County urges Portola Valley to join housing effort County urges Portola Valley to join housing effort (March 03, 2004)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Politicians wear many hats, and sometimes they're salesmen.

Last week, San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon put on his salesman's hat and stood before a group of fellow politicians representing residents whose quality of life is pretty darn good, and tried to convince them to join with people in nearby communities whose circumstances aren't quite so nice in hopes of improving things for everyone.

Mr. Gordon made his pitch to the Portola Valley Town Council on Wednesday, February 25, asking the council to consider joining nine other municipalities in the county -- including Atherton and Menlo Park -- in a regional approach to creating affordable housing on the Peninsula.

The Housing Endowment and Trust of San Mateo County seeks to enlist all 20 cities and towns in the county and raise $100 million over 10 years. The money would be used to build high-density housing along transportation corridors such as Caltrain, with funding coming in part from towns whose steep land prices and rural character make them less suitable for such ventures.

"We continue to have an incredible shortage of housing in this county, particularly rental housing at the low and moderate [income] levels," said Mr. Gordon, a member of the housing trust's board of directors. "We want to be an entity to help jurisdictions that want to build housing."

The cost to administer the trust is estimated at 20 cents per person per year, while the cost to fund it would be more -- perhaps $2 per person, Mr. Gordon said.

For Portola Valley, that would mean annual charges of about $900 for administration costs and $9,000 for funding.
Getting along

"What's in it for Portola Valley?" said Councilman Richard Merk. "I don't see what Portola Valley gets for its 20 cents per person or its $2 per person."

Portola Valley and other localities with high land prices have a tough time meeting state mandates for affordable housing, Mr. Gordon reminded the council. This could be an adjunct to existing housing-element laws, he said, allowing towns to earn credits toward their obligations if and when the state buys into the idea.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development is interested and sees San Mateo County as "a unique model," given its wide variations in living standards, Mr. Gordon said. But among the tasks ahead is convincing the state that San Mateo County localities can cooperate, he added.

Mayor George Comstock asked Mr. Gordon about the not-in-my-backyard, or NIMBY, attitudes that could come into play. "If you can actually engage people in a dialogue, you can change the debate," Mr. Gordon said.

"We are going to have more population. We want to put folk in a place that works better relative to infrastructure," he added. "There will be changes to our quality of life, but if we plan it right, it will work."
Membership details

The trust -- a Joint Powers Agreement -- would have a minimal staff to keep costs down, Mr. Gordon said, with a 21-member board of directors: 11 members from participating towns and 10 from the private and nonprofit sectors. All municipalities have a vote on financial decisions.

The trust now has about $5 million in seed money in the bank, including $3 million from the county, $2 million in bonds from a state program and $75,000 from the county for administrative costs.

The latest census figures show the county population at about 707,200. A rate of $2 per person would generate about $1.4 million annually.

The council did not indicate when the topic would be placed on the agenda for further discussion.

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