Important Proposals that Impact Housing Need Your Voice!
This Tuesday, December 5th, there will be two proposals that will have important housing implications. Please make sure to have your voice heard.
11 AM Law & Legislation Committee – Item #3 Vacancy Tax Proposal
5 PM City Council – Item #15 Mixed Income Housing Ordinance – Preliminary Recommendations
Law & Legislation Committee – Item #3 Vacancy Tax Proposal
The recommendation is to evaluate options and decide whether they want to pass a motion for staff to return with draft language for a ballot measure on a vacancy tax.
The Issue: The topic of vacant parcels and properties, especially vacant blighted properties, empty buildings, and vacant storefronts, has been a topic of concern for many years. The committee is trying to evaluate if a vacancy tax will spur development.
Key Points:
- Residential vacancy tax should not be included in the proposal.
- Our members are “mom-and-pop” housing providers that use their rental income as their retirement investment, so withholding a unit or a home from the market is not financially viable for them.
- Additional restrictions on housing and land will deter investment in the City overall, which can have a negative impact on housing development output.
- When you compare the 3,671 vacant lots to the 451 vacant buildings, the vacant lots are a much greater cause for concern.
- If blighted and unkempt properties are the issue, the city should look at ways to partner with property owners to create opportunities for owners to understand their options through resources and zoning.
- Currently, the market is still very volatile, and our local owners and businesses are still recovering from economic issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It sends a very negative message to those that have been working in partnership with the city.
- This issue needs to be narrowly tailored to focus on solutions that incentivize development.
How To Advocate on Item #3 Vacancy Tax Proposal
- Make a Public Comment In person at Tuesday’s Law and Legislation Committee. The meeting is in the Council Chambers at 11:00 AM. Make sure to fill out a speaker slip when you arrive.
- Submit written comments here.
- Contact your elected official on the Law & Legislation Committee
Mixed-Income Housing Ordinance – Preliminary Recommendations
The City is proposing updates to the existing Mixed Income Housing Ordinance, which establishes requirements for how new residential development contributes to the production of affordable housing in the city.
Staff recommended updates would add drastic costs to infill housing development and cause many projects to be infeasible.
On December 5, city staff is scheduled to present their preliminary recommendations for the Mixed Income Housing Ordinance to the City Council. We need you to come out and tell the City Council that the staff-recommended updates are detrimental to housing production in Sacramento.
Key Points:
- Oppose the preliminary recommendations.
- Due to current macroeconomic conditions, housing production is already tragically slow and expensive. The city’s own analysis determined that these proposed recommendations would render housing development infeasible in Sacramento under current conditions and threaten future economic recovery.
- Analyses in other jurisdictions that have adopted similar requirements show that this ordinance would pass additional costs onto market-rate renters, increasing housing costs overall.
- SAR’s mission is to create and promote pathways to homeownership.
- The ordinance requires new housing projects to fund affordable housing on their project site, which can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or pay an in-lieu fee more than other jurisdictions in the region. These costs are then passed on to the new homeowners in that project, which could cause home prices to increase by 6% and make it difficult for thousands of families in Sacramento to afford a home.
- Adopting the preliminary recommendations may inadvertently worsen the housing crisis by pushing development toward the outer fringes of our region or stop it altogether.
- Policies that deter growth have more significant economic impacts, such as a shortage of local job opportunities and diminished contributions to the housing trust fund. The net result would exacerbate the already mounting housing costs, as historical evidence underscores that housing prices rise in response to a lack of supply.
How To Advocate on Item #15 Mixed-Income Housing Ordinance – Preliminary Recommendations
- Make a Public Comment In person at Tuesday’s City Council Meeting. The meeting is in the Council Chambers at 5:00 PM. Make sure to fill out a speaker slip when you arrive.
- Submit written comments here.
- Contact your elected official via phone or email
