Affordable apartments on Mission Boulevard get Union City Planning Commission OK

The City Council will have final say on the complex at its July 28 meeting, city staff said.

UNION CITY — Plans to build 80 below-market rate apartments and more than 6,000 square feet of office space on a vacant city-owned lot along Mission Boulevard are moving ahead after the city planning commission gave the project the green-light.

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the plans for the Lazuli Landing project from nonprofit developer MidPen Housing at its July 2 meeting, and the City Council will have final say on the complex at its July 28 meeting, city staff said.

The project, if approved, will take advantage of more than $20 million in various public funds, the bulk of which are coming from Measure A1 affordable housing funds, a $580 million set of bonds approved by voters in 2016.

In one building — expected to be two to four stories high — the project will have 80 apartments for lower-income people and families as well as a manager’s unit.  Of those, 21 will be one-bedroom units, 37 two-bedroom units, and 23 three-bedroom units.

The smallest units would be 559 square feet, while the largest units would be 1,240 square feet, city reports said.

Previous versions of the plans envisioned for the 1.65-acre lot on Mission Boulevard between D and E streets included apartments that would be available to people earning between 20 and 60 percent of the area’s median income. However, in the plans approved by the commission, the apartment availability was extended to people earning 80 percent of the AMI.

For fiscal year 2020, a family of four at 80 percent of the AMI would be qualified for one of the rental units if the household didn’t earn more than $104,400 annually, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

And,while the complex would still include joint office space for the city’s public service agencies Centro de Servicios and Youth and Family Services, the planned space has been reduced from more than 7,500 square feet to just over 6,300, city reports said.

Centro provides a range of services to low-income families including food, legal aid, job placement assistance, and interpretation and translation.

To help make the affordable housing a reality, the city plans to contribute its entire share of the Measure A1 funds, $8,787,121, and Alameda County has earmarked $4,453,899 in regional A1 funds for the project as well.

Union City’s council also committed $5,034,924 in city housing funds, and $1.8 million for improvements to the Youth and Family Services and Centro de Servicios office space.

The city is also donating the land, which it has owned since 2004, and city staff previously estimated to be worth around $3 million.