- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
County clears the way for Collier Avenue affordable housing project to be built
The supervisors, sitting as the Lake County Housing Commission, unanimously gave the final financial approvals for the Collier Avenue Affording Housing Project during a special meeting on the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 13.
Ukiah-based Rural Communities Housing Development Corp., or RCHDC, is the developer and owner of the 3.3-acre parcel at 6853 Collier Ave. in Nice where the project will be built.
It will be owned by Collier Avenue Associates LP, formed in October by RCHDC, which county staff said is meant to maximize the use of federal low income housing tax credits, one of the sources of funding for the project.
RCHDC, which also built and operated a similar but smaller 10-unit facility on Bevins Court in Lakeport, will be responsible for property management, while Behavioral Health will work with its clients who live in the complex, said Scott Abbott of Behavioral Health.
“This has been very messy,” Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said during the meeting, explaining that the messiness was, in part, a result of the impacts of the 2008 recession and the state’s ending of redevelopment in 2012, which resulted in some money being pulled back. “I hope that we can learn something from this.”
The project will consist of 40 units, with one unit for an on-site manager and the rest a mix of one- and two-bedroom apartments to be devoted to specific populations.
Half of the units will be set aside for Lake County Behavioral Health clients who meet the definition of mental disorder — which includes, under state code, bipolar, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, major affective disorders or other severely disabling mental disorders — as well as substance use disorder or those at risk of homelessness.
Another 10 units will be served by Redwood Coast Regional Center clients and the remaining 10 will be set aside for low income or very low income households.
Behavioral Health Services Director Todd Metcalf, who did not appear at the meeting, submitted a written report that stated that the documents “represent the final step in executing the Collier Avenue Housing project, prior to breaking ground.”
If the project gets the final approval needed from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD, RCHDC could break ground by the end of March or the start of April, said Behavioral Health Deputy Director Elise Jones.
Jones said the construction is financed through a $14,965,665 million construction loan from JPMorgan Chase Bank; the Lake County Housing Commission, which is contributing $976,094 in Mental Health Services Act funds, $473,050.13 from the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention, $602,469 from the Permanent Local Housing Allocation, along with public construction/permanent funds and non-recourse loans; $550,000 from the Department of Developmental Services and Redwood Coast Regional Center; and a $585,000 loan from the Tri Counties Bank Affordable Housing Program.
“There is inherent risk in any construction project,” Jones told the board, adding, “We need to be very cautious and considerate about that risk and make an informed decision.”
During the discussion, Jones said the project “cannot be used for anything other than low income and permanent supportive housing.”
She said the county was up against a timeline to submit the project’s loan documents to HCD for final approval. HCD can take up to 60 days, putting the approval as late as March 17.
If the project fails to close by March 27, Jones said it will result in the rescission of tax credits, which are the primary source of funding.
Jones said construction is anticipated to start in late March or the beginning of April and continue through midsummer, with units to be leased beginning in mid-August.
Merritt Community Capital, which is the project’s tax credit investor and the limited partner of the borrower, will have a role in monitoring as will JP Morgan Chase Bank, Jones said.
She added, “The inherent risk in any construction project is something we can closely monitor,” noting the County Administrative Office also will have an oversight role.
In addition, Jones said HCD and the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee are the two main state agencies that will monitor compliance.
During the board’s meeting and ahead of the final approval, it was determined that a delegation of county employees and two board members — Sabatier and Board Chair Jessica Pyska — will offer project oversight, along with Behavioral Health staff. County Administrative Officer Susan Parker said a consultant the county has retained will conduct grant monitoring.
District 3 Supervisor EJ Crandell, in whose district the project is located, said that Nice is within the Western Region Town Hall and that, in future, that group should get a chance to consider such projects ahead of time.
He said he had gotten a lot of feedback from Nice residents about the project, and several had said they could not be at the special meeting.
A confusing path
Community concerns like those voiced to Crandell, other Lake County officials and to Lake County News arise from the fact that the project has followed a confusing and convoluted path.
During the Jan. 13 meeting, Sabatier — in pointing out how “messy” the project’s process has been, acknowledged that fact.
“The process has been difficult to track, and that’s from my perspective. From the public’s perspective, this can’t even be possible to even understand how we got here in the first place or what happened in the past. So I hope we use this as a learning moment,” Sabatier said.
The project has been in the works on and off going back to 2005, when the Lake County Redevelopment Agency entered into an owner participation agreement with RCHDC to develop a 50-unit affordable housing unit at the site, according to county records. That included the redevelopment agency issuing two “forgivable” loan notes to RCHDC for $1,248,000 to help fund the project.
However, the state’s dissolution of redevelopment in 2012 caused the project to stall, county officials reported, due to RCHDC’s challenges in finding additional funding, in part, due to the forgivable loans the Lake County Housing Authority held on the property.
In April 2021, the Board of Supervisors, sitting as the Lake County Housing Commission, considered a request from RCHDC to divest security and previous development interests in the property — in other words, to forgive the loans — and consider a new development agreement.
The board adopted a resolution confirming the prior transfer of the loans from the former Lake County Redevelopment Agency to the Lake County Housing Authority and directed then-County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson to draft a new agreement that would divest Lake County’s security interest and pre-existing development restrictions on the property.
