Hayward Moves Ahead on Housing Regs

The Hayward City Council tightened its affordable housing ordinance and adopted a nearly fourfold increase in its in-lieu fee to $18 per sq. ft. despite ample testimony from the development community that the moves will likely further stall the community’s slowing housing production rates. Click here to view BIA|Bay Area’s letter to the city. The council did agree at its meeting on Nov. 7, 2017, however, to grandfathering provisions that will give projects already in the city’s development pipeline partial or full relief.

The city confirmed that approved projects for which developers have not yet pulled building permits and pipeline projects that secure entitlements before Feb. 1, 2018, will be grandfathered under the current affordable housing regulations and fee schedule. In a partial concession, all pipeline projects that were submitted by Oct. 10, 2017, but do not receive their entitlements by Feb. 1, 2018, will be eligible for a 50 percent discount on the new in-lieu fees as long as building permits are pulled within two years.

In addition to the grandfathering provisions detailed above, the City Council unanimously approved the staff recommendations with the following changes:

1. The income limits on the affordable ownership and rental units will be restricted in perpetuity rather than 35 and 45 years, respectively, as listed in the staff report.
2. The annual fee adjustment calculator was changed to ENR's Construction Cost Index from the CPI.
3. Lower parking requirements will be allowed for projects near mass transit hubs.

The biggest change between the city’s current ordinance and the amended regulations are the in-lieu rates. The fees for a detached single-family, low density condo, townhome will increase from $4.61 per sq. ft. to $18.18 per sq. ft. The rate for a high-density condo project was set at $15 per sq. ft. Rental apartments will be charged $18.18 per sq. ft. (These are the fees if paid at building permit. They increase 10 percent if paid at certificate of occupancy.) In addition, the city lowered the project size trigger threshold from 20 units to 2, with a graduated fee schedule for the smaller projects. Click here to view and download the full set of staff recommendations, the ordinance, resolution and other documents. Contact BIA’s Lisa Vorderbrueggen with questions or comments at lvorderbrueggen@biabayarea.org or 925-348-1956.