You.

Anthony Macias T.H.P.O.

Kashia Band of Pomo Indians.
1420 Guerneville Rd suite 1.

Santa Rosa, Ca. 95403
[email protected]
(707)591-0580 office
(707)708-1139 cell
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34 Kari Svanstrom
From: Megan Finaly <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2022 10:12 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Cc: Charles STR Metz; Cathy STR Sebastopol Wills
Subject: Public Comment for May 10, 2022 Sebastopol Planning Commission Meeting Greetings Esteemed Sebastopol City Council Members,
Sebastopol hosts appreciate the 2019 offer by Planning Director Kari Svanstrom to Sebastopol hosts to arrange a “meeting/focus group” between hosts and a consultant and look forward to an open and productive discussion. While we look forward to this event, we have questions and concerns about potential short-term rental changes.

Since Sebastopol placed a moratorium, traditional housing comprises *99.9% (*U.S. Census 2010) of the available dwelling space in Sebastopol, while the remaining five vacation rentals will amount to *0.1% of the housing stock.

Vacation rentals have continually been blamed for the rise in rents and housing prices. Has Sebastopol seen any decrease in rents or the price of a home or renting of a home, as a direct result of the 2019 vacation rental moratorium? Vacation rentals have actually served to help members of our community by providing immediate lodging for individuals who lost their homes or sought shelter after the 2017/2018/2020 fires and the 2019 floods and locals who needed to isolate from family or roommates during our current COVID crises. Locals are certainly easier to isolate themselves in non-hosted rentals than in a public hotels or motels, especially vs hotels with common lobbies, stairwells and elevators.

We also know of tiny homes that were used to quarantine folks during Covid. During troubling times in our County, many vacation rentals converted to year-round housing to help disaster victims as they made important life decisions about rebuilding or “next steps”.

The majority of vacation rental owners in Sebastopol have one short-term rental. For many, this earns them needed income. For retirees, pensions are becoming a thing of the past, owning a vacation rental is not only a way to make ends meet, it's their retirement nest egg. Extending the moratorium on vacation rentals negatively affects average folks in their time of need. Will a permit even be available for them? One never knows when some unexpected event in their life (i.e. loss of a job, care of a loved one, divorce or death of a spouse) and they find themselves needing to earn extra income—offering a home shot-term could be the only way to make ends meet.

You adopted a NEW vacation rental ordinance prior to the 2019 Moratorium. Why don’t you reinstate those guidelines TODAY and give them a chance to work? What’s the rush? Airbnb has been in operation since 2008, and vacation rentals have been in Sonoma County for over a century, but prior to the 2019 moratorium only 18 (legal + non-legal) non-hosted vacation rentals were operating in Sebastopol. There didn't seem to be a big rush to rent short-term before the moratorium.

Banning Vacation Rentals is not a solution to the housing shortage in Sebastopol. In the Cities of Sonoma and Healdsburg where vacation rentals are banned completely or confined to a few select areas, both cities struggle with a lack of affordable housing. Housing is a concern for all who live in Sebastopol. Supporting & providing encouragement to projects that provide real, large-scale solutions (such as encouraging development of multifamily housing and/or projects that provide a moderate/low-income component) are better steps towards adding housing than restricting the property rights of the very folks who are grappling with financial issues.

What is Sebastopol doing to create more affordable housing to meet the demand? Why is the City instead looking to restrict the rights of Property Owners?
If you don’t build more affordable housing as a city grows, you just end up with older homes that cost more to purchase or rent. Most whole-house short term rental properties are someone’s 2nd home that is being rented out when they are not able to be there. The ability to earn short-term income on the property is what makes that ownership affordable, Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

35 allowing middle income folks to afford a 2nd home. The circumstances include properties inherited from parents where children prefer to share ownership and use, properties purchased as a future retirement home, or folks who can’t afford housing there, but want to begin building equity themselves (and enjoy a weekend home). Without the option to earn extra income through flexible short-term rentals, siblings might have to sell the inherited family home, and only the ultra-rich who can afford to maintain a vacant home during their own absences will be purchasing (as has happened in Sonoma and Healdsburg).

Hosts would also ask that you consider allowing residents to permit alternative eco-friendly forms of housing for long or short-term use, like tiny homes, RV’s or yurts to help middle and lower-income folks afford an economical living space. The County has allowed nationwide companies like Autocamp in our area to do this. Sonoma Canopy Tours’ Sonoma Treehouse and Safai West has been offering alternative lodging for years. Come up with some guidelines so the average person can have a chance, by adopting the latest code for tiny houses, called Appendix AQ.

Sincerely,
Sebastopol Hosts
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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10 Kari Svanstrom
From: Kevin Tellez <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2022 5:56 PM
To: Kari Svanstrom
Subject: Housing Element Update Public Comment
Attachments: Final Capstone Tellez Ramos.pdf
Hello,
Please see the attached file. This is a Capstone report from the Master’s program in Urban and Public Affairs at the University of San Francisco. As my public comment for the Housing Element Update, I advocate for affordable housing development using a community land trust model to create versatile options for the needs of residents. I have integrated my work experience into my research for this Capstone report. The local nonprofit CommonSpace Community Land Trust is seeking a partnership with the local municipality to fulfill goals for affordable housing development, sustainable agriculture, and ecological restoration. I hope that we may schedule a meeting to discuss future planning goals. CommonSpace CLT would like to discuss our strategy for rehabilitation and preservation at the Cooper Road site where the nonprofit is based. We have recently been identifying financing opportunities, and we are eager to start this development project as soon as possible. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Kevin Tellez Ramos
Urban and Public Affairs, M.A.

Program Manager
CommonSpace Community Land Trust
www.commonspaceclt.org/

Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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AFFORDABLE HOUSING ON COMMUNITY LAND HELD IN TRUST:

AN ESSENTIAL COMPONENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
A Capstone Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the College of Arts & Sciences University of San Francisco
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the
Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN URBAN & PUBLIC AFFAIRS

by
Kevin S. Tellez Ramos
August 2022
Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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Tellez Ramos | 2
Acknowledgements
This Capstone Report is dedicated to the grassroots community activists of Sonoma County that I met during the Summer of 2020, before I applied to the Urban and Public Affairs program at the University of San Francisco. We were naturally brought together by grief and a will to fight for the rights of our people. Through the Black Lives Matter protests, our community represented the counterculture to police militarization and the imperialist state. We continue to advocate for human rights in the United States and abroad. The writer acknowledges the Pomo tribe as the first peoples to tend to the land called Sonoma County for generations before us.

A special appreciation goes to my family and to my ancestors, without them I would not be who I am today. This Capstone Report would not be possible without the support of the faculty and staff at the University of San Francisco, and the colleagues in the Urban and Public Affairs class of 2022 that were there for the journey with me. Thank you to Sarah Burgess and my advisors for this report, Tim Redmond and Tanu Sankalia, for sharing your wisdom and valuable time. And thank you to the CommonSpace Community Land Trust organization for recognizing my potential for leadership and professional development throughout the process of this Capstone research report.

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Tellez Ramos | 3
Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………..….Page 4
PART I: Summary of Context
Introduction………………….….….….….….….….….….….….….……….….…..Page 5 Community History…………………..…….……..……….……….……….……...Page 11 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………….Page 27
PART II: Summary of Research
An Interdisciplinary Review of Sustainable Development…………………….…..Page 30 i. Environmental Sustainability………………………………………Page 31
ii. Social Sustainability……………………………………………..…Page 35
iii. Economic Sustainability……………………………………………Page 41
Methodology…………………………………………………………………….…Page 46
PART III: Summary for Policy Makers
Data Collection and Analysis…………………….……………….……….……….Page 51 Policy Recommendations…………………………………………….…………….Page 66
Reference List.….….………………………………………………………………Page 73
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Abstract
This project summarizes an assessment of affordable housing development in Sonoma County - centered in an analysis of sustainability. The language of sustainability requires a new vocabulary for conversation on a broad topic. The sustainable development goals can be directed for the benefit of organizations that contribute to solutions that lack insight towards greater longevity for the at-risk members of the community (i.e., greenwashing, net-zero emissions, etc.). More recent sustainable development literature from the United Nations reveals new priorities: social, economic, and environmental sustainability. (This applies to developing nations of which the researcher believes Sonoma County, California and the United States of America are included).

In an interdisciplinary review, the researcher concludes that the community land trust model is an essential component of sustainable development as a benefit to the social ecology and the expanding density of the concrete urban environment. The researcher gains affordable housing development expertise through semi-structured interviews with urban and regional planning professionals, public officials, and nonprofit leaders. This expertise is used to guide the study and practice of sustainable development, which is inclusive of at-risk groups in society.

Sustainable development is expanded beyond the consideration of construction materials to share a broader vision of longevity through social, economic, and environmental sustainability for the disadvantaged communities in our changing urban settings.

This research has been accomplished in the context of an era when society is drastically impacted by the pandemic, and Sonoma County residents have experienced repeated wildfires, gaining awareness of the urgency of the climate crisis. Thus, conclusions in this report are outlined with recommendations for urban and public affairs officials to benefit the organizations Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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generating affordable housing opportunities using the community land trust non-profit model and prioritizing the best outcomes of environmentalism.

Chapter 1.) Introduction
Awareness of the climate crisis may present itself differently for many people as some groups are more adversely affected than others each day. This challenges a united call-to-action, as evident in the most recent COP ‘22 Climate Summit. Nations were presented with narratives and visualizations of the impact of sea level rise. Yet due to the demand of energy in our civil society we continued the habits of consumption and burning of fossil fuels. The final outcome was a decision for net-zero emissions goals that would hopefully offset any instability of the Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists in the IPCC (International Policy Coalition on Climate) share details of the likelihood that we have reached an irreversible state of instability to the Earth’s ecosystems. This is devastating news that results in more devastating environmental hazards caused by a heating atmosphere due to the accumulation of emissions from our human activity.

Familiar patterns of urban development continue as urban planners predict and prepare for denser, largely populated metropolitan areas. This provides a variety of challenges for growing urban and regional centers. Sustainability is a factor in policy that will impact resilience planning, emergency response preparedness, and centering equity in planning with just strategies. The community land trust model can provide benefits to leaders solving these challenges. The versatility that these nonprofit organizations provide will be demonstrated in this report through a description of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The land trust model is increasingly used in urban development for targeting land use management. Cities may conserve natural resources such as open space through easements. These are recognized in Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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Sonoma County where some of the largest open space and regional parks systems are in place.

Unfortunately, the landscape is susceptible to the changing climate as cycles of drought threaten wildlife and rural communities alike. Urbanized regions receive the negative impacts of the climate crisis first-hand upon experiencing the dangers of flooding or toxic smoke from the wildfire season.

Urban development requirements are interpreted through zoning regulations, which are used to manage land use decisions with a centralized plan from the city government. Developers that focus on affordable housing projects may come from a nonprofit or a for-profit corporation.

I have studied environmental, economic, and social sustainability as an interdisciplinary review of sustainable development to analyze beneficial outcomes for developers and city officials. My policy recommendations are informed by the decisions and challenges that have been recognized in semi-structured interviews with leaders that are working towards innovative affordable housing projects and involved in the practice of sustainable development through the application of the community land trust model. I begin by describing the Theoretical Framework used to guide my research and its significance for interpreting the data collected. Affordable housing, community land trusts, and new urbanism are recognized as sustainable development practices in the literature review, which will be described before proceeding to the Community History section. The Methodology approach follows, as well as the Data Collection and Analysis.

Finally, I proceed to share Policy Recommendations and the Significance of this study to Urban and Public Affairs.

