SUNNYVALE, Calif. — A recent report on regional housing supplies misrepresented the amount of housing coming to market in Sunnyvale by using statistics that do not accurately reflect true conditions.
The Bay Area Council’s Bay Area Housing Profile 2006 gives low marks to Sunnyvale for the number of housing permits issued last year and over the last decade. In fact, for the seven-year period 1999 through 2005, 2,873 units received planning approval by the City, and 2,460 units were actually completed and occupied, in stark contrast to the report’s data that 1,710 building permits had been issued. Sunnyvale officials estimate the number of new housing units are in excess of 80 percent of the goal established by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG).
One of the reasons behind state-mandated housing goals is to ensure there is housing growth to meet population demands. Particularly important is the availability of affordable housing. Sunnyvale has a long history of maintaining an aggressive affordable housing program, including its Below Market Rate (BMR) program. During the 1999 to 2005 period, Sunnyvale planners approved 337 affordable housing units and a total of 369 new affordable units were occupied.
Sunnyvale’s Planning Division approved a record 949 housing units last year, 99.9 percent of which were for owner-occupied homes. BMR housing accounted for 117 of these units.
Housing continues to be a priority of the Sunnyvale City Council. Despite the fact that Sunnyvale has no room to expand city limits, the properly planned conversion of some properties from industrial to residential has been but one successful tool used by the City to increase its housing inventory. Over the past 10 years, the number of housing units approved by the City has grown by triple digits in at least seven of those years, including the 949 units in Fiscal Year 2005/06, 740 units in FY 2005/05 and 695 units in FY 2002/03.