Council Votes to Save Dublin Developer Millions of Dollars
The Dublin City Council voted 4 to 1 this past Tuesday night to change the affordable housing agreement with Braddock & Logan at the 1,043 home Positano community in Fallon Village. Councilmember Kevin Hart was the lone dissenting vote. The revised agreement establishes a new affordable housing product in Dublin that until now has usually only been found in large cities – 275 sq. ft. studio units.
Braddock & Logan will now be able to build 21 of these 275 sq. ft. studio units in exchange for an elimination in most of the below-market-rate 4-bedroom single family homes, 1-bedroom units, and the 5% in-lieu fee for Phase I of the Cantara and Salerno projects. The approved change will save Braddock & Logan millions of dollars in construction costs and still allow them to meet their mandated affordable housing requirements.
During the meeting, Councilmember Kevin Hart expressed his concern about the affordable housing revision by asking “What’s in it for Dublin?” – prompting Jeff Lawrence of Braddock & Logan to respond that the change was necessary to:
- Increase the private yard sizes for 14 of the 247 Phase I Salerno and Cantara homes; and
- Keep building at Positano – implying that the impact and community benefit payment fees would stop flowing in unless the affordable housing change was approved by the Council.
Interestingly enough, Jeff Lawrence made a $300 campaign contribution to Councilmember Hart’s recent election campaign. This underscores Councilmember Hart’s adherence to his principles in the face of what could have been a conflict of interest.
12:42 AM on June 22nd, 2009
What goes around comes around for Councilmember Hart.
9:21 AM on June 22nd, 2009
The question is "Where?" How can they fit studios in between all the houses? Whoever neighbor these studios will see their home value drop. I look at the half built townhouses by Toll and wonder how Braddock will sell those studios and justify it to the home buyers living right beside. The zonage is becoming meaningless.
9:36 AM on June 22nd, 2009
I don't see how these studios would be attractive given the high supply of condos and townhomes available in the area. Also, I think that Dublin should focus on attracting families who are looking for a permanent residence rather than people who only want to stay here temporarily. Isn't there also a risk of these studios being purchased simply as rental properties?
10:30 AM on June 22nd, 2009
Hello Anonymous – these studios will be secondary units. The homeowners will have the opportunity to rent these homes out to folks at below market rates.
Thx, John Z.
10:41 AM on June 22nd, 2009
Oh are these studio units over garages, like Danville does? They belong to the homeowners? Those are fabulous! Since there's no requirement that they actually be rented out, they mostly end up as teenage or MIL bedrooms, home gyms, or playrooms. They rarely house low income residents.
12:40 PM on June 22nd, 2009
I hope the last posting is correct, otherwise me and my wife will have to seriously rethink buying there. I don't want a low income shack next to my 3K SF home, I won't be able to ever sell it with that stigma. I am for saving these developers millions by eliminating low income housing altogether. We have more than enough in Dublin to house our Teachers, Policeman, Fireman and other Public Servants. Why do we need to build even more? We have enough problems brewing and multiplying at the Groves and whatever that other one is called by the BART station "YUCK!!!".
As for Kevin Hart, he is way beneath me or any decent Dublin Residents, not worth another comment about this Clown.
1:10 PM on June 22nd, 2009
Basically this is an excuse to get out of actually offering low-income homes! Not many, if any people will want to rent out the casitas. They will end up as storage, gyms or residences for family members.
4:50 PM on June 22nd, 2009
I am very sad to see all of the negative comments about the bmr residents. A year ago, my husband and I moved into The Groves. We are a young couple with an infant doing all we can to take care of him. My husband works full time and I go to school full time for nursing. We are in the low income, just as a stepping stone, so I can finish school and we can buy our own home. Not all BMR residents are ghetto or thugs. We never have parties, we pay our rent on time, and we are responsible. Please just open your hearts to those that are thankful Dublin as well as other cities offer BMR apartments.