In Sonoma County, a landscape of rolling hills provides nutritious soil for the agriculturalists that generate the local economy of farm-to-table products. Some folks that are not accustomed to such proximity to livestock may still find pleasure in the open space amenities of Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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these rolling hills, or the fine wine that begins at the many vineyards tucked in each valley. This region is one of the hosts of the IronMan Triathlon race, proving that the landscape is home to a health-conscious and athletic community. However, the question of access remains at the forefront of the minds of grassroots activists and community organizers. I will continue to define how access is an essential component of just strategies in city planning, and how urban development involves the prospect of access at each of the stages of affordable housing projects.

Housing as residency is one of the most important infrastructures of the city. Even without the growing wave of vacation rentals, housing should be considered more prominently as a public right comparable to the transportation networks and the utilities that keep our society moving. Environmentalists promote renewable energy contributions to our power grid, eliminating fossil fuel consumption, and ensuring carbon sequestration strategies following the decades of relentless pollution. As urban development continues to shift towards a greener future, leaders must not let unfettered capitalism create inequality for underprivileged groups. In housing, this means that some folks benefit from living near their place of work or school, and others must endure long-distance traveling for the reason of unaffordability of residency.

Cities that are competitive in the real estate market prove to be a battleground for privileged groups seeking a passive income, and underprivileged groups seeking a stable economic foundation. Green development improvements can also result in displacement due to gentrification, which is counterintuitive to the practice of sustainable development. As a valued infrastructure, housing in cities must be dignified, adapted for self-sufficiency, and also regulated for long-term affordability to residents that are rooted in the locality. Through trial and tribulation, the community land trust has been a steward to low-income groups, providing an opportunity for homeownership and land rights. Community-owned land is managed by the Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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tripartite board of the nonprofit corporation to effectively reduce the cost of properties on that land. A ground lease allows low-income residents to manage their own property with a long-term contract. The ground-lease contract with each homeowner is renewable, ensuring that the property can remain with the residents for generations of family members. This is a sharedequity model of ownership, which transfers the affordable price that residents paid to the next cycle of homeowners. (The reduced value is maintained when that beneficiary sells the property; a formula allows the homeowner to keep some of the equity gained in the property when they do sell). Residents seeking missing middle housing are able to settle roots in their local community, protected from financial crisis and displacement caused by the commodification of land and property.

Community land trusts are nonprofit organizations that function on the premise that land and property should not be bought and sold for profit, but should benefit the local community, especially low-income residents. This is an anti-capitalist concept, executing decommodification of land use. This is an equity strategy for just planning by increasing homeownership rates and providing a stable foundation for diverse and historically disenfranchised groups. The first community land trust in the nation originated out of the civil rights era. The well-known activist, late-Congressman John Lewis, collaborated with other Southern leaders in Georgia to produce an opportunity for farmland and housing to provide to hundreds of families of Black agriculturalists seeking independence and dignity. One hindrance that they encountered through this mission was the default of their mortgage. Nonetheless, they returned years later to buy back the original land and form New Communities, Inc. Their example reminds us of the recent history that complicates race-relations in America, and why we have greater considerations for equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging at various stages of decision-making.

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Finances have been a major challenge to the affordable housing development goals of cities and nonprofits alike. Calculations to repay debt are passed on to homeowners or renters.

These costs are impacted by the amount of repairs, infrastructural improvements, and green amenities that will be on the land, in addition to costs accumulated in construction of housing units from labor and materials. Land acquisition is another challenge which requires financing, especially in a competitive real estate market with little to no government mediation. In this report, I ask: how are leaders of nonprofits and municipalities affecting the social ecology with sustainable development? I have accomplished semi-structured interviews with professionals in collaboration at a variety of stages in development for cities across Sonoma County. This region provides the context of this case study as a landscape that is preparing for the uncertainty of the climate crisis across rural, suburban, and dense city areas - providing a variety of conditions for affordable housing development. I reveal challenges to affordable housing development that arise from land use planning. These challenges in development will be essential to identify to ensure that community land trusts can continue to preserve current affordability rates in cities and enhance target goals for urban growth with environmentalist strategies.

The community land trust model can be a tool for city officials to execute many of the equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging goals of contemporary planners. Challenges at different stages of development identify the opportunities to center sustainable development as a practice in urban growth policy. The reason I center the social ecology in my research question is because this theory considers that leaders must understand problems within societies in order to effectively resolve ecological issues. This nuance is essential to the study of urban and public affairs. Versatile community land trust organizations have grown in numbers across the 50 States, giving underprivileged groups the opportunity to own housing, to support their own Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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small-business enterprises, and to live in multi-generational communities with a connection to the land. The stewardship role of the CLT ensures dignity for the residents, boosts the longevity of properties, and develops the locality with an environmental justice approach. These organizations are not only found in dense cities, but they also provide community for agriculturalists, off-grid hackers, and environmental restoration enthusiasts. Indigenous land trusts have been successful in preserving cultural practices and organizing to return sacred land to their stewardship. Inconsiderate cycles of development that do nothing to limit displacement for underprivileged groups must be prevented if we plan to stop harming historically disenfranchised groups. In this research study I share how the financialization of land-use is a challenge to affordable housing development, and how cities can accomplish affordable housing development goals through stewardship from community land trusts.

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Chapter 2.) Community History
To form an understanding of the context for the following chapters, I show a history of the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County, a nonprofit corporation which was founded in 2002.

Collaboration between HLT and municipalities for inclusive housing has boosted affordable housing development based on infill development and inclusive units. Sonoma is a landscape of many valleys with planned connectivity of cities by light rail, highway, and road infrastructure.

Greenfield development is scrutinized more-so in Sonoma County as conservationists and farmers aim to preserve open space. Planners have adapted to this preference by regulating infill development in the urban environment. These development projects may proceed with designs for mixed-use to further create compact and dense urban forms. The process is a reversal of former sprawl development patterns which have been identified for much higher consumption of natural resources and maintenance costs. Other costs include the impact onto the environment which are analyzed in risk assessments, as Figure 2.1 identifies endangered species and critical habitats
in the
region.

Figure

2.1: Map
demonstrates Critical Habitats in red, which may be overlapping with areas developing more urbanization.

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As I have identified in the body of literature on environmental sustainability, sustainable development as a practice moves society toward lower emissions by creating nearby options for residence, open space, and civic life. The challenge to urban planners is in permitting affordable housing, assisting with technical expertise for considerations to financing these projects or considering a larger scale project, and working with nonprofit or profit driven developers.

In the mid-2000’s, as the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County was developing on the West Coast, political organizing across the country in Maryland would support community land trusts as a movement for housing rights. These advocates are proponents of shared equity homeownership, this is “a self-sustaining model that takes a one-time public investment to make a home affordable for a lower-income family and then restricts the home’s sale price each time it is sold to keep it affordable for subsequent low-income families who purchase the home” (Reyes and Khare, 2021). These organizers gained an understanding of the benefits of ground-lease payments for sustained economic diversity. I show supportive research on this topic in the body of literature on economic sustainability. Following the literature review, I introduce the methodology of my research, the data collection and analysis, and policy recommendations for the reader. The data collected in this report is comparable to other settings in the United States, as urban planning and development is particular to each region and city but generally follows the same systemic process.

Zoning code decisions may be made by the public participation outcome of collaboration between public committees and council decisions. In order to develop inclusionary units, the policy for these specific requirements and the fees to enforce them are decided by the county Housing Authority. Proponents of shared-equity homeownership worked to improve policy by forming an exception to regulations to allow greater funding for community land trust Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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organizations forming permanent affordability through shared equity homeownership (Kelly, 2010). These nonprofit organizations were recognized as stewards of open space, as well as affordable homeownership, in rapidly gentrifying areas.

In the timeline of the growing population, land use needs transform cities, meanwhile the added urgency of the climate crisis causes planners to re-evaluate the form of urban development. A Sonoma County resident that formed their own CLT describes stewardship as “...preservation, protection, and healing of the natural environment, as well as providing access to sustainable agriculture, cooperatives, and cottage industries” (North, 2019). This is a social ecology perspective, which I chose to center in my research question to exhibit how community land trusts embody the best outcomes of sustainable development.

The next evidence I provide reveals archival research on the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County through public documents shared in media coverage by the press in the Sonoma County region. News articles may not be the most reliable source due to the nature of journalism, however a self-described community history of the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County is not yet available. In addition to these publicly available reports, evidence from Data Planet supports claims that housing prices are rising. Evidently the context of the origin of the nonprofit in public media accounts is an economic crisis of rising home prices (see Figure 2.2 below).

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It is evident that there is very little awareness of sustainable development as a practice in the narratives of early media coverage. Articles reveal that Clark Blasdell, formerly Executive Director of Northbay Family Homes based out of Novato, California, was Chair of the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County at its founding. According to the Press Democrat, his leadership in partnering with the public and private sector in previous fundraising endeavors attributed to his placement as Chair of HLT - with recognition from over 100 businesses, local government agencies, and grassroots organizations. His ambitious goals are noted in the earliest article I was able to identify with evidence of their impact written in 2002. The concern over rising home prices has been most urgent to the organization. As Clark Blasdell understands, homeownership is one of the first steps toward stability for the workforce struggling to find affordable housing (Fricker, 2002). After two years, Dev Goetschius was identified as the Executive Director for HLT at the time of completion of the 1st development site at a row of affordable homes in a culde-sac in Santa Rosa, California. 6 homeowners contributed sweat equity to the construction of their own homes in collaboration with HLT and another nonprofit, Habitat for Humanity. These Figure 2.2: Graph demonstrates various rates of rising home prices following a decade of stagnation up until 2000.

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organizations were successful in creating stable homeownership for the diverse low-income workforce population of Roseland, in Santa Rosa (Digitale, 2004).

The body of literature on social sustainability provides more information on public participation, however I demonstrate that sweat equity is a more literal contribution by the public that is valuable for nonprofit groups working towards affordable housing development projects that are economically viable. I recognize that a gap in media coverage may be present in describing the public participation process for the housing element of the general plan; participatory planning for the general plan provides outcomes for affordable housing regulation.

This is evidence that there has been initiative to try new strategies to support affordable housing development, however there have been limitations in connecting this practice to sustainable development.

The Sonoma County Housing Coalition is the organization which has been supporting the fulfillment of fundraising goals for HLT to the extent of millions of dollars from the public and private sector. The success of their program has been first and foremost because “the trust has received a cross section of support from business and industry, housing advocates and environmentalists, government, real estate officials and builders.” This article explains their determination to succeed by demonstrating a wide network of community support. It is the first writing from the news media that I have identified making a connection to environmentalists (Coit, 2003). Coit returns to the topic in 2005 with more details about the community land trust model. This is the first writing I have identified which describes to readers the origin of the CLT model in the 1960’s and the rise of their popularity through economic struggle in the 1980’s (Coit, 2005).

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In another article, local journalist Smith’s description of the community land trust model utilized to manage stable affordability of these homes for generations and for cycles of homeownership is beneficial to greater knowledge of sustainable development in cities by describing the local political landscape. Coit writes on the topic further by centering the origin of executive director Dev Goetschius in the prominent community building role of the organization (Coit, 2005). Economic instability is evident in 2006 as there is turmoil about the housing crisis described by the media in the city of Petaluma, where HLT is based (Coit, 2005). The following year, another article by Coit reveals more details of the row of homes in Santa Rosa, California that evidence shows is the first project by HLT, such as the quick time frame in which the project was completed (Coit, 2006).

One common method of promoting construction for affordable housing has been through subsidies by the government. This process creates a challenge to maintain the affordability of new housing units over time when the value of property increases. The Executive Director of HLTSC, Dev Geotschius, is quoted in this article recommending the community land trust model as a cost-effective subsidy which keeps the public sector’s investment into affordable housing in perpetuity (Digitale, 2006).

