Mayor Ben Cantu is zeroing in on an affordable solution that is based on the reality of the Sybil-style Manteca housing market.
The proposed solutions he is working on with Councilman Jose Nuño to hammer out will aim to put city rules and regulations in place designed to address at-market housing for those earning the median paycheck on this side of the Altamont Pass.
The Manteca housing market, as Cantu, is noted is market driven but not by the Northern San Joaquin Valley economy. Instead developers are effectively meeting the Bay Area market needs where median household incomes are significantly higher. The Manteca median household income, as an example, is $68,019 compared to $99,683 for Livermore, and $138,269 for Pleasanton.
The major points for the Cantu plans to explore with Nuño that are part of their effort to bring a proposal back to the council for possible implementation include putting rules and regulations in place that could possibly:
*increase the average housing density from 8 homes to 10 homes per acre.
*require a set percentage of homes built to have smaller footprints of around 1,100 to 1,200 square feet as opposed to the 1,600 to 3,600 square foot tract homes that are now being built.
*provide incentives for builders willing to develop entire neighborhoods aimed at the Northern San Joaquin Valley market as opposed to the Bay Area market.
*devising requirements that at-market apartment complexes that are being built have a higher percentage of smaller units.
*encourage new tract homes to be built with smaller secondary units often called granny flats that could be rented.
*require or incentivize the building of some homes with secondary master-suites with small kitchenettes that would have separate exterior entrances.
Cantu noted the biggest housing deficiency Manteca has is between subsidized housing and homes being built for the Bay Area market as defined by paychecks.
The mayor noted that Nuño, along with himself, have met with the Building Industry Association of the Greater Valley that represents the interests of home builders. Cantu noted they have made some recommendations and have indicated they are receptive to working with the city to come up with other potential solutions.
The term “market” housing is a misnomer of sorts especially when applied to cities in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. That’s because there are two markets — those earning higher Bay Area paychecks that are being pushed out of the Bay Area to buy or rent and those who earn valley paychecks.
If the influence of the Bay Area economy was significantly smaller or non-existent, a different type of at-market home would be built in Manteca.
Cantu believes it would be closer to what he grew up in — a 1,100-square-foot home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms — and not a home pushing 4,000 square feet with five to six bedrooms and three to four bathrooms.
The mayor emphasized he isn’t pushing for subsidized housing but rather city regulations that require developers to build to the local market at the same time they build to the Bay Area market.
Cantu said that Nuño and he will be revisiting the 2007 Workforce Housing Committee report that the City Council requested, accepted, and then opted not to do anything with given the housing crisis had hit awhile the committee was doing its work sending housing prices plummeting. Fourteen years later Manteca housing prices are nearing the lofty pinnacle they reached in 2006 while apartment rents have skyrocketed.
The goal of the council subcommittee is not to rehash the report but instead look at ways the city can implement the recommendations made 14 years ago that would make sense today. At the same time Cantu wants to add regulations that will direct builders to essentially build a portion of their homes to cater to local builders without the effort being subsidized.
Cantu chaired the 2007 committee. Also serving on the committee were Ron Cotton, Charleen Carroll, Ron Cheek, Kathy King, LeAnn McNabb, and Jay Holmes.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
