According to the Sacramento Bee, California governor Gavin Newsome recently called out the town of Wheatland in his State of the State address for its failure to comply with a new law requiring municipalities to submit a plan for adding affordable housing “We don’t get mentioned all that much, and not by the governor,” said Wayne Bishop, owner of Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm. Wheatland is just one of 47 cities and counties in violation.
In December 2018, the state’s department of Housing and Community Development sent the city a letter stating Wheatland had failed to submit a new “housing element,” or plan, for the department to review, which would include “documentation to establish required zoning actions have been implemented.” Specifically, Wheatland is short 343 high-density units – which translates to about 17 acres zoned for high-density residential use with about 20 units on each acre that it’s been tasked by the state and by regional governments to produce, according to city Community Development Director Tim Raney.
But in a small, agricultural city such as Wheatland, demand for new home construction is low, and “pretty much all of the ground was spoken for” when the city updated its general plan, said Mayor Joe Henderson. The city’s existing footprint “doesn’t have 17 acres of bare land, ready to build” on and zone, said City Manager Jim Goodwin.
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