Another short article listed in 2007 in the Press Democrat reveals details of a plan for affordable housing in Petaluma, California. The article describes 23 homes selling at belowmarket rate to be built at a two-and-a-half-acre lot site (Press Democrat, 2007). Moving forward with another article in 2010, Hay describes a potential project in Cotati, California which reveals the value of affordable housing at the time for city employees and major industries in the North Bay (Hay, 2010). Years later, a housing subdivision named Sonata in Healdsburg, California is the site of another project in the media completed in collaboration with HLT. 6 homes in the Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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neighborhood subdivision have been classified as inclusive units in the development, preserved for affordable homeownership in partnership with HLT. The City of Healdsburg is identified in the media for very low turnout of affordable housing development and a competitive housing market for a public-school teacher to find potential homeownership (Mason, 2015). See Figure

2.3 below for a concise view of the development project timeline.

Figure 2.3: Excel Sheet demonstrates an approximate timeline of HLT projects with data featured on public sources.

I find evidence that sustainability frameworks have entered the conversation of land use in an article released by the Sonoma-Index Tribune in November of 2015. This article names Dave Koehler as the Executive Director of the Sonoma County Land Trust. This organization is separate from the Housing Land Trust and specializes in conservation of open space for regional parks and wildlife preservation. Details in public media accounts demonstrate that drought is recognized for causing stress onto the environment, as well as the urban setting, initiating awareness of sustainable development practices and “biodiversity in housing” (Sonoma-Index Tribune, 2015). Another nonprofit group highlights open space protections further; however, they do not specify that agricultural land is threatened in any way. Rural land is a large part of the local economy in Sonoma County and contributes to the character of local cities. In this Capstone report, I show that the limitations of densifying the community are also due to this character of the region. Figure 2.4 demonstrates that there is a large amount of prime farmland in Sonoma County, and a variety of uses of local or statewide importance. Public media accounts in 2017 provide the conversation on infill development as described in an analysis by the Greenbelt Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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Alliance, which maintains that city officials in Sonoma County should build more housing near major public transportation stations (Morris, 2017). This transit-oriented development for dense and compact cities can be countered by the impact of locals at public comment meetings - - as I describe further in the body of literature on social sustainability. News media accounts from early-2017 help to clarify the goals of HLT for the next couple of years with details of the current stock of housing they are managing and the higher goal they are expecting to reach.

Sonoma County is identified as the fourth least affordable county in the State by the writer, Warren. A 6-acre property is touted in Santa Rosa for potential to build another neighborhood subdivision at a more affordable rate to the greater bay area, despite the highly competitive housing market locally. It is essential to identify that teachers, as valuable members of the workforce, are being guided toward this model of homeownership to build stability with a moderate or low income (Warren, 2017). An article formerly printed in late-2019 describes the housing development project advancing in the Willowglen area of the City of Rohnert Park, Figure 2.4: New urban/ built up land is evident in red, demonstrating the progress of the urban growth boundary and infill development regulations up until 2018.

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California in Sonoma County. More than 70 units are described in the article to be managed for below-market rate affordability in perpetuity with the community land trust model. Valuable workforce housing is also recognized as an essential component of the economy for the region (Fixler, 2019).

A different economic crisis is described in recent media coverage due to the pandemic shut-downs of March 2020. The region experienced an interruption in revenue streams provided from the tax dollars and fees which contribute to affordable housing funds. This is evidence that wildfires are now the contemporary environmental hazard, a change from previous articles that mention flooding as a concern. Slower permitting by city government has also stalled construction which may have slowed the possibility of approving affordable housing development (Fixler, 2020).

The Sonoma-Index Tribune reveals designations for affordability that are considered in each project by describing categories of percentage of the Area Median Income to demostrate the low-income range of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The writer, Walsh, provides a perspective from the City of Sonoma, an area where management of affordable housing by the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County has not yet been received. Sonoma is a location of the origin of the Sustainable Development Center, which was in previous media coverage about development into lands demarcated for preservation and conservation.

The writer, Walsh, covers communications with government agencies over the housing development needs of a city nestled in the Sonoma Valley (Walsh, 2022). This article reveals to me that public participation provides guidance for housing development and affordable housing allocation beneficial regionally for the county, and preservation and conservation remain a Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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conflict specific to this region. I describe research on the public participation process in sustainable development further in the literature review.

Finally, the Press Democrat exemplifies tensions between developers and city leadership in Santa Rosa in an article dated in 2021. In the article, the false-promise of affordable housing units by developers has been revealed with assistance by a whistle-blower. The writer leads to several recommendations, including an increase to fees for monitoring by the Community Development Commission for accuracy of affordable housing construction. (Press Democrat, 2021). Evidently, there is a challenge to sustaining affordability of units for the leadership of municipalities.

An article on inclusionary zoning from an expert based in Berkeley, California described Sonoma County as a fast growing and competitive market for housing. The writer, Nari Rhee, a doctoral candidate and researcher at the UC, Berkeley Department of Geography, identifies Affordable Housing for Everyone, a report written in collaboration with a variety of nonprofit groups. An emphasis in the report was on finance structures for housing development in recommendation of land trust models. The source highlights the use of public funding sources from taxes and fees as well as a variety of donors from the public and private sector, commending another community land trust as a model to follow. Among the policy recommendations for greater funding allocations, the summary provided by Rhee is that the land trust model can make a grand contribution to stabilizing the workforce struggling to find affordable housing (Rhee, 2003). I show that this is a guiding principle for HLT in my data collection, and describe this is a value to sustainable development in the literature review.

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thriving communities worldwide. ULI recognizes sustainable development and the crisis of affordable housing in the same time span that the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County was formed and began to collaborate with developers and city leaders (Bach, 2012). The report titled, Ten Principles for Developing Affordable Housing, also ends with a chapter on Orchestrating Sustainability which describes sustainable development and “taking a holistic approach to sustainable affordable housing that focuses on people instead of buildings (Bach, p. 27)” According to the organization, sustainable development practices can look like infill development, new urbanism, utilizing recycled building materials, and lowering emissions through maintenance and long-term management (Bach, p. 28). The holistic approach reflects research in the literature review by centering the community, the benefits and needs for buyers over the long-term, and recognizing access to public transit as well as open space.

Furthermore, a report from the Urban Institute in 2013 also describes the value of a constant practice to sustain nonprofit organizations that support and affiliate with local government actors. This is evidence that nonpartisan policy researchers have recognized nonprofits, such as Habitat for Humanity International, as organizations that support affordable housing development projects by being adaptive and responsive to the context of their local government finances in a sustainable practice for city leaders (Scott, 2013). In adherence to these definitions, evidence from the project description of Jamie Lane in collaboration between the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County and the City of Cotati indicates the subdivision is part of an infill development plan (Cotati, 2020). By regulating this feature of the project development site and replicating the process in a bigger city such as Petaluma, the actors follow definitions of practices on sustainable development which are also supported by the Urban Land Institute. The region of Sonoma County is a landscape recognized as mostly suburban-rural with the many Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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valleys providing open space and agriculture. Projects that plan for infill development are a form of sustainable development in this context. Evidence of the decline of total land coverage of evergreen forest in Sonoma County shows the progress of infill development in urbanized areas.

Figure 2.5: In 2001, nearly all the area of Sonoma County is greater than 90% in square meters of evergreen forest.

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Figure 2.6: In 2011, urban centers are identifiable with less than 5% square meters of evergreen forest.

These think tanks, institutions, and local journalists provide evidence of the context of my research on sustainable development. The organization Habitat for Humanity International itself has recognized sustainable development goals in their 2017 Shelter Report. At the time this report was written, HLTSC has seventy-nine single-family homes under its portfolio, with fiftysix other homes and condominiums in development. The report titled, Building Inclusive Communities Through Homes That Last, identifies the expanding acceptance of the Housing Land Trust to the region through identifying locations in 7 of the 9 municipalities of Sonoma County (Davis, 2017). These cities pay an annual fee to contract with HLT for their increasingly necessary role of land stewardship to not only prevent displacement due to gentrification, but to assist homeowners with preserving the quality of the property over time. This provides a greater explanation of the practice of sustainable development. The Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County recognizes stewardship as a valuable community protocol to protect the investment of government [subsidies] (Davis, p. 42). This input from Executive Director Dev Goetschius Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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identifies that value of homeowners’ stability from foreclosure to leaders of municipalities. By partnering with local government, private donors, and other institutions such as Sonoma State University, the organization collaborates to produce inclusive housing (Cotati, 2020).

Evidence demonstrates the land trust model has been recognized by the Grand Civil Jury of Sonoma County in their public survey report. The stated goal of utilizing the land trust model was to bridge the funding gap which has been most preventative of interest in building affordable housing by developers in the region calculating for building costs, employment, and permitting fees (Sonoma County, 2016). Although the county study provides the guidance of coordination with land trust models for greater development of affordable housing, there is not a recognition of balance in urbanism with the social ecology.

Cycles of inequality may be identified through affordable housing in relation to other social institutions such as health, income, access to resources, representation in political roles, etc. It is essential for leaders of municipalities and nonprofits to establish and follow indicators for sustainable development as a practice. For county level analysis of these indicators, it is ideal to understand the context of land-use which is determined as containing a high percentage of land conserved for agriculture and open space. This is a valuable sector of the economy of Sonoma County as well as valuable to the health and well-being of the community; generally, there may be a disparity in the access to these resources by some groups, such as youth from BIPOC households. As leaders of municipalities coordinate with nonprofits for public participation of future affordable housing sites for equity in urban development, the indicators of sustainable development would initiate the conception of affordable housing away from environmental risks, building self-sustaining homes with natural resources, and integrating useful access to public transportation, horticulture, and open space experiences.

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In this Master’s Capstone Project, I contextualize the approach of the urban planner by connecting to academic and environmentalist research moving leaders of cities towards urban sustainability and sustainable development. This may limit the research I am able to accomplish because the topic casts a wide net onto critical sustainability issues in city planning - such as managing energy systems, agricultural or other extraction in urban development, as well as managing waste and reuse. For contemporary leaders managing these issues, environmental justice is a dynamic between the spatial element of housing development projects and the quality of life of the low-income populations that are vulnerable to the hazardous effects of pollution just by their proximity.

This Capstone Project focuses on the challenge of solving issues in housing such as the affordability crisis to begin to meet sustainable development outcomes through the community land trust model. I explain further how the underserved community participates in the current system of housing development in the next chapters. Any obstacles to finding the information that connects urban sustainability to housing development demonstrates the lack of integration between these two goals, in academic research as well as in the political landscape of the local context. Thus, I inform the reader on how affordable housing development can be a complex challenge through the perspective of 3 bodies of literature on social sustainability, economic sustainability, and environmental sustainability in the literature review.

In the next chapter, I describe the approach of 3 researchers that form the theoretical framework for this report to assist the reader with an understanding of the literature review to follow. I proceed by describing the methodology for this Capstone, which explains how I gathered information. With the background knowledge from the 3 researchers in the theoretical framework chapter, readers form a better understanding about the progress of sustainable Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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development knowledge. They also contribute a greater understanding to the goals and the approach of affordable housing development by the actors in this Capstone report.

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Chapter 3.) Theoretical Framework
Now that the reader understands the local context, I introduce the perspectives of several researchers to provide insight into the data analysis of this Capstone report. As a basic explanation, there must be an understanding that in the present day, our development of urban regional networks is not environmentally sustainable. Our paved roadways, building construction plans, and expense of fossil fuels for the transportation of materials and labor does not constitute an environmentally sustainable practice. Nonetheless, I have connected affordable housing development to sustainable development in my report to center the mission of the community land trust to resolve the challenges in both. Dr. Melissa Checker is a researcher that studies trends in urban planning to discuss issues of equity. She critiques high-end redevelopment and demonstrates the dynamics of environmental gentrification in historically underserved neighborhoods (Checker, 2020). Environmental justice activists lead the organizing efforts to form new policy with rights for the displaced and underprivileged groups. My research is understood in this theoretical framework because I argue that the community land trust model embodies the best outcomes of sustainable development which I explain further in the Literature Review.

