Archives



We don’t need more huge luxury homes

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Sonoma Valley Sun
I was dismayed to learn last week that the City is being sued by developers who want to build three large homes on Shocken Hill. They argue that denying the approval to build these large homes is a violation of the Housing Accountability Act. This is deceptive because, according to the Housing Accountability Act, it is intended to “to address the imbalance in jobs and housing”. 
If the developers were really interested in the Housing Accountability Act they would be proposing higher density, moderately priced housing. Houses occupying 19,000, 15,000, and 9,000 square foot pads will do nothing to provide more affordable homes for people who live and work in Sonoma.
The Institute for Local Government’s Regional Housing Needs Assessments directs cities to build affordable housing for the local work force. It’s frustrating to see so many of the residential lots in our City taken up by expensive vacation houses, second homes, and retirement homes.
We don’t need more luxury houses taking up scarce residential lots. The City Council should be pushing developers to provide affordable housing for local workers. We shouldn’t allow our view of the hillside to be spoiled with expensive housing for out-of-towners.
— Matt Metzler, Sonoma



Sonoma Sun | Sonoma, CA