That new agreement was brought back on Sept. 28, 2021, and the board approved it unanimously.
That was followed in 2022 by eight scheduled discussions of the project by the board.
On Feb. 8, 2022, the board discussed possible renegotiations of the September 2021 agreement as well as a possible audit of the financial activity regarding the loan and loan forgiveness. That was continued to Feb. 15, with no action taken but consensus to consider the item at a future date.
It was again agendized for March 1 but pulled and when it was placed on the March 8 agenda, no action was taken following a discussion.
County staff again scheduled it for April 5, it was pulled and continued to the April 12 meeting, at which time the first amendment to the 2021 agreement between the county and RCHDC to develop affordable housing at the site was approved.
At the same meeting, Sabatier’s request that an audit be conducted failed with the Housing Commission deadlocked with a 3-3 vote: Sabatier, Crandell and Commissioner Deborah Figueroa voted in favor of the audit but supervisors Jessica Pyska, Moke Simon and Tina Scott voted against it.
On April 19, the board went on to approve a memorandum of understanding between the county of Lake and RCHDC for the No Place Like Home Permanent Supportive Housing Project — another name for the Collier Avenue development.
That was followed on June 28 by the board’s approval of a resolution authorizing the application for the Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program for the project.
In early 2022 the project also was the focus of several meetings of the Countywide Oversight Board in 2022, which guides the “winding-down” process of the former redevelopment agencies for the cities and the county in the wake of the state’s ending of redevelopment a decade ago.
The Countywide Oversight Board was tasked with handling approvals connected with redevelopment investment in the project.
At those meetings, Sabatier and CIearlake City Manager Alan Flora — the latter an oversight board member — raised concerns about the process and financial issues.
For Flora, he questioned whether the oversight board had the authority to forgive a loan as it was being asked to do. When he had spoken to the state about similar actions for the city of Clearlake, he was told it couldn’t be done.
Project exempted from CEQA
Throughout the process, Lake County News was told by county officials that the project would be subject to the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which would bring with it more public input on the plan.
However, around seven months ago, Community Development Department planning staff were asked to evaluate the project’s consistency with Assembly Bill 2162, which treats supportive housing as a “use by right” under certain circumstances, according to Association Planner Eric Porter.
As a result, then-Community Development Director Mary Darby exempted the project from CEQA review and from a discretionary use permit review, Porter said.
By deciding that only a ministerial — not a discretionary — review was necessary, Darby’s action meant that the community would have no say in the project going forward.
It was at around the same time, in July, that Darby — who took over as Community Development director in October 2021 — announced she was leaving her job in November. However, she ended up leaving abruptly in August and was succeeded by Mireya Turner.
With Metcalf’s memo anticipating groundbreaking as the next step, Turner confirmed to Lake County News that the project now is in the building permit review process.
Turner told Lake County News in a Jan. 20 email that as a result of Darby’s decision on ministerial review, “The project went straight to building permit review. Since it is ministerial rather than discretionary, there are no public hearings to hold. It is processed just like any other building permit.”
Bill Collins, Lake County’s chief building official, told Lake County News in a Jan. 20 email that at that point RCHDC was working on a response to comments submitted and a plan check on the project as part of the process of getting the permit issued.
No definite date was given for completion of the permit as additional reviews may be needed, Turner said.
Turner said any community complaints can be directed to RCHDC, Community Development — who will have a technician track them and distribute them to the appropriate division staff — and Supervisor Crandell.
However, Turner pointed out, “complaints from the public will not change the building permit review process. Again, this process is ministerial, not discretionary. The proposed land use is no longer up for review.”
Following the board’s discussion of the project in June, it didn’t come back to county leadership until the supervisors’ first meeting of the year on Jan. 10.
At that point, Sabatier — who had been a part of last year’s oversight meetings — asked for more time to discuss it, which led to the special meeting on Jan. 13.
Sabatier said he had been glad to get a second day to discuss the project. While he understood the urgency, he had concerns about monitoring and the potential for the county to have to pay back $2 million in loans if the project didn’t go forward as planned.
In the future, he hoped that on projects “we can get the full picture from the very beginning rather than piecemealing.” He added that he wasn’t the greatest fan of the project but didn’t think he had a choice but to approve it moving forward.
To date, only one community meeting on the project has been held and that occurred in 2019, and was hosted by the county.
And in response to the Jan. 13 board meeting, the project was discussed at a North Shore Business Association meeting.
In an April 22, 2022, email, Ryan LaRue, RCHDC’s chief executive officer, told Lake County News that “additional stakeholder engagement is planned for this summer if our next funding milestones are achieved.”
However, last month, LaRue acknowledged that additional outreach didn’t happen.
“The funding milestones were pushed back so we did not hold a meeting during the summer. Our Property Management team will be coordinating a community meeting. We are also in the preliminary stages of planning a groundbreaking ceremony in April in partnership with Lake County Behavioral Health,” LaRue said in a Jan. 26 email.
He also noted that there are no more county approvals needed.
In a follow-up email, Lake County News asked if the community meeting would take place ahead of the groundbreaking.
“Yes, that is the plan,” LaRue said.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to note that Sabatier is not a County Oversight Board member.
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