Another researcher, Dr. Cornel West, speaks to the challenge of racial, economic, and political divides as well. He speaks studies modernity and its discontents in, The New Cultural Politics of Difference. This perspective introduces insight to my interpretation of the data collection and analysis. West reflects on our positionality as researchers in the same light as I have revealed in the first chapter introduction; the foundation of the researcher is central to their contributions in academic scholarship. West wishes to pursue a criticism of the current era to propose policy recommendations that seem as a utopian state, rather than contribution to the Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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continuum of capitalist institutions profiteering from globalism and neoliberalism, as well as militarism and patriarchal racism (West, 1990). He further describes this policy as “pursuant of land back to the historically brutalized communities of Native American groups, reparations to the historically brutalized Black diaspora, and redistribution of wealth to the underprivileged working-class groups of Latin America and the Asian and Pacific Islander community that have also faced historical prejudice and discrimination”. In the context of this report, I recognize that generations of families have benefitted from homeownership while others have been historically prevented to form this generational wealth through various policies. The economic security to build equity and wealth, to settle roots in community, and to contribute to political institutions – these are rights that have been delayed for far too long due to discriminatory practices embedded in the systems of power.

This interdisciplinary understanding of urban public policy and urban and regional planning leads us to a geographical perspective that develops my thesis by introducing affordable housing into that discussion. Dr. Michael Storper is the third researcher in this theoretical framework that provides a greater understanding of the Capstone. He studies infill development and urban growth to make conclusions about the changing spatial form of the city and the movement of socioeconomic demographic groups. My research report on the versatility of the community land trust organization to embody the mission of sustainable development practices is magnified with the understanding of the research introduced by Dr. Melissa Checker and Dr.

Michael Storper. According to Storper, stricter land use policies are harmful for economic growth associated with greater displacement and segregation along both income and racial lines.

This theoretical framework has led me interpret data in order to make the proper policy recommendations.

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The toolkit for affordable housing development is confined by the capitalist ideology, and a history of practices in urban planning that essentially started with colonialism. The theoretical framework brings these ideas together and helps the reader to understand the sustainable development concepts relayed in the Capstone. Capitalist motives are a factor that stalls the international trade and emissions reduction agreements organized to slow the human impact onto the climate. As scholars internationally recognize the instability of the Earth’s climate with the current human impact on the environment, sustainable development goals must be more prominent in policy to form urban communities that are resilient through environmental hazards.

I have connected the threads of knowledge of these 3 researchers in the theoretical framework of this report. The sustainable development goals that the United Nations has concluded are part of the foundation of this report. Although a textbook definition of sustainable development may refer us to materialistic approaches to the resources on Earth, a policy definition of sustainable development gathers an interdisciplinary set of knowledge. As I will describe further in the Literature Review, materials may be featured multiple times in the bodies of literature on environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The social ecology is a theory about our people, which is central to my research question. It is a school of research that states our problems in society may only be fixed by resolving issues among people as individuals and as group institutions. In this report, I have expanded the sustainability approach in contemporary policy to explain how community land trusts are an essential component of social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

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Chapter 4.) Sustainable Development: An Interdisciplinary Review The climate crisis challenges our communities at the local, regional, and global scale.

This is evident as nations continue to meet for collaborative and nonpartisan agreements, such as the most recent meeting at the COP26 Climate Summit. This multi-scale challenge is a problem of energy consumption in the patterns of industry leaders, as well as a problem of the social patterns of our individual needs for food, shelter, and transportation within our communities.

Decisions over incremental changes in greenhouse gas emissions have been critiqued as inconclusive, and the redistribution of wealth seems distant evident by the nations that have not contributed to these emissions with populations in direct harm from the changing climate (Roy et. al., 2018). Sustainable development goals are values-based, as a set of goals to aspire urban development to a prosperous, fair, and thriving environment through the climate crisis. At the local scale, the crisis of housing is evident in the market approach of planning to integrate affordability within the current schema of the housing industry which has been challenging to navigate for the working class.

In major cities the challenge is consistently resolved through scaling up development of housing to create choice of residency and diversity of pricing options for rentals or owned units.

The interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development research forms a practice much greater than what can be managed by one single entity. Environmental governance is complicated due to the interregional boundaries that challenge collaboration between jurisdictions. Experts of urban studies describe competing jurisdictions that seek to grow the economy for their respective locality. In any city, this cements the problem within the state of the economy. Similar to Sonoma County, residents across the workforce compete for jobs and housing to support themselves, enduring long travel times and fear of loss of work or nonAgenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9 City Council Meeting Packet of January 3, 2023

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negotiable changes to housing rates. Leaders of housing policy must understand this context as they regulate conditions for affordable housing development.

The following 3 bodies of literature inform the parameters for the academic conversation on sustainable development in practice. Academic conversations on the research of sustainable development in practice articulate the topic of affordable housing as an intertwined issue, as evident in the body of literature on economic sustainability. The housing issue cannot be contained to construction only – in other words, addressing the question of inputs – labor and materials. These are specific challenges in growing cities that leaders must resolve with equity at the forefront of public policy for the prosperity of the common good and for the resilience of community through the climate crisis. I begin with environmental sustainability, in which I describe the stance of conservationists and the approach of setting city boundaries across regions of the environment.

Environmental Sustainability
The tension of urban boundaries within nature is part of the discussion in social ecology.

Environmentalists seek to identify responsible lifestyles through the human induced climate crisis as human impacts from urban development affect biodiversity, and thus comprehensive ecosystems. Sustainable urbanism is a development approach which I will identify in the discourse of academics seeking to address the urban scale within the forces of nature. One of the values in sustainability policy is the natural habitat assessments that contribute to conservation and restoration of the environment. A report by Abbruzzese et al. describes an anti-sprawl campaign in which women engaged in resistance to planners and developers in advocacy for their own vision of environmental justice and social equality.

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Evidence by Abbruzzese and Gerda provides the ecofeminist perspective coming from the force of grassroots organizers in the article, “Gendered Spaces of Activism in Exurbia.” The article describes pushback against the former process of centralized, paternalistic urban planning in the case of grassroots advocacy to protect ecologically sensitive land. This is a tension identified by other researchers in this section as well. The anti-sprawl perspective of this casestudy now forms the leading practices of urban planners in utilizing infill development policy as a practice for sustainable development.

While the first article shows advances in urban development, discussions of anti-sprawl, green infrastructure certifications, and the NIMBY dilemma in planning ultimately lower the credibility of sustainable development projects. This is due to the global scale dilemma of the human induced climate crisis (Kenny et al., 2002, Preval et al., 2016, McMillan et al., 2017, Duany, 2019). Researchers detail a complex inefficiency as actors in the local scale plan for urban growth through the climate crisis without a greater understanding of humans as ecological beings. Now that I have identified this complex understanding of urbanism, I move on to understanding how to implement the best solutions.

An article by Kenny et al. provides the perspective of Ashby’s Law of Requisite Variety.

This perspective describes population growth and daily life within a chaotic human-induced climate crisis. Common property regimes for sustainable management of resources such as housing as well as environment are introduced as solutions to this perspective (Temkin et. al. 2013, p. 556). The evidence from these articles demonstrates the nuances in confronting economic inequality and environmental justice for the urban planner; my research will show that it is critical to require adaptation to certain aspects of the landscape to integrate the community Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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into the economy and into participatory regimes. I discuss these topics further in the next section of the body of literature on social sustainability.

Another tension in environmental sustainability forms in planning for growth in urban settings without proper foresight into the positive and negative externalities that arise. Dense urbanism is helpful to planners seeking to manage traffic congestion (Eichhorn et al., 2021). Yet, this contribution to lower emissions may be less effective than at first perceived for the purposes of environmental sustainability as a policy. In other words, the scholarship assumes that all development may be harmful if it is disrupting natural systems.

Dense urbanism formed by infill development may prevent sprawl patterns of growth, however often resulting in heat island effect from concrete urban development. Negative externalities will tend to impact vulnerable groups in poverty more than others. Impacts from environmental hazards in cities are concentrated at higher populations resulting in more potential losses. According to conversations on environmental sustainability, it is essential to combine efforts to adapt to climate change along with the infill development practices in new urbanism and smart growth theory. “The central fields of action are water, energy, agriculture and forestry, transport and logistics, soil, nature conservation and health care, as well as urban, regional and state level planning” (Eichhorn et al., p. 2235). Eichhorn demonstrates a complex nexus requiring cohesive and urgent action.

Critical sustainability systems are reflected in the development of housing in which scholars in the body of literature on environmental sustainability also agree that building density can lower emissions. Planning professionals manage population growth through policy for urban development which will efficiently integrate residents into the workforce, into the community, and thus, into the economy (Eichorn et al., 2021). In the field of urban planning for housing and Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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community development the trend of urban infill development is a part of sustainability initiatives equivalent to smart growth planning. Climate change adaptation is the challenge further outlined by Eichhorn et al. to enhance previous perspectives in sustainable development and describe the dense built environment along with the different needs for climate adaptation.

Furthermore, this pattern of development informs the other needs described in the literature review for social sustainability and economic sustainability.

Policy for sustainable development may appear differently in a setting challenged with limitations on space and land to develop. I have personally studied project developments and the processes of permit streamlining as a research assistant for an environmental governance study of the United States. New Zealand scholars studied these impacts, particularly indicated in the practice of infill development compared to green-field development. In “Streamlining Urban Housing Development: Are There Environmental Sustainability Impacts?”, a similar approach as utilized in California is evident as regional housing authorities manage the housing crisis in their separate jurisdictions. Permit streamlining is one of the main concerns of leaders in the environmentalist movement seeking to challenge pro-housing policy to protect environmental sustainability.

Urban planners demarcate potential housing projects to include affordable units through policy. The most modern development sites often include LEED energy certifications. During the housing affordability crisis, leaders must also account for participatory requirements as they attempt to fast-track development (Preval et al., p. 103). Meanwhile conservation efforts and campaigns to change habits or lifestyle patterns can contribute to sustainable development, the next body of literature forms the plan of execution.

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Social Sustainability
I form a greater understanding of sustainable development in relation to the spatial context by identifying patterns evident in the body of literature on social sustainability. As a reminder of the parameters for these conversations on sustainable development, this category will provide my research with the evidence of strategies to scale housing development enough to solve for poverty. Smart growth is one strategy to facilitate sustainable development in cities according to some scholars; evidence demonstrates the relationship between lowering emissions through producing greater amounts of affordable housing in a dense plan (McMillan and Lee 2017, p. 3502). I will inform how this practice is managed in cities further using evidence of public participation frameworks for the purposes of social sustainability.

Urban planners use determinations of land-use and specific project requirements that restrict development in the name of improving the quality of life for the community. Evidence shows the political relationships that influence decision-making at the expense of the most vulnerable groups in society that may not participate in homeownership, nor in the public participation process executed in the name of just redevelopment (Castán Broto et. al. 2019, p. 70). By generating public policy to scale the development of affordable housing, the urban planner facilitates or directs workforce development. As a public servant, the urban planner can only hope to play a factor in affecting the habits and patterns of the public by using indirect contributions from their role beside municipal leaders. Putting smart growth into practice is an environmentalist approach; however, I will introduce evidence of equitable forms to execute this urban development of affordable housing.

