Years after project approval, a developer in Soledad asks to revise affordable housing plan.

Delays, design constraints and cost are all-too-familiar factors cited as obstacles to creating affordable housing.

Such is the case of Soledad’s 132-unit Miravale housing project, which has been in the works since 2003 and was approved by the City in 2019 on the condition that developer HMBY, LP provide 52 affordable units – 24 moderate-income for-sale units and 28 rental units for low- and very low-income households.

The rental portion of the project is in the process of being transferred to Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer that HMBY partnered with in 2013. Eden Housing was granted a density bonus, which will allow them to increase the number of affordable rental units from 28 to 39, plus one non-deed-restricted manager’s unit. “I can’t tell you how valuable that is,” says Megan Hunter, Soledad city manager. She adds that the nonprofit has invested roughly $1 million to facilitate the project.

While HMBY remains on the hook for the remaining for-sale units, the developer has told city leaders that negotiating with a builder to construct the moderate-income homes has been challenging.

So the developer proposed a new plan: reduce the number of moderate-income homes from 24 to one, pay the city a $460,000 in-lieu fee to cover the remaining units, and donate a 16,000-square-foot parcel of land (valued at $218,000) for a future affordable housing development.

Soledad City Council was set to discuss the proposed amendments on Wednesday, June 4, after the Weekly’s deadline.

Hunter says this will protect homebuyers, as the units will have deed restrictions that go beyond the initial sale – preventing buyers from immediately reselling at market rate – in addition to city oversight. She believes the project will be more attractive for moderate-income housing developers if offered at low cost, subsidized by HMBY’s new plan. “We have a few infill projects left,” Hunter says, “and we’re laser focused on getting those developed.”