The decision by Rancho Cordova, reported in the Bee, to reconsider its affordable housing requirement, is the realization that sometimes leaving development decisions to the relatively freely-chosen and market-driven direction of the developers will result in a much more viable community than forcing compliance to regulations arguably doing little for ambiguous social prescriptions.
An excerpt.
“This year, Rancho Cordova is required to update its "housing element" – a plan laying out housing policy for five years. All jurisdictions are required to submit a housing element to the state's Department of Housing and Community Development.
“Under its original plan, which the city adopted after incorporating in 2003, Rancho Cordova had required 10 percent of new residential units to be affordable. But in a 3-2 vote earlier this month, the City Council went against city staff's recommendation and decided to drop the 10 percent requirement from the plan the city will submit for state approval.
“Mayor Linda Budge supported dropping the 10 percent requirement, which she said is an impediment to development in this rough economy.
"It gets us beyond today's current economic climate," Budge said at the council's Nov. 3 meeting.”