Multi-unit development sites meet contest for approval, especially among feedback from sympathetic residents exhibiting NIMBY patterns. These residents deter production (Duany Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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2013, p. 117) which can impact the demand of housing and provide housing diversity to the workforce. I find evidence of a negative perception in aspects of this development from the smart growth approach by McMillan and Lee (2017, p. 3501). Urban planners coordinate with developers and resolve financial disputes to produce housing development in the context of political arenas spanning years of tradition. Sustainable development goals provide a relatively new arena for the purpose of providing efficient public services which incentivizes municipal leaders. Meanwhile residents may be organized in the NIMBY pattern in refusal of multifamily housing development, McMillan and Lee demonstrate the needs for diverse communities to advocate for in housing development. They analyze the landscape of the urban environment to find where smart growth applies to the development of multi-family housing sites (2017, p. 3501). Their approach identifies the benefits of this housing development for low-income groups, and the challenge of changing the urban area recognized by more senior folks.

NIMBY-ism is a problem of equity as many leaders of municipalities formalize the development process by inter-jurisdictional discretion (McMillan and Lee 2017, p. 3502).

However, more development does not necessarily lead to greater affordability, and nor does the inclusion of longer or higher intensity of green rhetoric in cities (Checker, 2011, Garcia-Lamarca et al., 2019). Garcia-Lamarca et al. describe green capitalism “attempts to resolve economic and ecological crisis [yet] integrated into new circuits of capital accumulation and supposedly sustainable growth trajectories” (2019, p. 93). Thus, to link affordable housing development in the realm of environmental protection, sustainable development must form an inescapable commitment to social equity (Pastor and Brenner, 2015, Roseland, 1992). This may be the formative evidence in scholarship which connects concepts that may seem so separate as affordable housing and sustainable development.

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Scholars that agree on proximity planning for sustainable smart growth would also explain that environmental considerations should be entrenched in development of economic policy. Evidence shows community land trust models are representative of these values. To deliver a fair future for all, local governments bundle programs for environmentalism and equity to build capacity for agents of change with local knowledge in the approach of just sustainabilities (Castan-Broto et al., 2019). This demonstrates ethics of care and responsibility by accounting for inclusivity in growth and development. Abbruzzese and Gerda resolve conflicts between residents that participate in environmentalist movements in their approach to criticize planners and developers in an organized campaign against sprawl. Evidence from the ecofeminists relates to the indigenous approach that I will explain further.

These groups may not yet be fully received by scholarship and policy intended for equity in urban development due to the nature of peoples’ history with indigenous groups. Brondízio et al. describe the valuable techniques for resource management and knowledge of the natural world for building community resilience (2021, p. 485). The practices of evaluating and monitoring the environment directly surrounding their community is evident in their approach which has not been recognized in considerations for the human impact of forming the environment. Indigenous conceptions of sustainability, such as the virtue of reciprocal responsibility and respect for nature are not evident in other community development scholarship (Brondízio et al. 2021, p. 483). I find that evidence in their writing supports scholarship from Abbruzzese and Gerda on their participatory approach towards the resolution for social sustainability.

Now that I have informed the reader on participatory planning, I introduce other scholars studying equitable planning outcomes. Brondizio et al. identify and address the need for Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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understanding social-environmental problems by supporting a diversity of knowledge systems in local communities, which especially includes women (2021, p. 484). The legacy of colonialism has resulted in a major lack of cohesion among municipal leadership and these actors which share a philosophy of environmentalism in lifestyle. The feminist movement and the indigenous perspective have been historically marginalized in research and beyond, however they will inform the research study to contribute to conversations on social sustainability. Brenner and Pastor describe smart growth as a counter to low-density sprawl project developments, their perspective is common in the conversation on tensions between environmental sustainability which I have discussed in the previous section.

They argue that we must continue to coordinate research and grassroots organizing to promote valuable alternatives to housing development that do not remain in the status quo. Their book Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America’s Metro Cities establishes the equity perspective of Brenner and Pastor through the stages of growth for the developing urban center. The framework of participatory planning is a common perspective among these scholars; however, I find a gap in the approach of sustainable development scholarship in describing the structures of power particular to home life and the financialization of land-use.

Mixed-use and smart growth may be described as a form of sustainable development by some scholars; however, planners must utilize participatory planning as a tool. The first section on environmental sustainability worked to show that scholarly discussions over land use determine the spatial landscape of the human environment and the parameters of environmentalist practices that can be determined. The scholarship assumes the role of individuals in urban development can be attributed to participatory regimes, which may be Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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misrepresentative of the structures of power. This exception suggests that my research question is in fact timely and positioned to make important contributions to scholarly debates.

Urban planners manage housing choice as they attempt to account for a diversity of options for rates of housing cost, providing a set value of affordability and access to the urban environment which may be undermined in some jurisdictions more than others (Fulton and Shigley, 2005). Brenner and Pastor envision participatory planning as a major solution, which is a formalized strategy of the activism generated by the grassroots organizing of ecofeminists and indigenous scholars. To show how I will answer my research question, this section defines public participation as a factor in sustainable development which will justify these inquiries in my methodology.

Urban planning practitioners are urged to manage the landscape and engage policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero, which directly affects residents. This coordination must include food systems and transportation systems within cities for critical contributions to sustainability. My research into the conversation on social sustainability specifies affordable housing and public participation to meet the challenge of poverty in cities. Poverty impacts lowincome families, groups in transitional phases in life, and underserved marginalized peoples. I set these parameters for sustainable development research because I believe this is a foundation for direct impact to the quality of life for residents and roots communities in place as industries transition to a green economy.

Evidence shows that community development planners require examples of generating cohesion in community meanwhile building on the natural resources that can continue to promote sustainable development goals in the economic activity of cities. Lifestyles that are created through housing development patterns are influenced by urban planners which are Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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challenged with re-forming suburban sprawl into livable communities (Fulton and Shigley, page). I find evidence from the approach of the landscape developer is integrated into the tradition of urban development using the concept of the Rural-to-Urban Transect (Duany, 2013).

The levels of density present in the urban setting described by Duany, as well as solutions for helping the poor and disadvantaged through community involvement and environmental stewardship create a valuable contribution to the gap in participatory planning scholarship.

This perspective is comparable by to the scholars of residency which concentrate the literature review toward the issue of poverty, the exacerbated issue of homelessness, and informs the crisis of affordable housing in the next body of literature on economic sustainability. Duany links environmental health to the class issue and the spatial layout of a city to create a resolution for urban development challenge. His approach for participatory design of the city echoes the perspective described by Brenner and Pastor, Abbruzzese and Gerda, and Brodízio et al. I find that equity in urban development is evident in literature describing better control over living environments by the means of sharing equity with future generations of homeowners. This is an economically sustainable contribution to affordable housing by community land trust models for land stewardship (Temkin et al., 2013).

The purpose and goal of building equity along with environmentalism is the final connection to economic sustainability in the nexus of sustainable development. I review the conversation on social sustainability further in the approach described as political ecology, which bridges the multiple discourses of sustainable development goals. The struggle between discourse and ideology is evident in the overlap of economies with the managerialism in policy and planning (Pezzoli, 1997). While I find evidence of environmentalism, Pezzoli also describes eco-socialists and questions the legitimacy of capitalism for efficient management of sustainable Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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development by using the political ecology perspective. These conditions of governance in which principles of urban environmental planning take place are echoed in the scholarship on residency, as I will describe in the tensions within economic, social, and environmental outcomes concerning housing developments.

Economic Sustainability
Good quality housing is a goal for residents seeking to live with dignity, as well for many developers of housing units. In some cities, this can look like rehabilitation of properties and upgrading a checklist of items for energy efficiency. The cost of purchasing and upgrading these units can then be calculated by the developer to fulfill the need for affordable housing. Evidence shows that communities in poverty suffer most from negative externalities in energy efficiency which may result in costs of living expenses. Housing and other aspects of residency - such as energy efficiency - are under review in studies of sustainable development as central to our habits, patterns, and lifestyles (Bond et al, 2011, Schroeder et al. 2019). Previous bodies of literature in this research project have described tensions in locating multi-unit housing developments; public participation is another tension previously discussed in the literature review, which is challenging planners to uplift residents of these affordable housing developments.

According to Schroeder et al., planners and policy makers must consider greater environmental governance roles for residents of cities through the climate crisis. This is a tool for urban planners to form spatial equity and is well understood by other scholars of social sustainability. Schroeder et al. relate the impact of human consumption on a wider scale than the urban environment by using a transdisciplinary approach to Sustainable Consumption and Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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Production (Schroeder et al., 2019). To bring these discussions back to economic sustainability, I find evidence that they contribute to conversations on sustainable development by arguing to reduce the individual carbon footprint in the household and take consideration of the role of communities at the larger scale in urban settings. Not only does this mean challenging households to change lifestyle patterns, but the problem with integrating sustainable development into affordable housing is also a challenge of economic stability for at-risk groups.

Sustainable homeownership fills in a gap in the literature review which many scholars approach through research on community land trust models (Temkin et al., 2013, Roseland, 1992). Thus far, sustainable development goals improve conditions for disadvantaged groups by the positive benefits of increased density and their advocacy in local participation of land-use. A major piece of evidence is the benefit from the role of community land trust membership for affordable housing and land stewardship.

Temkin et al. forewarn of the need for more or better control over living environments for residents which may not have occurred if conversions toward stable equity building models such as limited equity cooperatives are formed in the current public housing stock (p. 556). The practice of building home conversions has been found to create economic stability in urban environments by preserving affordable housing and providing supplemental income to the owner of the property. These have been identified as illegal units in some cities, as residents seek housing with dignity. A growing wave of protest and advocacy has found solidarity in limitations to the profit motive of housing investments by the real estate industry.

The equity driven mission of the contemporary planner has changed form since Rittel and Weber pointed out the complexities of poverty and spatial location as challenging “wicked” problems (Rittel and Weber, 1969, Campbell, 1972). These urban planning scholars described Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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issues in development years before greater awareness of environmental challenges and sustainable development. I find evidence that the community land trust model is determined to be a sustainable model of homeownership (Roseland, 1992). Evidence shows that our urban environment can prosper with the contribution of more stakeholders to land use. Community land trusts do this by increasing the custodian role of land stewards with the vast initiatives of sustainable development policy. Economic stability for disadvantaged groups has been gaining traction is confrontational ways as cities adapt units to acquire and preserve affordable homeownership. Tenants have organized all occupants of multi-unit building and purchased their units through TOPA, the Tenants’ Opportunity to Purchase Act (and COPA which allows for the benefit of collaboration with community organizations). Now that I have introduced a method of acquiring stable homeownership, I proceed to describe it further.

A gap in the literature may be evident on this matter due to the rapidly changing conditions of urban policy in cities at the present day. The community land trust is determined to be much more economically stable, without locking beneficiaries in place with undue restrictions. These organizations contribute to forming a fair and just city for low-income groups, consistent with the body of literature in the previous section on social sustainability.

Furthermore, aspects of economic sustainability identified provide elements to support or upgrade in the urban planners’ toolkit for sustainable development, especially considering community development at the neighborhood level. By integrating socioeconomic balance, sustainable urban design elements, sustainable transport, and energy or natural resources as pillars into sustainable neighborhood concepts, European autonomous sustainable neighborhoods share ideals necessary for a just planning strategy (Medved, 2016).

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The social justice elements which contribute to sustainable urban planning include the decommodification of land and housing in this approach by Medved. This is an essential component of community land trust models as described by Roseland in Canada and Temkin et. al. in the United States. Evidence from this final category in the bodies of literature ties together systems of executing, managing, and organizing housing development for residents at the time of the current climate crisis. This is the formation of my pursuit and analysis of further research into these practices in the context of Sonoma County.

Conclusion
Development serves as the competing interest to some environmentalists as described by the tension of conservation and locating development sites. In the capitalist market of the real estate industry, the public may face a disadvantage in their participation in the space of land-use.

