OAKLAND, Calif., July 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Local transportation
and planning officials are applauding yesterday's action by
California's Strategic Growth
Council to award over $47 million in
state Cap-and-Trade funds to 11 affordable, transit-oriented
housing and mixed-use projects in the San
Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Area grants are part of a
package of 28 Cap-and-Trade competitive grants with a total value
of $122 million awarded by the
Strategic Growth Council to 28 housing and transportation projects
across California.
The grants are the first to flow from the state's new Affordable
Housing and Sustainable Communities Program, which seeks to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by supporting compact infill development,
encouraging transit usage and protecting agricultural land from
sprawl, with a special emphasis on helping disadvantaged
communities.
Two Bay Area regional agencies, the Association of Bay Area
Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission
(MTC), played a key role in vetting and supporting the Bay Area
projects submitted to the Strategic Growth Council, which awarded
the funds at a meeting in Sacramento. The 11 winning Bay Area projects
were drawn from a list of 13 projects that had been endorsed by MTC
and ABAG following a joint review by the two regional agencies.
ABAG President Julie Pierce, who
also sits on MTC and is a councilmember in the city of Clayton, pointed out that Bay Area projects
were awarded nearly 40 percent of this first round of funding from
the statewide Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities
Program. "I think it speaks highly of the professionalism and
competitiveness of our local jurisdictions and the nonprofit
corporations they rely on to build much of our region's affordable
housing," she said.
The 11 Bay Area grants range from $1
million to $10 million, and together will help build 777
units of affordable housing — a lucky number that caught the
attention of MTC Chair Dave Cortese,
who is president of the Santa Clara
County Board of Supervisors. "This is a lucky day indeed for
low-income Bay Area residents, including seniors, the homeless and
families struggling to stay afloat in the region's super-charged
housing market," he said.
According to ABAG Deputy Executive Director Brad Paul, in many cases these new grants will
provide a crucial last piece of funding and will accelerate the
construction schedule for affordable housing projects already in
the pipeline. He also noted that the projects are more than
isolated pockets of high-density housing — collectively they will
provide more than 34,000 square feet of retail space that will
provide needed services for residents while helping to revitalize
neighborhoods.
In addition, all of the projects are located on an existing or
planned major rail or bus route, and incorporate streetscape,
sidewalk and/or transit improvements that are designed to create
greater pedestrian and bike access to transit, Paul said. Such
sustainability features were a requirement for the grants.
The Bay Area's 11 shovel-ready affordable housing proposals
receiving the Strategic Growth Council grants span nine cities (all
are rental units except for the Fremont project):
- San Francisco — Two
projects were awarded grants for affordable family housing:
- Eddy & Taylor Family Housing (Tenderloin) -
$10 million award, 103 units
- Mission Bay South Block 6 East (Mission Bay) -
$5 million award, 143 units
- Oakland & East Bay Corridor — The six winning
projects in this area were submitted by members of the East Bay
Corridor Initiative, a coalition of 13 jurisdictions and ABAG
working to foster compact development around BART stations and
major bus corridors in the inner East Bay:
- Miraflores Senior Housing (Richmond) - $5.1
million award, 80 units
- El Cerrito Senior Mixed Use Apartments (El Cerrito) - $5.7
million award, 63 units
- 3706 San Pablo Avenue (Emeryville) - $5.5
million award, 86 units
- Civic Center 14 Transit-Oriented Development Apartments
(Oakland) - $1.5 million, 40 units
- Camino 23 (Oakland) - $3
million award, 32 units
- Hayward Senior Apartments (Hayward) - $2.2 million award, 60 units
- Fremont:
- Central Commons Housing - $1
million award, 30 units of owner housing
- San Jose:
- 777 Park Avenue, a project sponsored by Housing
Authority for the County of Santa
Clara - $4 million award, 82
units
- Walnut Creek:
- Riviera Family Apartments - $4.3
million award, 58 units
In another plus for sustainable communities, 10 of the 11
projects funded in the Bay Area lie within one of the region's
locally nominated Priority Development Areas (PDAs) — those areas
where local officials wish to see additional future growth take
place adjacent to public transit. The PDAs are a key feature of
Plan Bay Area, a long-range plan that was adopted by MTC and
ABAG in 2013.
Two of the winning Bay Area projects — The Eddy and Taylor
Family Housing in San Francisco
and Hayward Senior Apartments — have also received a loan
commitment from the Transit Oriented Affordable Housing (TOAH)
revolving loan fund administered by MTC. The TOAH fund provides
critical financing for the development of affordable housing and
other vital community services near transit lines throughout the
Bay Area. Even with the previous TOAH commitments, however, these
two projects had funding shortfalls that prevented the start of
construction. The first round of Cap-and-Trade funding will close
that gap and allow these two projects to begin construction.
The Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program stems
from California's Budget Act of
2014, which was signed by Governor Edmund
G. Brown Jr. and appropriated $832
million in Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen communities and improve
quality-of-life. By statute, 20 percent of the Cap-and Trade
funding will flow to the Affordable Housing and Sustainable
Communities Program, which could go from $122 million in the 2014–15 fiscal year to
$400 million or more in the 2015–16
fiscal year.
MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating
agency for the nine-county San Francisco
Bay Area. ABAG is the land-use planning agency for the
nine-county San Francisco Bay Area
and also provides a variety of services to its member cities.
The California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) is a
state body that brings together agencies and departments within
Business, Consumer Services and Housing, Transportation, Natural
Resources, Health and Human Services, Food and Agriculture, and
Environmental Protection, with the Governor's Office of Planning
and Research to coordinate activities that support sustainable
communities, strong economies, social equity and environmental
stewardship.
For more details on each project (city, developer, grant
amount), see:
http://www.sgc.ca.gov/docs/Attachment_B_Summary_of_AHSC_Recommendations.pdf
http://www.sgc.ca.gov/docs/Attachment_A_AHSC_Recommendations_List.pdf
See the Strategic Growth Council's release:
http://www.sgc.ca.gov//docs/Press_Release_2_AHSC_Program_06302015.pdf
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SOURCE Metropolitan Transportation Commission