Gonzales seeks to annex farmland and quadruple in size.

In 2018, the South County city of Gonzales, population 8,375, invited affordable housing developer CHISPA to submit a proposal for the development of a 40-unit apartment building across the street from Gonzales High School. For some time, the city had in mind it should develop a community center there, but there wasn’t funding.

Meanwhile, the city, like all other cities in Monterey County, had a pressing need for affordable housing.

An American Community Survey from earlier in the decade showed 20 percent of Gonzales residents lived in overcrowded conditions and 100 percent of low-income households – roughly half the current residents – spent more than one-third of their income on rent.

CHISPA, it was decided, would build the apartments. And a library that could also function as a community center would be built in conjunction and satisfy community needs.

Housing, a library: Sounds like a win-win. The city’s largest employer, Taylor Farms, supported it. But when the project went before the Planning Commission for design review, a couple of commissioners spoke up and pointed out there had been a promise made for a community center and a community center only. Residents organized, they pressured the city council to rescind the project and in 2019, the council did.

“The issue raised was traffic,” CHISPA President and CEO Alfred Diaz Infante says. “And we acknowledged there was a lot of it, with three schools located pretty much adjacent to each other. During drop-off and pickup it gets bad. Our argument was to provide housing for families with students and they could walk to the schools that way and reduce traffic.”

It’s two years later, and if residents thought traffic was bad enough to kill off a 40-unit apartment development, they’re going to be thrilled when they hear about the plans for two massive developments that could see Gonzales quadruple in size, see 1,300 acres of farmland annexed into the city and paved over and generate thousand of homes that the average Gonzales resident can’t afford to buy.

The first of those developments, called Vista Lucia, would annex 768 acres into the city and include 3,500 homes. The second, Puente Del Monte, would annex 544 acres and add 2,600 homes. For Monterey County, it’s unprecedented growth.

Given most of those homes will be unaffordable to the average Gonzales resident, where will the buyers come from?

Good question. With the pandemic lasting and lasting, people are reconsidering how and where they want to live, and where and how they want to work. It’s a long trek for Silicon Valley workers, but given that many tech companies are now encouraging remote work, Gonzales could become a realistic option and transform into a quasi-bedroom community.

LandWatch Monterey County asked Gonzales to revise the plans and adopt a higher-density version in which 20 units per acre are built for 40 percent of the residential units – the minimum density for lower-income units as determined by the Department of Housing and Community Development.

They’re also asking Gonzales to rethink the need for what will amount to sprawl.

“There are two unappealing outcomes,” says LandWatch Executive Director Michael DeLapa. “If there’s demand, Gonzales becomes a bedroom community and commuters will generate greenhouse gas and traffic and pollution because their jobs are hundreds of miles away.”

Alternately, he says, the houses will never get built, or at least not for decades, but the city will make infrastructure decisions based on the premise the houses are coming – and the taxpayers will foot the bill.

If they do get built at the scale proposed, “this is just a terrible climate outcome,” DeLapa says. “You will absolutely have people commuting distances they shouldn’t be. The city’s best response would be to make homes for people who live in the community who actually need homes.”

On April 26, there’s a hearing on phase one of a two-phase submittal process. Then will come a draft specific plan and an environmental impact report.

In other words, there’s a long way to go before either plan gets approved. Here’s hoping the community responds to the idea like they did to CHISPA’s affordable housing plan that tanked.

Mary Duan writes Local Spin for the Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com