The City and County should add incentives for creating below-market units, without removing other market-rate development rights. The degree or number of incentives offered should be greater for greater levels of affordability. Incentives could be offered based on the number of affordable units in an otherwise market-rate project. These incentives should apply in almost all zones: commercial, mixed-use, high-opportunity, and residential. 

• Affordability Requirements: 25-100% of units must be affordable for households earning 50-120% AMI.

• Could be achieved by a new Affordable Housing Overlay (in Sonoma City), by modifying the existing Workforce Combining Zone (in Sonoma County), or through other, less obvious regulations buried in the zoning code of either jurisdiction.

• Jurisdictions could consider a better measure of affordability than 30% of Area Median Income, such the Terner Center’s Inclusive Affordability Measure, which is based on what people from across California could afford here. AMI is distorted because it “rel[ies] on the income of existing residents in an area (i.e., the few who can afford to live there)”.

• Developer incentives offered:

• Waived impact fees and/or lower infrastructure costs, such as no cost for sewer and water connection or no impact fees on affordable units 

• By-right zoning & ministerial approvals to speed up permitting

• Density bonuses for more units per acre and development/design standard concessions

• Waived/reduced parking requirements

• Tax abatements to reduce long-term costs

• Pay impact fees when residents move in, instead of upfront

• Expedited approval process to exempt affordable projects from discretionary approvals

• “Welfare tax abatement” for for-sale projects, as well as for-rent projects, where the landowner is nonprofit or public