Dear Council Members,
In regard to Item #12, I have three comments.
1) If sold as condominiums, ADUs should pay impact fees. When housing is developed, impact fees need to be paid to support the infrastructure for the new residents.
Currently, many ADUs are developed with no or low impact fees. Sebastopol has the majority of low and no income housing in West County. This means there are large developments that pay low or no property tax. Property owners and businesses are supporting the infrastructure for low income residents. Property owners and businesses cannot also support the infrastructure needs of ADU residents. Condominium ADUs should pay impact fees that are equivalent to the fees a developer pays for a unit of the same size.
Sebastopol has plenty of affordable housing, it has very little revenue to support resident infrastructure. The only reason why the City would support ADU condo sales would be to increase revenue to support the services used by ADU residents. Sebastopol is not short on low or middle-income housing. To name a few low-income options … Gravenstein Apartments, Woodmark Apartments, Burbank Housing, Park Village, Habitat for Humanity and many other apartment complexes and a mobile home park. 2) If sold as condominiums, ADUs should have parking. As the majority of ADUs are situated in residential neighborhoods, ADUs should have enough parking to accommodate residents without impacting neighborhood streets. Sebastopol has many narrow streets and many amenities like schools and public facilities located within neighborhoods. The vast majority of people living in Sebastopol drive on a regular basis.
Therefore, to not impact streets and to maintain adequate parking in residential neighborhoods, ADUs need to have adequate parking.
3) Sebastopol needs affordable family housing. ADUs do not address the need for family housing. Many developments focus on studios, one and two bedroom units. Families are crucial to the vitality and sustainability of communities. Families need housing. The housing element should require that developments over 4 units have 20% family housing. For instance, in a 10 unit development, 2 units would be family housing. In a 6 unit development, one unit would be family housing. Family housing is defined as 3 or more bedrooms, 2 or more baths and parking for at least two cars. Larger units allow for intergenerational housing, for children and for housing flexibility. Developers could work with Habitat for Humanity to develop affordable family housing as was done in Graton. https://www.habitatsoco.org/graton-project/
https://thiessenhomes.com/thiessen-projects/green-valley-village/ Thank you,
Kate Haug