5:12 PM on June 22nd, 2009
Hey you are the exception and are welcome to our community, if all were like you and your family there won't be this stigma about BMRs as I would welcome you myself. But we all know that there are many that uses every loophole to do less in life but yet be able to live in a nice area such as Dublin Ranch. Instead of being greatful for what is handed to them and making a better life for themselves, working hard to get to the next step and contributing to the community that helped put a roof over their heads, they instead bring the issues and criminal ways they had in other communities to our's. Subsidized by fellow Citizens who are paying market price rent or homes themselves.
11:27 AM on July 14th, 2009
People who have money abuse the system too. There is a home in Dublin Ranch that is being run as a boarding house for students from Asia–against the CCR’s. There are plenty of people who can afford to buy homes that don’t necessarily make the best neighbors. BMR’s help people like teachers, police officers, firefighters and other community worthy people who happen to work in jobs that don’t have high pay.
5:46 PM on June 22nd, 2009
Anonymous on June 22, 2009 5:12 PM:
I actually know one guy is taking advantage of the system in a very disgusting way. He is from Taiwan and he has a lot of money and income from Taiwan, but he has no income in US. So somehow he is qualified for the BMRs. He applied for it and got one for a very low price. On the other hand, he is using all the cash he got to buy a house for his son with all cash.
We certainly should prevent this kind of people from exploiting the system and give the BMRs to people like Anonymous June 22, 2009 4:50 PM.
6:25 PM on June 22nd, 2009
Cantara offered a plan with an 'in-law unit' but my understanding was the city fees on this type of residence were brutal & the builder was not going to build any more of this plan. Dublin charged double fees since it was technically two residences (please correct me if I am wrong). It looks like this is just a reclassification of that plan listing the 'in-law unit' as a (possible) 'BMR' apartment.
This seems a bit like an end run to keep BMR %s in Dublin in check with requirements for federal low income housing grants & help the builder at the same time.
That said a separate collection of 275 sqft BMR apartments would make absolutely no sense. These would have to be the smallest and most undesirable apartments (BMR or otherwise) in the tri-valley.
I am glad the city is working with Braddock & Logan to keep Positano rolling along. I was disappointed to hear Lenar postponed building the rest of Sonata indefinitely and the fact that Cantara has only one lot available despite selling only a third(?) of the total lots started to make me wonder if they were going to shutdown as well.
9:21 AM on June 23rd, 2009
Anonymous June 22 5:46PM. This reinforces the need to reform how one qualifies for a BMR unit. There must be a way to cross check and preserve these units for the true needy families that are honestly working hard to make a life for themselves and tryihg to get to the next level where they no longer need a subsidy. These unites should also be reserved for the ones who sacraficed personal wealth to serve the public, like Teachers and Public Workers etc..
There should also be a rule/ordinance that if you commit a crime or create a nuisance to your neighbors or to you community while taking advantage of a subsidized unit you will be evicted, sent packing to you where you came from.
I feel if one was handed a brand new unit at below market rate in a beautiful community such as Dublin, subsidized by fellow neighbors, they should be grateful and take that second chance in life to make a difference. But too many are not grateful, they just continue on their ways of waiting for handouts while continually take from the new community like they've always done elsewhere, bringing their ill troubled ways to Dublin instead of leaving behind and taking advantage of this second chance.
9:29 AM on June 23rd, 2009
If lowering the BMR % is what this is all about, I am all for it.
9:36 AM on June 23rd, 2009
My family had seriously thought about buying in Positano as there isn't an abundance of choices for one looking to move up from a 2000sf zero lot home in lower Dublin Ranch. If we were looking for another 2000 sf home with no yard then yes there is an abundance in Dublin. We decided against Positano because it is unfortunate that a neighborhood of that size surprisingly does not have a community pool or center. Dublin Ranch and Dublin Ranch Golf Club does. Not everyone has the dough or a lot large enough to build a pool, thus the community pool would be of great value for families with kids. It is just too bad they left a priceless feature out of their plans, a feature that would have had a positive affect on the quality of life for the homeowner. Not having the community pool is a big and decisive turnoff. Yes we will by 2050 have an aquatic center at Emerald Glen, that pool will be so crowded thus useless to most residents.