The City Council and Measure O promoters would like you believe that Measure O is a “small change to our housing policy.” This could not be further from the truth. Measure O would add the unlimited building of multi-family housing to our current annual limit of 30 market-rate homes and 50 income-restricted units per year.
They would like you to believe that this is not a significant amount of construction and would not affect our quality of life. This also is a lie, and the City’s own Capacity Recommendations Memo from March of this year (see attached) contradicts this claim. The City has proposed the building of 852 units of high-density housing on 10 lots on the Healdsburg corridor. I use the term high-density because Measure O will also raise our current 16 units per acre density restriction to 65.
Measure O also includes the train station area and 88 acres of riverfront property at the south entry. If the City is planning 852 units on just 10 lots, how much more development can be built on this land. I’ll let you do the math. I’ll also let you imagine what thousands of new residents would do to our water supply, traffic, parking and environment.
There is also no guarantee that Measure O will achieve its goal of affordable housing for the middle-class workforce. Ultra-luxury condos would be permitted as multi-family housing. It will only guarantee large scale development.
We are asked to believe the City Council has our best interests in mind. Think about this when you open your sky-high utility bill.
First let’s worry about making Healdsburg affordable for current residents and businesses. Maybe then the middle-class workforce would actually want to move here. Measure O was poorly thought out and poorly written. It does not deserve your vote.
Please Vote No on O.