Napa Pipe MOU Sent Back To City

Napa County Supervisors voted Tuesday send a key Napa Pipe document back to the city for a change in the affordability rules for 50 planned moderate income housing units.

Based on a demand from Supervisor Mark Luce, the board agreed to suggest to Napa City Council an addition to the memorandum of understanding language on moderate income housing.


The board agreed that the language should be extended to add enrollment in Napa County's work-proximity program -- or an equivalent -- as a qualification for the moderate income housing, as an alternative to the existing qualification of an affordable deed-restricted standard.

Luce said he was adamant that the option for the work-proximity program be added to allow for potential sale of the moderate income units as opposed to rental.

"I'm not on board with this at all (without the addition of the work-proximity program qualification)," Luce said.

The project, which could include up to 945 housing units, has built into its plans the standard statewide quota for 20 percent affordable units, but Luce said Tuesday there had to be some flexibility in the moderate income range.

The board also said it would strike any references to use of groundwater for the Napa Pipe project from the development's term sheet and would strengthen a due diligence-type requirement from the developer if he would want to establish a Community Facilities District at Napa Pipe.

Based on the Napa City Council response, the supervisors said they would plan to revisit approvals for the MOU and term sheet on Oct. 8.

Larry Florin, the county's director for Housing and Intergovernment Affairs, said there were at least nine agreements that needed to be signed by the county before the massive mixed-used project south of Napa could go forward.

He said he anticipated those nine agreements might be in place by mid-December