BY JORDAN FRIAS
POSTED ON MARCH 22, 2013
Danville is considered to be an affluent city in the state of California and residents want to keep it that way.
That is why 200 residents attended a Town Council meeting on Tuesday at the Danville Community Center where a planning commission voted in favor of a “watered-down” affordable housing and development plan at the request of these residents.
The original plan, known at the 2030 General Plan, set out to designate 35 acres of land, 14 sites, to low-income housing, primarily in the downtown area. That plan was gutted and resulted in a 9.5 acre compromise, for two sites only instead of 14.
Town Council members did not unanimously approve the plan until 1 a.m. the following day.
The request for high density and affordable housing in the plan came from the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). The state mandates that towns set aside at least 9.6 acres of land for low-income housing, which this current proposal meets.
The planning commission has held seven meetings in the past three months on this subject which have been well attended, mostly by community members in opposition of more “stack and pack” housing.
ABAG suggested the original plan to the commission as a way to reduce the amount of car use in the area as well as pollution. Most developments would have been constructed near public transit stations close to downtown jobs and department stores. These developments would have been government subsidies aimed at housing city workers, young adults and the elderly.
Members of a group know as Friends of Danville called the original proposal “an attack on suburbs,” claiming that low-income housing will lure in crime and negatively effect the city’s overall image. During the third meeting held by the planning commission, one resident asked the commission if they were trying to turn the city of Danville into an impoverished city like Oakland or San Jose.
The Contra Costa Times said that Danville is just one city among many in California that are facing a state mandate to create more affordable homes in well to do neighborhoods.
Have an opinion on this topic? Know of any data that supports or negates Danville residents’s claims that low-income housing ruins a neighborhood? Please share your thoughts with me in by posting a comment or by taking the poll below:
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