Concord Mayor Edi Birsan, right, who voted against the affordable housing financing, listens as the Concord Naval Weapons Station project term sheet is discussed during a City Council meeting at Concord City Hall in Concord, Calif., on Tuesday, March 19, 2024. At a public hearing last month, a real estate developer approached the Concord City Council with a proposal that, to many, might have seemed too good to turn down: 183 new downtown apartments, nearly all affordable, at no cost to the city.
“I’m not helping my community by shoving all affordable housing in one single location,” Councilman Dominic Aliano said before voting down the financing request. State regulators have sent similar warning letters to other Bay Area cities, notably Woodside, which tried to skirt a recent state housing law by declaring the uber-wealthy Silicon Valley suburb a
Housing advocates, meanwhile, described the council’s decision to stall the project in the face of an intensifying affordable housing crisis as “baffling.” In Contra Costa County alone, more than 30,000 households need low-income rental housing, according to researchers with the nonprofit California Housing Partnership.
But during the May 28 public hearing on the Ashbury project, Concord councilmembers echoed a familiar refrain: They supported more housing, just not in this specific neighborhood. Some also raised concerns that allowing the state to subsidize the project may not be the most effective use of taxpayer money.