The City has been awarded up to $9.5 million from the California Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) to help create more housing in Santa Rosa’s downtown. The grant will support pre-development of two City-owned surplus parking lots in the 600 to 700 blocks of Third Street by funding site preparation and construction of key infrastructure.

The grant supports the City Council’s pro housing goals and directly addresses the need to create more housing downtown.  

The pre-development work on the two sites to be funded by the grant may include items such as utility upgrades including storm drainage, a detention basin, and joint trenching; new roads with striping and signage, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks; parks and landscaping for irrigation; concrete work; urban greening; and development of a walking and bike path along with lighting. 

In 2022, the City-owned Whitehouse lot located at 730 3rd Street and Garage 5 located at 625 and 630 3rd Street were determined to be underutilized parcels as parking only, and that the sites could be further utilized with the addition of housing and the replacement of some public parking. As required by the Surplus Lands Act, Council designated the City-owned lots as surplus to allow the City to solicit housing development. The City then issued Notices of Availability on the lots in accordance with the Surplus Lands Act requirements and has since received multiple bids from developers to build housing and parking on the two sites. 

At the Sept. 12 City Council meeting, Council approved entering exclusive negotiation agreements with the top bidders to develop the housing and parking, per the surplus lands act requirements. 

More Information

Visit the City’s Real Estate Services website for more information about the process for the disposition of City-owned surplus property and land.

Visit the HCD website for more information about the State’s efforts to pave the way for over 5,400 new climate-friendly homes.