The 3 bodies of literature I have identified as parameters for sustainable development research are co-related within the challenge of climate change as our society continues to plan for expanding populations, the movement of some groups, and sustaining our consumption of resources. This foundation of knowledge on urban studies and sustainability has been informed by my undergraduate research with Professor Richard Matthews at the University of California of Irvine.

As a former major in mathematics before my introduction to urban studies, my approach towards urban sustainability clarifies the nexus of the materials, labor, and the growth of the metropolis. I continue to research sustainable development goals to question the patterns of urban life that must be critiqued and re-evaluated for the purpose of living within the means of Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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our current natural resources and managing these resources so that future generations can supply their needs as well. This is a definition for sustainability introduced by the United Nations.

Residents and employees which power the engine of the city face tragic outcomes if their vital role is not protected from the repercussions of instable economic conditions which have been repeated in recent decades. Specifically in housing development, the challenge to grow cities and develop affordable housing within the rigid infrastructure residents are mostly stuck with (or organizing to keep the same) requires leaders to adapt cities to the changing urban forms we face in the climate crisis. The relationships articulated in the research question are formed through my experience as a mathematician, in which my understanding of functions and variables are also used to interpret inputs and outputs in the name of sustainable development goals challenging our cities.

The stakes of this scholarly conversation are in the value of a home for the prosperity of each member of the community, in taking into consideration more holistic applications for solving the climate crisis in our cities, and in redevelopment with a green and just transition through the pandemic and beyond. The gap evident in research falls on the dominance of the capitalist ideology in politics which financializes land-use. Business in housing and land development may boost the economy, however the status quo is not sustainable to cities as a capitalist ideology in the real estate industry has created the affordable housing challenge across regions.

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Chapter 5.) Methodology
The mixed methods model of research demonstrates quantitative and qualitative data for a complete analysis of sustainable development in the Sonoma County region. My research question is: how are municipalities and nonprofits affecting the social ecology with sustainable development? I have thus completed semi-structured interviews for qualitative data from community development specialists, development consultants, and administrators of collaborative affordable housing project developments. Their various backgrounds completed a set of data from nonprofits and municipalities, specifically on the growth of knowledge of sustainable development. For the next chapter on the data collection and analysis, it was essential to identify the sustainability issues specific to their work. This includes asking about practices in their work that may come from an environmentalist approach and changes within the two decades prior as knowledge and experience with climate adaptation has grown.

Figure 5.1: The graph shows an initial outline that started the investigation to identify interviewees from municipalities and nonprofits.

I also approached this research question with an archival strategy, beginning with an outline of sustainable development through infill projects identified in Figure 5.1, above. I acquired public data to analyze sustainable urban development for goals that contribute to resilience and public participation. Archival data on the development of land in Sonoma County allowed me to recognize urbanization in specific municipalities. Maps from public resources between 2002-2022 provide quantitative data, as a timeline of urbanization in the Community Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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History section of this report. I demonstrated decreases to valuable farmland and forest coverage correlated with dense urban growth along a major highway route, the Interstate 101. The archival research approach provides an understanding of changes to regional conditions. By starting with this approach, I showed quantitative data of the land on which collaborators have made calculated decisions about creating the best affordable housing solutions. This data informs the strategy in the final chapter to adapt housing policy with sustainable development practices.

California cities form their land use policy to adhere to the requirements of the State Department of Housing and Community Development. Many leaders of municipalities are currently managing the General Plan to update housing element goals in their respective locality.

This report gives affordable housing developers and leaders of municipalities more information to generate a sustainable development policy. Housing and environmental justice are dynamic policies in cities that are changed to suit the needs of the demographics in the region. Sonoma County is impacted with conflicts in urban development related to managing wildfire zones, farmland, and open space preservation. Unpredictable drought seasons make matters worse for through the climate crisis.

In the context of Sonoma County, there are several different nonprofit organizations that manage land through public trusteeship for goals such as preservation and restoration of the environment, affordable housing development, and organizing for equity in urban development.

This report informs the academic conversation on the growing understanding and practice of sustainable development by using the mixed-methods approach. This region creates a dynamic case study on how the county and city affects the social ecology as it manages rural and urban development. The nexus of the natural and built environments is managed through the partnerships identified by this methodology. These actors in urban development push and pull Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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land use policy, affecting domestic migration and affordability for low-income households. This informs readers about how sustainable development is understood and practiced in Sonoma County.

I collected qualitative data from interviews with leaders of affordable housing development projects, specifically seeking more information about the model recognized by the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County. Through identifying land trust sites, I acquired data that led me to contact city officials that have collaborated for affordable housing development within their respective locality. I scheduled semi-structured interviews to collect narratives from experts on their approach to housing and community development. Leaders of affordable housing development in the Community Development or Planning Department in the City make excellent contacts, however they are also public employees that may retire or move to another location.

Therefore, I gathered the most data I could acquire on development projects from archival research to show a timeline of a history of collaborations with the housing trust.

This connection provided a pathway to more information about the details of collaborative projects for affordable housing development. I gained access to a network of planners through my membership with the American Planning Association, offering me a wealth of knowledge from regional programs. I also used a LinkedIn Premium account to message professionals directly and use priority messaging from this account as a resource for interview requests. This tactic supported connections with those that were no longer be working in Sonoma County. I describe qualitative data from the perspectives and personal knowledge in the next chapter.

Through speaking with professionals that have collaborated on the infill model of affordable housing development, this research project informs the changing political landscape Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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of housing in Sonoma County. The mixed methods approach includes semi-structured interviews to add to the significance of quantitative data. This has assisted me in evaluating outcomes from these project developments for improvements to equity, diversity, and inclusion goals in planning with consideration for COVID-19 conditions. The methodology adds to the conversation on sustainable development by introducing the tactic for planning professionals to collaborate with models of public trusteeship. This can expand land use management to include more stakeholders in housing policy and environmental governance decisions. This is a global issue, which is an obstacle because the topic itself creates a challenge for identifying a common ground. Critical sustainability practices are considered for urban progress. However, this may limit opportunities for greater productivity to reducing poverty.

This report is a response to the challenges at the local level for fulfilling sustainable development goals. I have addressed any obstacles by centering the conversation on urban development that can reduce poverty for residents in these local areas. The mixed methods approach is appropriate to study sustainable development for more information about how municipalities and nonprofits interpret land use policy affecting affordable housing development.

My research connects collaborative projects between nonprofits and municipal leadership with a purpose for sustainable development outcomes. This report invites more informed strategies over time as researchers re-evaluate sustainable development policies.

To contextualize data collected through this methodology of research, look back briefly to the community history section for the strategies of urban planners to make account for urban sustainability in community development using the urban form of compact cities. An important limitation of this research is in the pattern of lifestyle which is salient to the daily lives of urban residents and specifically the American culture of housing and land development. In social Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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ecology theory, leaders must promote cohesive communities to build resilience through unpredictable environmental hazards. At the micro-level, this means changing forms of housing and patterns of lifestyle on a parcel of land. The large-scale challenge for the region is to unify the North Bay with the Bay Area with affordable options and public transit solutions for commuters.

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Chapter 6.) Data Collection and Analysis
Interview Subjects
Name (pronouns) Role, Location Modality of Interview
Noah Housch (he/him) Community Development
Specialist
Cotati, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Paul Fritz (he/him) Developer, Planning
Commissioner
Sebastopol, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Devika Goetschius (she/ her) Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County
Executive Director
Petaluma, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Julian Tucker (he/him) Intern, Former HLT Intern
Petaluma, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Cali Slepin (she/her) Intern, Former HLT Intern
Petaluma, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Clark Blasdell (he/him) Suburban Alternatives Land
Trust
Executive Director
Marin, CA
In-person meeting
Jacqui Salyer (she/her) Habitat for Humanity of
Sonoma County, AmeriCorps
Director of Fund Development,
Neighborhood Revitalization,
and Volunteer Program
Santa Rosa, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Bruce Wolf (he/him) CARE CLT LLC
Treasurer
San Francisco, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Darryl Berlin (he/him) Developer, CommonSpace
Community Land Trust
Executive Director
Sebastopol, CA
Zoom conference meeting
Figure 6.1: Graph displaying roles and location of employment.

Now that I have explained my approach to acquiring this information, this leads me to detail the 9 professionals I have identified that are working towards affordable housing development. These professionals collaborate through various sectors of governance and project development. I tracked the role of nonprofits and municipalities through my research and Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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inquired to these professionals’ growth of knowledge on sustainable development. I began semistructured interviews with representatives of the public sector. A Community Development Specialist in the City of Cotati and the Chair of the Planning Commission in the City of Sebastopol form two leaders of this field in Sonoma County. These are leaders of city government that express power through urban development policy, and approval of affordable housing development projects.

Although these interviewees may not have interacted on a specific project together, semistructured interviews revealed a common understanding of sustainability. As I proceeded to interview the Executive Director and 2 former Interns from the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County, I expanded the range of nonprofit sector professionals that I contacted. The Sonoma County perspective is summarized from their experience, as well as that of the Executive Director of CommonSpace Community Land Trust based in Sebastopol. I also interviewed a Program Manager for the nation-wide organization Habitat for Humanity, based in Sonoma County, as well as 1 Treasurer based in San Francisco, and 1 Executive Director based in Marin.

Their contribution to affordable housing development in partnership with community land trusts is reveals a meaningful longevity to sustainable development that provides a mission for equity to underserved groups.

These leaders express different ideas to incorporate environmentalism into urbanism.

They also prioritize affordable housing options for working class families as a benefit to the social ecology. They contributed to my argument that sustainable development policy is greater than the interests of energy grid, transportation, and building materials. A just city includes diverse demographics through a social, economic, and environmentalist sustainability approach.

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I began all semi-structured interviews by identifying the beginning roots of knowledge into climate change or interest in environmentalism. This informed me more about sustainable development practices in each interviewee’s career role, and how they contribute to the social ecology. I received qualitative data relevant to their varying background and foundational knowledge. As the conversations continued, we identified barriers and opportunities in pursuit of identifying meaningful contributions to support affordable housing development through the community land trust model. I have formed the most common themes of these conversations into sections for this chapter. The interviewees have a common interest as collaborators of the public trusteeship model which expands a communitarian ideology in land development.

Valley of Wildfires
Devastation from wildfires in recent years remains a concern for this community. By experiencing repeated cases of these naturally occurring wildfires, the priority for environmentalism in building practices has grown exponentially. A longer wildfire season requires materials that may be more heat resistant, as well as different landscaping assessments, and planning for evacuations as a concern for the smoke that will lower the air quality. Thus, fire safety in construction is a priority for sustainable development practices, as well as energy efficiency, and an infill development approach locating selective sites within an urban growth boundary. The PG&E company failure to maintain electrical infrastructure created one human caused wildfire that also generated renewable energy demand.

Open space conservation has been identified as a priority for sustainable development by researchers that advocate for compact cities. They also recognize negative externalities from dense urbanization as well. Now, taken the uncertainty of how to balance urbanism with the Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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natural environment, interviewees also share their experience and perspective on development.

Clark Blasdell, sharing decades of experience in development as Executive Director of the Suburban Alternatives Land Trust, admits that this infill development can be less dense than originally planned by city officials. This may seem counterintuitive to practicing sustainable development, however every region works within a different context of their progress in urbanization. According to Mr. Blasdell, “the General Plan can postpone projects from proceeding. State oversight may be required to fit municipalities to the current culture”.

State lawmakers are now dealing with 70-80 years of insufficient affordable housing, urging for more construction to generate affordability where it is necessary. This has generally been accomplished through capitalist means to accommodate more housing into the market. The success of a community land trust is creating affordability in perpetuity using stewardship through “a different interest rather than personal/ individual for building maintenance, piping and energy costs” (Blasdell). Housing policy will guide development away from wildfire zones.

