HLC Housing Agenda Blog

Threshold continues: Questions from Saturday afternoon plenary

Following up from my previous post about the Threshold civic engagement process:

SATURDAY AFTERNOON PLENARY
Panelists: Peter Ingram, Fran Wagstaff, Audrey Rust, Don Weden, Gary Patton, Duane Bay

I missed the first part because I got interviewed by the filmmaker who’s shooting the weekend.

• What are the state directives for affordable housing?
• How can average citizens get involved in this complicated issue and bring a human, non-lobbyist view into the process?
• If we can judge a society by how it treats its young and its elders, what would that say about us?
• Since a growing part of the population is seniors, what’s being done to accommodate them?
• How severe is the water problem? And if it’s that severe, isn’t this discussion academic?
• How feasible is it to distribute the growth outside the 101/El Camino corridor?
• Since high ownership rates correlate with better maintenance and lower crime, how can you be sure that concentrating affordable housing on the corridor won’t lead to classism and other disparities?
• How are existing affordable housing developments doing? What’s working?
• Have studies shown if San Mateo County workers who live elsewhere would want to live in high-density housing?
• If we increase transit, and increase units to make transit more effective, how do we educate people about the money-saving benefits of transit?
• There’s an endless cycle of job growth chasing housing growth and so on. What are the most aggressive incentives and disincentives that we could apply to reach whatever balance we want?
• Why bring in workers from other counties? What’s the difference between wages here and the income of residents? Can we provide incentives to live here and work here?
• What incentives are there to hire local residents?
• What different kinds of jobs will be created between now and 2025? What kinds of jobs are leaving the county?
• How do we equitably resolve rights of property owners and the larger community?
• How feasible is it to develop underused land? Public land?
• Corporations pay a lower rate for property tax; what if they had to pay the differential for affordable housing?
• How can we incentivize affordable housing?
• Any chance we could buy some of the vacant housing for affordable housing?
• If different types of households have different needs, what’s the impact on housing vs. commercial development?
• How does high-density development affect the environment? Schools?
• Is there an optimal mix of housing for San Mateo County? Eg rental, townhome, condo, single family.
• How do we better educate people about the importance of this issue?
• How can this group learn what’s going on and when?

Don Weden suggested contacting City Hall by phone or email to find out when Housing Element hearings will be. Excellent suggestion!

My personal suggestion: Check back on the HLC website at www.hlcsmc.org! And subscribe to this blog’s news feed.