A group of concerned home builders, real estate agents, land owners and purportedly seniors, teachers and other moderate-income makers, too, have formed a Political Action Committee and plan to circulate a petition asking voters to approve a ballot measure to decrease the number of affordable housing units.
Real estate broker John Telfer, a leader of the group, said he and other members of the PAC, under the name of "Citizens For a Balanced Community," claim that Measure C, the city's growth-control initiative passed in 2004, doesn't give enough home buying options to moderate-income earners, while very low- and low-income wage earners buy homes they can't afford in the long run.
Tefler said the petition asks residents to change language in Measure C that would shift the responsibility of building very low- and low-income housing from home builders to nonprofit organizations, like South County Housing.
The city currently administers the initiative through an elaborate point system. Homebuilders who include a high percentage of BMR units in their developments receive more points; the more points a proposed project receives, the more likely it is to be chosen by city officials to be carried out.
This point process, Telfer said, has resulted in developers gorging their developments with BMR units to receive the golden go-ahead.
"In the early days of Measure C, measures were lower," he said. "We've evolved, or mutated, into this high percentage."
Telfer said industry figures calculate that up to 42 percent of new housing in Morgan Hill is built for very low-, low-, or moderate-income households - a figure he says is too high and not good for anyone - not developers, low-income wage earners, moderate-income earners.
Garrett Toy, the director of Business Assistance and Housing Services, said about 33 percent of housing built in Morgan Hill is subsidized, with nonprofits and affordable housing specialists building 20 percent of all units built in a year for very low-income wage earners and homebuilders building another 13 percent of units being built for low- and median-income households.
The PAC proposes in its ballot initiative that the responsibility to build low-income housing shift to nonprofits, or builders who specialize in low-income housing.
"It has to be subsidized by somebody, we're not saying do away with (below market rate) units altogether," Telfer said. "We're saying that nonprofits have all these other tools to use to subsidize the housing, while homebuilders have to shoulder the burden, or pass it on to the consumer."
The PAC would also like to change Measure C to reduce the percentage cap for non-restricted moderate-income housing be lowered from 10 to 5 percent.
Natalie Everett Natalie Everett covers education and city issues for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106, ext. 201, or neverett@morganhilltimes.com.
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