A lack of parking counters goal of more middle-income housing in Healdsburg

Fears of scarce parking temper Healdsburg's push for growth.

photo credit: Courtesy of City of Healdsburg
A Rite-Aid and its parking lot could become 189 apartments, though parking concerns could blunt bold plans.

The prospect of drivers circling blocks, searching for a spot, appeared to sap support for bringing more apartments to Healdsburg.

After hours of testimony and hundreds of pages of reports on how to encourage so-called 'missing middle' housing---support appeared to weaken.

Jeff Kay, Healdsburg's city manager reiterated the conclusions of a number of earlier studies, finding that while a good amount of affordable and luxury housing units are going up, there remains a big hole.

"We've done a pretty darn good job in terms of providing housing at the lower ends. The market does pretty well at the other extreme, that's maybe not a goal, but it happens. We have not done a good job in the middle. In a quarter of a century, we haven't seen one market-rate rental project of more than five units."

That lack of middle-income housing is borne out in figures showing an exodus of working families. With all the requirements and fees imposed on construction, builders, and the banks backing them, apparently can't reasonably assure profits. To find a path forward, city officials studied ways of removing enough of the financial uncertainty for developers to take a chance and get to work.

For example, a consultant's report found that $800 a month could be shaved from the rent of a nearly $3,000 studio by easing certain requirements, and $200 a month less than that by waiving impact fees. That's if the costs were eliminated and savings passed on.

But a key aspect of the cost savings---requiring less parking---met little enthusiasm--on the dais or in the gallery.

Resident Bruce Abramson predicted that such a policy would hurt new residents.

"They are going to have to go to a parking garage, they are going to have to go in the street, or you're going to have to try and dis-incentivize tenants who have more than one car to move in to that property, or give them a fine. It's just not a practical situation," Abramson said.

While no decisions were made, Mayor David Hegele wasn't ready to throw in the towel. He said concerns about parking may be overblown.

"I'm very aware of the concerns, some of them, I think, are, maybe a little along the lines of 'well, I can't park exactly where I want to park, so there's a parking problem,'" Hegele said.