CAMPBELL, Calif. (KGO) — Amid a housing crisis in California, states and counties had a hard time working with developers on housing projects for a wide-range of homebuyers – yet also a good return in investment.
It’s what made starter homes nearly impossible to build.
But a new law is making home ownership possible for many once again.
“For many, the California dream has started to slip away,” California YIMBY’s Nolan Gray said. “But we’re not here to talk about problems. We’re here to talk about the beginning of a solution.”
Soon, on a 9,000-square-foot lot in Campbell – there will be six town houses, three stories tall, with two car garages, three and four bedroom floorplans and expected to cost between $1.1 million to -$1.3 million.
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The way it’s happening is what makes it special.
“You dream about how can we make sure that we’re providing, different sized houses and different at different price points? And then so you put it together work and here’s reality,” State Senator Anna Caballero said.
State Senator Caballero authored Senate Bill 684 to help cities and counties work with developers to build starter homes to address the state’s housing crisis.
Price points that work for the area’s median income, lot sizes under 10,000 square feet and multi-family housing projects are all key factors.
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This is the first housing project approved under Senate Bill 684.
“The whole idea is to stimulate the ability to be able to build townhomes, homes, maybe, condos or, duplexes and triplexes in areas that where development hasn’t happened,” Caballero said.
In this case, on a single-family home lot on a residential street – which has neighbors worried about congestion.
Campbell Mayor Daniel Furtado thinks otherwise.
“At first there’s a little fear,” Mayor Furtado said. “‘Oh, they’re too large for this area and so on’, but I think they blend into the community well. It’s a small sacrifice to make to allow more people to live in the area in a, in an area where they want to live and it becomes somewhat affordable for them.”
This has been a project nearly three years in the making and now completion and move-ins are scheduled for early 2027.
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