Certainly, the pressing issue of climate change is a main topic of the sustainable development conversation with these professionals. Wildfire seasons are a well-known concern to residents of Sonoma County, as well as flooding from the many rivers and creeks. This is significant because underserved groups are more vulnerable during these environmental hazards, which generates a priority to prepare for potential disasters. Affordable housing serves a population that is generally disadvantaged in the workforce and underserved with resources. The low-income to middle-income workforce must be prioritized for housing policy outreach and incentivized to participate.

When asked about the origin of their knowledge of climate change and the progression of that knowledge, respectively, these professionals varied in their response. Paul Fritz, affordable Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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housing developer, understood the connection to affordable housing projects, having worked in that field for many years. He verified how infill development is a contribution to sustainability because of less vehicle miles traveled in compact cities. “It is essential for planners to form the lifestyles that promote sustainable practices such as active transportation and public transit, despite the conflicts that may ensue from the locality” (Fritz). As Planning Commissioner, Fritz describes the difficulty of achieving this when the local political landscape may be challenging to navigate. A character or a lifestyle may be chosen by the leaders of the municipality, as well as the long-term residents that elect them as representatives or arrive for public comment periods.

Changes can be necessary for sustainability-based lifestyles. Noah Housch, Community Development Specialist, studied environmentalism and feedback loops in greenhouse gas emissions early in higher education, which ingrained critical sustainability as a practice in their career. “I minored in what Humboldt State called Appropriate Technologies, so looking at kind of the intersection between the way we were powering and fueling our economy, you know nuclear power and fossil fuels, and the impacts of that, and then also alternative ways of providing fuel sources for things and so it’s kind of been part of my ethos” (Housch). In development, changes are reflected on the topic of recycled and reclaimed resources for building materials as well. Mr. Housch recognizes the economy for reclaimed materials, and room for policy to dictate a percentage of building materials to be recycled from demolition sites.

Executive Director Dev Goetschius understands the transition from city to rural, entering the Sonoma County landscape from the Bay Area. However, their knowledge of sustainability has developed more as the success of the community land trust model has continued. Ms. Dev is proud that the organization can benefit multiple cycles of families and continues to produce permanent affordable housing opportunities for working class residents. Each of these Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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professionals have backgrounds that provide significant insight for the progress of sustainable development policy to the region. I argue that these professionals have formed a shared impact on the environmental, social, and economic sustainability components of the region. Solutions for poverty and the formation of the built environment are essential components of sustainable development policy and should be prioritized through the climate migration crisis.

Opportunities to Build
One of the first steps to developing affordable housing is acquisition of real property. To acquire land, developers compete in the real estate market to purchase a plot that can be marketed as an investment. This will earn the financer a return in profit, or this can be a property that can be economically viable for construction by a nonprofit developer. “No development project is too big or too small, as long as we have the opportunity to steward this dignified home for a family in need” (Goetschius). City planners regulate building construction and thus, land acquisition, by formulating zoning codes, General Plan elements, and permitting applications based on decisions with consideration for public comment periods. This is a process that has become sophisticated as the planning profession grows more involved with equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging as a mission.

The General Plan is a road map that details the direction of urban growth and the priorities of the local government. Zoning is a land use policy that is used specifically for aggregating and preventing certain uses of land. Both can create conflicts for an investor or a developer, which may postpone development projects from proceeding. The public comment period allows locals to share their opinion about the trajectory of urbanization and can result in Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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stalled or completely redesigned projects. Taken their role as stakeholders, disadvantaged groups must be included in programs to prevent their displacement and reduce disparities in wealth.

The intention of sustainable development is to densify cities, lower carbon emissions, and integrate the workforce in the politics of the local economy. Infill development is an approach that ensures proximity of development to roads, pipes, and energy supply so that this infrastructure is not redone. There is evidently a challenge to generate affordable housing due to the competitive nature of real estate and the seniority of residents that can attend public comment periods to defend their neighborhoods from change. “Planners also work with City Council to approve projects, although sometimes this can prevent changes to the character of the city, which is sometimes necessary for lifestyles that are sustainability-based” (Fritz). Now taken together, the challenge of building affordable housing is described in greater detail.

Similar to other counties, there are incorporated cities in Sonoma as well as unincorporated areas and towns. Locations that are selected by developers for the potential affordability of homes in the neighborhood subdivision may be more successful for their business in the unincorporated towns that are not as regulated for construction standards that may be more environmentally sustainable. According to the literature review, environmentalism and sustainable development has only in recent years connected to the benefits of affordable housing through the scholars of equity in urban development and residency in cities. The practice of sustainable development integrates environmentalist progress in land-use and construction with greater public participation. The development is led with intention to limit displacement from “green” development, which can be found to cause gentrification. By understanding opportunities to build that are regulated by land-use policy, such as the urban growth boundary, I move forward with another challenge for nonprofits and municipalities, funding.

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The Challenges of Funding
A challenge related to the opportunity to build is the decision to commit to financing a construction site. In addition to accounting for renewable energy improvements, an organization may find difficulty just to achieve proper financing and stable ownership of land or property identified for potential success as an affordable housing project. Land use policy decisions regulated by urban planners create a scope of achievable projects and a calculation of risk analysis. Nonetheless, “there are many grants and loan programs to help get renewable energy to these project sites” (Slepin). The benefit of a community land trust is maintaining project integrity, supporting generations of beneficiaries, and preserving these units for cycles of homebuyers in the workforce.

Beneficiaries seeking to settle their family in affordable housing on community owned land held in trust may not prioritize renewable energy. I argue that seed funding is a critical aspect for the success of these partnerships. “It doesn’t matter the size or budget of the project, but the seed money [first dollar] because it is the most difficult to attain. Despite there being so much money available, nonprofits must carefully advertise and apply for the grants stating that they can solve issues, such as homelessness, with that capital” (Wolfe). Bruce Wolfe, social worker and Treasurer at Care CLT, LLC reflects on the conservation model, because not every resident of the city may need large spaces to live in if they are intentionally spending time outdoors or with community.

Sustainable sites can be valuable for nonprofit developers that focus more on location and social habits than on capitalist motivations. It is difficult finding an opportunity to build where there can be longevity of the building and longevity of the affordable rate for the resident. This contributes to the decision making and calculating process for a project development site that Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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will become an apartment rental, smaller square footage unit, or a collaboration with a community land trust. The cost of land, of developing infrastructure, and of labor and materials will each go into the calculation that a developer must make in order to pass on affordability to homebuyers. This can create opportunities for partnerships in development that will culminate in inclusive affordable units, necessary to complete goals in the Regional Housing Needs Assessment of any city and county.

Experts share that it is difficult to acquire a project development site as grants from the Federal and State government can be competitive between for-profit and nonprofit developers seeking to establish affordable housing. Grant funding is an option that may be more preferable than seeking lenders for a commercial loan that must be refinanced in the years that follow.

Grants from the philanthropic community may require specific language in applications to accomplish specific goals, and not all organizations will have the capacity to advertise their need or fulfill multiple grant applications. Thus, evaluations must be made by developers to decide what is viable to build as residency.

Habitat for Humanity works to “generate affordability of housing units by the input of sweat equity from AmeriCorps volunteers and future homeowners that will live in the unit they help build. Although this is not always the case, it helps with the challenge of fundraising a whole development project” (Salyer). Opportunities to build are carefully calculated for funding by a nonprofit organization working on affordable housing development collaborations. This may range between a rental or a single-family home, a modular construction method with smaller square footage units possibly with the help of sweat equity from volunteer laborers.

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Redevelopment
Publicly owned sites are valuable to the process of making calculations for viable projects to move to the next phase of development. Collaborative partnerships prove beneficial to actors with common goals. City officials are often challenged to redevelop formerly used properties and utilize these land holdings when the resource remains stagnant. Publicly owned sites can be a burden for the city planner seeking to advance the agenda of the community without acting as a developer themselves. Innovative solutions include adaptive reuse of commercial buildings or hotels.

Community land trusts can bridge the gap to finalize terms of affordability. An Executive Director collaborates for the development of neighborhood subdivisions with amenities that are desirable to the community. Other economic development opportunities can be built into this process. With collaboration from City Planners, any challenges to affordable housing development can be worked through to approve a project. “Priorities such as parking requirements or other zoning regulations create barriers” apart from the “many obstacles to the acquisition and rehabilitation approach, dependent on the resources that are available to the community land trust” (Berlin, Tucker). Common goals and programs can be accomplished through collaboration and partnership from leaders at the local municipality.

City planners have been commonly working within the capitalist framework of society, which has created a challenge to account for building inclusive affordable units and accomplishing opportunities for housing to the low-income workforce that may earn less than the Area Median Income. “Coordination with CLTs for fundraising is valuable to create ownership opportunities of units for beneficiaries. CLTs are an additional alternative to include in the General Plan for variety of builders interested in developments other than apartments, condos, or Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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single family detached homes” (Blasdell). Because institutions and lenders understand land and improvements, separating the land from the improvements using the CLT model allows for community control of housing by the beneficiaries as homeowners. These themes reveal the way that municipalities and nonprofits affect the social ecology with sustainable development.

Stewardship
A community land trust is an entity with a different interest than the personal owner of a structure. These organizations are effective in preserving affordability, in maintaining piping and energy costs of aging properties, and in upkeep of the land – which is more valuable than what can be managed by an individual owner. The value of this organizational management is in the conservation of the land for housing, and for the rate of affordability of the property for generations. The workforce will struggle to find an affordable market rate home in a competitive region and sees hardship in the search to find residency near their workplace with safety and comfort for their family. The value of the community land trust rests in the shared equity model that provides a discount to cycles of families that will find shelter in the home.

The portfolio of housing held in trust by these nonprofit organizations can range from multi-unit rentals to mixed-use development projects with single-family housing units.

Homeownership is commonly identified as a priority by these experts because the families that purchase their home are beneficiaries of the equity in their property. Bruce Wolfe, a long-time Board member of the San Francisco Community Land Trust, shares that monitoring properties is not an issue for the organization. He states that the challenge is to scale development for communities below 30 percent of AMI. A community land trust works less as a developer, and more as a “houser” with a commitment to connecting low-income groups to homes for Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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intentional living. This stewardship is necessary for structures that are a valuable infrastructure to the city, affordable housing.

Cohousing and shared space is effectively managed by community land trust organizations which seek resolutions for the social conditions that affect society, such as our detachment from members of the community that are unhoused. Although sheltering the unhoused can come with many challenges, I argue that city officials must first reform patterns of capitalism in development which has exacerbated the housing crisis. The low-income residents that are beneficiaries of the community land trust model generally struggle to purchase and settle in a home due to the competitive housing market. The community land trust is a steward of affordability in homeownership for perpetuity, and a steward of the integrity of these properties as well.

By providing a foothold for economic mobility to the workforce that seeks the missing middle housing in a booming agricultural and tourist economy, the community land trust enables the practice of sustainable development though affordable housing. These organizations work as nonprofit developers and property managers alike as a steward to the land, and a steward to the community of the low-income workforce. Meanwhile the benefits of these organizations can be identified as a sustainable development practice, the local communities of each municipality of Sonoma County have a direct political imperative to protect their locality from any changes they do not agree with. This is significant because it equally describes the challenge of building affordable housing in incorporated cities as the developer must make calculations for their business to successfully construct units.

