Plan for north Merced housing and apartments rejected after proposal divides leaders
A north Merced housing project faced resistance Monday from city residents and leaders with concerns over what they see as a failure to address critical local issues — including a lack of affordable housing options and jobs for Merced residents.
The Branford Point Annexation project, which would add 50 acres of mixed-use development near UC Merced to the city if approved, ultimately received a vote of opposition from half of the Merced City Council.
The vote represented an early step in the city’s annexation pre-application process. After reviewing a project overview, the City Council indicates general support or non-support for an official annexation application to move forward. The applicants then decide whether to proceed.
Mayor Matt Serratto and Councilmembers Kevin Blake and Sarah Boyle each cast votes in support of the Branford Point Annexation.
Councilmembers Jesse Ornelas, Fernando Echevarria and Berth Perez opposed the project in its current form. Councilmember Delray Shelton was absent from the meeting.
Although critics praised elements of the plan, they voiced doubts over whether it adequately addressed the needs of the Merced community.
City Council members who voted against supporting the annexation pre-application said the project needed revision and further specificity on certain aspects before they could give it support.
“They’re seeing the results of us wanting more from the people who are coming to Merced to do business,” Perez told the Sun-Star. “We’re so used to doing business as usual. And the only people that get left behind are the people from Merced.”
Affordable housing, local hiring splits City Council
As presented Monday, the annexation would add over 650 new homes to the city once constructed, including 92 affordable housing units. The remaining dwellings would consist of 325 apartments, 233 town homes, and an undetermined number of mixed-use units, according to city documents.
The development would also comprise nearly 759,000 square feet of commercial and industrial buildings that includes office, hospitality, retail and research space.
The Branford Point Annexation project’s land is owned by Greg Opinski Construction and represented by Precision Engineering. The project site is situated on the west side of Lake Road, south of Bellevue Road.
“It looks like a fantastic project,” Blake said before casting a vote of support for the plan Monday. Boyle and Serratto echoed his approval, but were met with equal disapproval by their colleagues on the City Council, as well as several city residents.
Community members and city leaders have frequently noted the need for more affordable housing units in the generally more affluent north region of the city.
The same proponents have also criticized what they see as an over-concentration of affordable units in south Merced, which is frequently viewed as more disenfranchised and lacking in essential resources like groceries and medical care, compared to north Merced.
Affordable units have costs fixed so that lower-income occupants spend no more than 30% of their income on housing. But not all affordable housing is developed equally — homes range on a spectrum from moderate-income units to extremely-low income units.
Although affordable housing proponents on Monday commended the annexation project’s inclusion of 92 affordable units, they also voiced concerns over there being no specificity as to what income brackets those affordable homes will serve.
Community members Fue Xiong, Sheng Xiong and Gloria Sandoval each stated that the project should specify which income brackets the units will fall under before the City Council lends its support toward the plan.
Advocates for affordable housing also said stated that what Merced needs most is units geared toward the lowest income levels on the spectrum.
“We are interested in having you help the people that have the most need. That’s what we’re talking about. We’re not trying to chase away people who live here and can’t even afford a place to live here,” Sandoval said.
Echevarria, a frequent proponent on the dais for affordable housing, expressed agreement with residents like Sandoval. “Right now we’re in a housing crisis, an emergency,” he said.
The City Council member thanked the applicants for bringing their plan to the city, but stated that there remained too many questions about the project still for him to give his support.
“There’s a lot of things still that we just don’t have the answers on right now,” Echevarria said. “It might be premature, this request.”
While Perez also cast an opposing vote toward the project, she told the Sun-Star that her objection was on account of the project including no stipulation about hiring locally.
“I think people who are invested in Merced should put it in writing and show in good faith that we’re not only going to build up Merced as a community, we’re going to build the community and ensure they’re going to have some jobs,” Perez said. “There’s people that are hungry and trying to survive out there.”
Over 1,400 jobs are expected to be created from the project. Perez said that in order for the city to grow more responsibly, she’d like to see the project include a promise that at least 20% of all workers hired be local.
Perez said she is hopeful the project might return to the City Council as a revised version that she believes would better suit the city and its residents.
“We slowed it down enough to say ‘hey, let’s take a step back’,” Perez said. “Giving (the applicant) an opportunity to do that is a good thing.”
This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
