By Alec Regimbal, Politics Reporter
June 27, 2024
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference near the I-10 elevated freeway on November 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Newsom threatened Half Moon Bay with a lawsuit if it didn't act on an affordable housing complex for older famroworkers. On Wednesday, the city council paved the way for the project to move forward.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
The Half Moon Bay City Council on Wednesday reaffirmed plans for an affordable housing complex for older farmworkers, successfully avoiding the wrath of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who earlier this year threatened the city with a lawsuit if it didn’t act on the project.
The move brings an end to a monthslong saga that saw project advocates accuse the city’s planning commission of deliberately slow-walking the project, a five-story complex on a plot of city-owned land at 555 Kelly Ave. The project has been in the works for about two years, but it became a point of contention in April, when commissioners voted twice to delay taking action on it after expressing concerns about the complex’s height and its impact on the city’s “character.”
The project was eventually approved in a 4-0 vote in May, with one commissioner abstaining, but that decision was appealed by three people, kicking the project up to the city council. Despite some apparent apprehensions, the five-person city council unanimously decided to reject those appeals during an emotional meeting Wednesday night.
Enrique Bazán, the assistant director of Ayudando Latinos a Soñar — a local nonprofit Latino wellness organization that sponsored the project alongside Mercy Housing — told SFGATE the project’s approval represents “an important win for Half Moon Bay.”
“Having 555 Kelly in that central location of the city honors the agricultural legacy of the town and pays respect to the people that have worked so hard — through rain, sun, COVID-19, fires, flooding, and even a shooting tragedy — to produce the food that we eat,” he said in a text message Thursday morning.
The actions of the planning commission drew the attention of Newsom, who in May called the situation “egregious” and threatened legal action if the project continued to experience delays.
Despite concerns from project opponents, who fretted once again in Wednesday’s meeting about the complex’s location and how it would affect parking and traffic, the council maintained that the project represents an important gesture to one of the city’s most vulnerable communities. A deadly mass shooting last year that left seven farmworkers dead across two mushroom farms in the area highlighted the poor living conditions many of these laborers endure.
The estimated $42 million project will include a mix of studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments for farmworkers who are at least 55 years old and make a specified percentage of Half Moon Bay’s median income. It is also slated to include a farmworker resource center on the first floor.
“The city council showed that they are really committed to affordable housing and I am hoping that they become an example to other towns,” Bazán said.
Comments