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possibility of accounting for affordable units in a development site dwindles to only a few units per site. Meeting this challenge directly, Executive Director Goetschius collaborates with leaders of municipalities for funding, saying nothing will prevent their team from having the conversations to make these project developments into a reality. “The goal is to achieve any project, from the rehabilitation of a property acquisition to an entire neighborhood subdivision development, as long as it can provide a dignified home to the low-income workforce struggling in the housing market” (Goetschius). Executive Director Darryl Berlin shares this mission for CSCLT, seeking to generate affordable housing opportunities to help farmworkers and aging populations to stay rooted in Sonoma County.

Community Development Specialist Housch also describes land-use policies that can be shared by municipalities to enact sustainable development practices – such as greater infill development – through the Cottage Housing ordinance, refurbished construction materials policies, and zoning decisions in the Housing Element of the General Plan of the city. If a few local businesses collect refurbished materials, Housch continues to relay that their business model is limited in a capitalist society. “They may be in business to serve the customers that prefer to have these materials in their home, but they are ultimately there for profit as calculations are made for affordable housing development sites with this practice” (Housch). The success of the community land trust model is touted by Housch as a formula that keeps the subsidy of the municipality within the community and ensures the affordability of the units over time. He relays that some incorporated cities of Sonoma County may pride themselves on the value they hold for environmental protection and construction material reuse, however when it comes to affordable housing there is quite the dispute on how to achieve this development in the “backyard” of the locals and municipal leadership.

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On the opposition of those complaining about density in the region, Goetschius relays that realtors appreciate the community land trust model as an organization that they can work with to help their customers that are not able to purchase homes in the highly competitive housing market. “Of these residents, some will move to another property once they have gained some equity in their home, yet they will choose to live in the same neighborhood area that they have created a community in” (Goetschius). Stewardship of our natural environment is essential for our survival through the climate crisis. We must also recognize that housing as a right for disadvantaged populations, and leaders can act as stewards of housing as a valuable infrastructure for the right to the city.

Conclusion
In the Community History of this report, I shared a timeline of the changing landscape of Sonoma County. I have argued that urban populations must be formed with sustainable development, describing 3 themes of sustainability to guide the contributions of public participation, natural resources, and affordable housing developments on community land trusts.

This is a contribution to the social ecology as a balanced approach for the longevity of the local community. The current solutions to this issue may include penalties or grants from the State.

These are intended to make it easier for developers to achieve greater density in multifamily rental buildings and to fine the municipalities that are not achieving the goals of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The housing crisis cannot be solved with a familiar market-based approach to build more developments in pursuit of greater opportunities for shelter. Affordable housing on community land trusts defines land use as an area of the municipality that is destined for the families seeking missing middle units, longevity, and roots in the community.

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A variety of affordable homeownership models are succeeding in the Bay Area, a region largely struggling to build enough housing to meet demand and to generate affordability in the real estate market. I argue that the challenge to develop affordable housing is continuing to be recognized by scholars as part of the conversation on sustainable development practices and an urgent issue for resilience to climate change. In the context of Sonoma County, professionals recognize the region as a suburban community, with centers of urban development, and a large agricultural economy. By describing this context of the human-built environment centered in the Sonoma landscape, these professionals have described the transect of the urban setting as stated by scholars in the literature review. This provides insight to the value of new urbanism for the environmentalist movement, as infill development and compact cities are described as part of a sustainable development practice.

For sustainable development, it is essential that construction remains in areas that are not located in a floodplain, a wildfire zone, or a coastal area that will be affected by sea level rise.

Challenges in funding thus become antithetical for sustainable development practices, unless grants can close the gap to finance green improvements such as renewable energy or construction materials sourced from the local region. Nonetheless, each development site within the urban growth boundary is also subject to the criticism and approval by city officials and public comment.

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Chapter 7.) Policy Recommendations
The community land trust organization works to acquire land and properties using funding from individual donors, grants, and support from other municipal incentives.

Nonetheless, they compete to acquire properties and grant funding against corporate real estate actors and other nonprofit developers. Large corporations have much more capacity to pay cash and set forth an expedited purchase for entitlements to make investments for their own profit. As the community land trust follows reliable by-laws that were agreed upon at its founding, decisions are made to expand the organization in endeavors to include small businesses, open space, or more numerous and larger development sites into their portfolio. Based off the data collected through my interactions with various city and county stakeholders, I make the argument that this serves not only the economy of the municipality, but the beneficiaries of the community land trust, which are generally low-income families in the workforce that make well below the annual median income of the locality.

Studies show gentrification and displacement may be a consequence for cities seeking to develop with an environmentalist approach to sustainability. The planners’ toolkit must include a support system around the community land trust organizations that provide stewardship to real property for affordable housing. This can be a strategic approach to environmental justice policy during the consideration for sustainability in the General Plan. It is essential to track demographic data on the beneficiaries of community land trusts to ensure equity of homeownership opportunities available to the underserved and underprivileged.

Community land trust homes have been proven to be more stable through the foreclosure crisis as we experience repeated cycles of economic uncertainty. Shared equity homeownership is a proven solution for those that have been excluded from the housing market, only to afford Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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rental units that are vulnerable to rent hikes and evictions. This challenge provides leaders with a cue to collaborate and partner with organizations that steward land for sustainable development solutions.

Policy Recommendation #1: Collaborate to Guide Early Nonprofits and Developers The common challenge of funding sets a baseline for what nonprofits and municipalities have the capacity to achieve. This creates a foundation for the partnerships that each will form to work with. There is potential for greater collaboration between community-driven organizations and leaders of municipalities to steer policy toward sustainable development practices.

Affordable housing development can be a tricky business for nonprofits and municipalities seeking to remain conservative with their options. Community land trust organizations seeking to establish their portfolio of properties through acquisition or development require much more funding to purchase land and finalize permits. Nonetheless, they operate on a counter-culture platform to the institutions of government that manage property ownership.

Improve data specific to the diversity at each zip code or census tract. Project developments with a community land trust should serve demographics that historically have not had opportunities for homeownership, so that they may participate in the community. Identifying data on demographics of the region would assist with locating affordable housing options to fit the patterns of movement of low- and middle-income groups at the 80% below AMI range or lower. In each of the cities in the research study, inclusive affordable housing units were initiated with collaboration from city leadership and partnerships between developers and the Housing Land Trust of Sonoma County.

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Community land trusts are local nonprofits that can form the connection with landowners and property owners of each block group where potential affordable housing developments are identified. Research shows that a sustainable development approach requires urban development to be inclusive of peoples of all backgrounds and abilities, from the public comment period to the beneficiaries served by affordable housing opportunities. City leaders can improve the standard for serving diverse community groups by improving information available on demographics.

Planners should ensure that rentals aren’t the only options available to diverse groups.

Policy should also account for housing that provides opportunities to gain equity. To help diverse groups gain equity, organizations connect them to programs that help them find the loan necessary to become a homeowner. By improving outreach to underserved groups, cities are making the necessary improvements for a sustainable development approach.

In Sonoma County, single family homes break ground when lands are acquired with the support and collaboration of municipalities. A City government may manage publicly owned land or property, which must be offered to organizations seeking to develop equity-based solutions under the Surplus Lands Act. In this report I have found evidence that regionally, building more units does not lower the cost of housing. Evidence in this research study also demonstrates the unique challenges of developing affordable housing are embedded in the financialization of land-use.

The success of the community land trust partnership is essential for affordable housing development and greater stewardship with the community. By forming a nonprofit real estate acquisition fund to support these collaborators, leaders of government can form a greater capacity to collaborate with early nonprofits seeking to establish resilient affordable housing solutions. A partnership can also take the form of technical assistance provided to the Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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organization for applications to government grants and loans. These nonprofits require the expertise of city leaders for strategizing on common affordable housing development goals, such as an acquisition and rehabilitation approach that can redevelop parts of the city.

Policy Recommendation #2: Reduce Displacement Through Policy Housing rights must establish social access to marginalized groups within the local economy for a sustainable development policy. Tenants can begin the transition from renter to homeowner by partnering to form limited equity housing cooperatives with a community land trust organization. When a property owner is seeking to place a building that is housing tenants on the market, they must evict, buy-out, or coerce tenants by other means. Through State legislation, tenants at-risk of displacement can purchase their unit for ownership in California with the Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act, Community Opportunity to Purchase Act. State Bill 1079 has introduced tenants to their Right of Refusal and Right of First Bid. However, other Assembly Bills have been introduced to increase the impact of these rights because it remains a challenge for nonprofit affordable housing developers to compete for funding.

In some cities, housing policy has established protections such as requirements for just cause in evictions or rent control to limit price gouging. Allocating funding to prevent displacement is a just strategy that would enable communities to participate further in their environmental justice concerns, economic development preferences, and steer the city budget as the foundation of the growing city. This preservation of affordability provides longevity to the workforce. Homeownership is a foothold to access economic stability, environmental amenities, and participatory planning. This is a sustainable development approach which would be more Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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beneficial for underprivileged families through periods of economic instability, especially through the climate crisis.

This strategy may change the form of cities to be more inclusive of diverse groups in the workforce. It is essential to provide a community-driven approach to densify cities with new urbanist and environmentally friendly urban development. The de-commodification of land use would also aim to slow the market for short-term vacation rentals, which requires a political strategy to ensure that corporations, property owners, and landowners seeking to invest can be incentivized to contribute to struggling families in the workforce. Partnership with a community land trust ensures that the affordability of these homes becomes preserved for the next family that may move in, rather than maintaining vacancies for individual gains.

Policy Recommendation #3: Catalyze a Regional Coalition For achieving sustainable development goals, it is essential to identify organizations of various scales of operation and catalyze a regional coalition. When leaders of nonprofits connect with other people in organizations that are in a similar line of work, these actors will network to resolve challenges in their environment and learn through sharing resources. A regional coalition in Sonoma County and the Bay Area would connect groups with similar interests in housing to strategize on the risks faced and the resources managed, used, or provided. This coalition would be created with the intent to also connect these organizations to their local municipalities and regional stakeholders, such as the Bay Area Association of Governments.

A partnership with the community land trust should be formed with the participation of city leaders on the Board of Directors of the nonprofit. This would accomplish a tripartite board structure with public officials joining administrators and beneficiaries of the community land Agenda item Number:9 Agenda item Number:9
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trust. The versatility of these nonprofit organizations is essential to accomplish sustainable development goals of the municipality that I have identified in this report. Leaders of municipalities can empower more partnerships with developers and locate feasible sites through sharing resources. These partnerships are essential for accomplishing equity goals throughout the Greater Bay Area region while making a huge impact to improve economic conditions for the residents of Sonoma County. Together, these actors can generate the public participation necessary to update Planning Commissions, the Housing Authority, and the Housing Element at the County and Municipality levels to include community land trusts. Resources under the property owner category should also increase the potential to transfer homeownership capabilities to tenants. This will make an impact to balance the wealth disparity across the region.

Conclusion
Furthermore, this research project demonstrates the utility of the community land trust model for managing a local sustainable development agenda which integrates goals identified in the General Plan of many cities in California. Affordable housing as sustainable development is formative of research into equity in urban planning, especially at the present era of climate emergency. Local organizations determine their environmental initiatives based on perceptions of sustainability and their own goals towards finding balance between finances and effective facilitation. The challenge of affordable housing requires collaboration among local actors, which can be resolved through sustainable development practices that aim to ensure equity in the urban environment.

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I argue that housing deserves greater analysis as a valuable infrastructure of our cities, rather than a commodity that attracts investment. The process of financialization and speculation of land use creates a challenge for affordable housing developers, and leaders of government must work to alleviate these challenges. This report has the potential significance to connect to more research on indigenous values in land stewardship which would benefit communities at the current stages of adapting to human induced climate change and stunted ecosystems. The significance of this research is in guiding leadership to identify possibilities and potential for greater coordination between nonprofits, community land trust models, and municipalities which would boost the capacity to connect and accomplish shared goals.

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