June  2022

Housing in Santa Rosa

The city of Santa Rosa has a state-mandated housing goal of permitting nearly 4,700 new homes over the next eight years, increasing the city’s housing stock by 7%.  State law requires that local governments create homebuilding plans – called “housing elements” to ensure that cities and counties hit their housing targets and create homes for all income levels.  

Sonoma County is part of the Bay Area jurisdictions and must finish plans for the upcoming eight-year housing cycle (between 2023 and 2031) by early next year.  Written comments can be submitted by July 1st to santarosaforward.com. 

The plan requires the city to identify hundreds of individual lots that are zoned and ready for different kinds of residential development.  The plan also lists policies aimed at incentivizing large apartment buildings in the downtown core. 

Santa Rosa has only approved about 75% of its housing goal of more than 5,000 units for the current housing cycle which ends this year.  Many jurisdictions have failed to reach their home building goals.  To force cities and counties to confront their housing shortages, the state is threatening fines, lawsuits and wresting permitting authority from municipalities deemed slow to plan for growth. 

Here are some of the largest planned or under-construction developments in Santa Rosa.

• 3575 Mendocino Avenue                 420 Units
• 888 Fourth Street                             108 Units
• 1 Santa Rosa Avenue                        119 Units
• Caritas Homes                                    28 Units  City Block between A and Morgan Street
• Yolanda Apartments                       252 Units   325 Yolanda Avenue
• The Cannery @Railroad Square   129 Units   3 West 3rd Street
• Tierra de Rosas                                 175 Units   655 Sebastopol Road