How Emeryville’s housing production is shaming Bay Area neighbors

Emeryville City Councilor John Bauters recently joked that he has a new slogan for his small East Bay community: “We are the city that is happy to cast shade.”

The life science hub just west of North Oakland isn’t swayed by NIMBY arguments about the shadows cast by taller housing developments and isn’t afraid to take neighboring Bay Area communities to task for failing to do their part to build more housing.

Even as 27 Bay Area cities appeal state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Allocation, Emeryville wants to top the requirements by 50 percent, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. That would mean creating 2,700 units instead of 1,800 by 2031, said City Manager Christine Daniel, giving the city a “pro-housing” designation and an advantage in applying for state housing funds.

Estrella Vista

Bauters said housing developers “line up” to build in the city, home to a cluster of biotech firms as well as the headquarters for Pixar and Peet’s Coffee, in part because the approval process is predictable.

“They don’t have to roll the dice and get stuck in the process for years,” he said.

Affordable housing developers in particular say the city pushes to get projects completed. In 2019, the council held an emergency meeting to award $16 million to a 90-unit supportive housing project with a food pantry on the ground floor so that the nonprofit developer wouldn’t lose out on $19 million in time-sensitive state funding.

Another project, an 87-unit affordable family housing project near the Oakland border, was recently completed and nonprofit developer EAH Housing is set to build about 70 more units nearby with a mix of apartments for low-income seniors and youth aging out of foster care.

Welton Jordan, chief real estate development officer for EAH Housing, says that rather than shying away from state requirements, like other cities in California and Hawaii where the nonprofit develops housing, Emeryville uses them. The city pushed a state senate bill that allowed the mixed-age project and embraced another that streamlines affordable housing approvals.

“Emeryville is small but mighty,” he said. “They are willing to work with you to get things done and not so hung up on process.”

Bauters said the waterfront community has the same “big-city problems” as Oakland and Berkeley, such as homeless encampments and traffic from Bay Area-wide customers who shop at its many big-box stores. It also has a much smaller staff to handle them.

“Our housing department is one person,” he said. “Economic development is one person. Labor is one person.”

He’s been vocal on social media about the inadequate amount of housing being built by Emeryville’s bigger Bay Area neighbors, recently getting into a Twitter feud with San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai over the latter’s take on upzoning legislation.

[SFC] — Emily Landes

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