Santa Rosa Surplus Properties

Always in the pursuit of developing low income housing, I’ve stumbled upon a way to doing it using surplus city and county land, a new version of a successful state homeless housing program (Homekey+), and the skills and resources of small nonprofits and volunteers.

First, California counties and cities must gain approval of the California Housing and Community Development Department if they want to rid themselves of small parcels of unnecessary properties. Here’s a link to the 2,500 parcels which cities and counties have asked permission to declare surplus. Here is a link to a video the State Produced to explain the Housing and Local Government Local Land Development Opportunities Map.

Here is a link to the Santa Rosa webpage describing the City-owned Surplus Property and Process.

In Sonoma County, the list contains several parcels, mostly small ones purchased by government in order to build a road, or other public infrastructure, which were not needed once the project was finished. Government doesn’t want to have to maintain these parcels, and they are now trying to get rid of ownership.

Currently, larger nonprofit housing developers are using this list to find the larger pieces of developable land. It takes a lot of money to do so, but fortunately there are smaller parcels on this list which the nonprofit housing developers don’t want to bother acquiring. It just doesn’t pencil out to them unless there are 50-100 units being built. However, smaller service nonprofits are having some success build less than ten units on a parcel. This list contains 2,500 parcels all around the state.

If your nonprofit has any members who are skilled builders who have built anything from a granny unit to a couple of four-plexes on up to a half-acre property, you can be in the business of acquiring and building housing for your clients soon. Check out the applications the state has received from its government agencies, and go after the exempt surplus in your area. Download the communications between your city and the state, and sign up to have the properties transferred to you. Here are some examples of properties I am pursuing.

Among the properties that may be used for affordable housing are three parcels that stand out. One is in northern Cloverdale which I’m calling Cloverdale Commons. Another is near the Sonoma County Airport (Airport Commons). Finally, there is a site where several small parcels should be combined (Montecito Commons).