{"id":268338,"date":"2026-04-15T02:25:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268338\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T02:25:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T02:25:06","slug":"will-clovis-housing-ordinance-raise-costs-for-homebuyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268338\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Clovis housing ordinance raise costs for homebuyers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Clovis City Council on Monday reluctantly approved an ordinance<\/a> requiring new housing developments include at least 5% affordable units \u2014 a mandate council members worried could end up raising home prices in the city.<\/p>\n

The newly passed Mixed-Income Zoning Ordinance, or MIZO, takes immediate effect. It requires any new residential development project consisting of 11 or more units to set aside 5% of the units to help address the availability of affordable housing to individuals and families at lower income levels.<\/p>\n

The ordinance also includes several alternative compliance options for developers, such as land dedication, constructing affordable units off-site, or paying an in-lieu fee at the rate of $2.80 per square foot of net living floor area for all the market-rate units in the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we are as business-friendly as possible. We understand this is a different way of doing business,\u201d said Chad McCollum, the city\u2019s director for economic development, housing and communications, at Monday\u2019s council meeting. \u201cYou heard all of those alternative compliance measures. They\u2019re put in place in order to be as flexible as possible, while still being able to be in compliance with the judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MIZO originated from two court rulings that found Clovis had failed to comply with a state mandate to provide affordable housing opportunities. Clovis is the first city in the San Joaquin Valley to enact such an ordinance, as it was one of the few cities in California exposed to litigation.<\/p>\n

In 2019, local homelessness advocate Dez Martinez filed a lawsuit<\/a> alleging that the City of Clovis had violated state law through discriminatory zoning practices and failed to plan for affordable housing. In 2024, as part of a settlement agreement, the city agreed to implement a mixed-income ordinance and establish a local housing trust fund, among other housing and development-related concessions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the Clovis City Council had no choice but to pass the ordinance in accordance with the settlement agreement, the council and members of the public expressed concerns about the ordinance\u2019s impact on property values and the city\u2019s ability to improve affordability.<\/p>\n

City officials told the council that developers are most likely to pay the in-lieu fee, among the available options in the ordinance.<\/p>\n

The construction cost for new mid-range homes in Clovis averages between $180 and $350 per square foot, said Darren Rose, the president of the Building Industry Association of Fresno\/Madera Counties.<\/p>\n

In addition, there\u2019s a surcharge of between $35,000 to $50,000 per home to cover services such as water<\/a>, sewer, police, fire, parks, and roads, Rose said.<\/p>\n

Rose told The Bee that the ordinance hurts affordability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way to affect affordability is by new supply coming online,\u201d Rose said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t make sense for my builders to continue producing supply, because it just doesn\u2019t pencil out, from a financial perspective, they\u2019re going to build on other locales around the valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

The housing inventory in Clovis has surged<\/a> in recent years because it\u2019s located within Clovis Unified School District, Rose said. But the surrounding areas of Sanger, Fowler, and Kingsburg are also very attractive to builders, he said.<\/p>\n

Developers warn that the costs and fees will eventually be passed on to the homebuyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only would this add costs to the home and therefore cost to the homebuyer, but also this might discourage builders such as my company from buying more land and building more homes in the city,\u201d said Brandon De Young, president of De Young Properties. \u201cYou\u2019re in a tough spot, probably have to do this regardless, but I guess we\u2019ll see how this plays out in a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmembers said that they were concerned the ordinance could backfire and make it more difficult for the city to provide sufficient opportunities for affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSacramento often does this type of thing to local jurisdictions without the ability for us to maintain that local control,\u201d said Mayor Pro Tem Diane Pearce. \u201cMillionaires, super wealthy, they\u2019ll still be able to buy their homes. The people who are going to qualify for these deed-restricted units, they\u2019re going to have the assistance to buy these homes. It\u2019s the working class and middle class who are going to get hit the hardest because of those fees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fresno Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Leqi Zhong<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fresno Bee<\/p>\n

Leqi Zhong is the Clovis accountability\/enterprise reporter for The Bee. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a Master\u2019s degree in journalism. She joined The Bee in 2023 as an education reporter. Leqi grew up in China and is native in Cantonese and Mandarin.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Clovis City Council on Monday reluctantly approved an ordinance requiring new housing developments include at least 5%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-268338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}