State housing mandate for 2.5 million units by 2031 is behind

Mill Valley sees push for affordable housing

The Marin County city of Mill Valley is revising its code to loosen restrictions on affordable housing. But the city has to come up with hundreds of homes.

MILL VALLEY, California - Cities and counties are struggling with a state mandate to build some 2.5 million housing units by 2031, with some towns rebelling under the load. Mill Valley, a town of 14,000 people, have to come up with a lot of homes and soon.

Housing shortage

Statewide, the numbers are staggering, and the time is very short. The state mandate says that Mill Valley must see to it that 865 more housing units be built by 2031, with at least half affordable units. 

"And that's what happens in every single town. If you don't do what the state wants, they gonna build. You're gonna get those structures in you city that nobody wants." said Marin County resident Jennifer Jarvis.

Marin County lagging

Mill Valley Mayor Stephen Burke knows it. "We take it seriously because we know that the consequences of not doing it means that it will be done to us and we don't want to lose that control.

The Marin County Grand Jury issued a report in June that basically was kind of a score card that said nobody in Marin is gonna make it," said Mayor Burke.

It may be impossible across the Golden State. "We're doing everything we can to find the right path forward to both accommodate and affirm fair housing in Mill Valley," said the mayor.

New, city-written regulations say builders of seven or less will have no affordable unit requirement.  Builders of up to 19 units would have to make 15% of their units affordable. Projects over 20 units would have a 20% affordability requirement.

The developer of an almost finished nine-unit complex which took 10 years to build, likes Mill Valley's approach. "I think that works better because you can work your development and say well, maybe I can do 15 maybe I only do seven because that's what I can afford. And there's not much land here in Mill Valley. The rest is pretty much built out," said ARMAX Development owner Agustin Rosas Maximin.

In many cases, affordability may not be affordable because it's basic on the location and the median income in the immediate area. In other words, herein Mill Valley, "affordable" is much, much higher than it would be in Antioch or Pittsburg or Richmond. "The motivation and the intention is a good one and a necessary one and everybody's hart is in the right place. It's a matter of how do we do it," said Mill Valley resident Peter Horton.

Mill Valley alone is look at 865 units in six years. Well-intentioned or not, the state mandate may have bitten off far more than towns can do.