Low-income housing still a question at site

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Aug 12, 2008 | by Lisa P White

PLEASANT HILL -- A Walnut Creek firm paid $3 million for a state- owned parcel on North Main Street, but it is unclear if the sale will lead to more affordable housing, as state agencies had hoped.

Caltrans and the Department of Housing and Community Development in March auctioned off the 1.45-acre property, which is located between Oak Park Boulevard and Sun Valley Drive near where North Main Street becomes Contra Costa Boulevard.

Walnut Creek-based Pomfret Estates Inc. and Madera-Nevada Corp. paid $3 million for the property, said Caltrans representative Bob Bachtold. A parking lot takes up most of the parcel, and the remainder is vacant.

Fremont attorney Philip Crosby, who represented the buyer, said the company has owned the adjacent lot where the Black Angus restaurant is located for several decades. The restaurant has a lease on the parking lot until October 2010 that must be honored, he added.

A representative of Pomfret Estates did not return calls seeking comment on the company's plans for the property.

The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) has estimated that Pleasant Hill needs to add 265 housing units affordable to low- and very-low income families by 2014.

ABAG set a goal of nearly 11,000 additional affordable units for Contra Costa County in the next seven years. The median income for a family of four in the county is $83,300, and those earning less than $66,250 qualify as low-income, according to the Department of Housing and Community Development.

With little land in Pleasant Hill able to be developed, the city has found it difficult to add to its stock of affordable housing.

The 70-unit Grayson Creek apartments, whose tenants earn between 35 percent and 60 percent of the county's median family income, are fully occupied. In addition, there are more than 100 families on the waiting list, according to BRIDGE Housing, the nonprofit builder that manages the facility.

By law, a redevelopment agency must spend 20 percent of its incremental property tax revenue to promote or expand affordable housing.

The Pleasant Hill Redevelopment Agency has been trying to use some of the $2.8 million in its affordable housing fund to subsidize rents for low-income residents, but landlords have not responded.

"Since there's an abundance of renters, what we're offering is not necessary for them, it seems," said program administrator Bob Stewart.

Lisa P. White covers Pleasant Hill and Martinez. Reach her at 925- 943-8011 or lwhite@bayareanewsgroup.com.