Half Moon Bay voters to decide fate of farmworker housing as state pressure mounts

Half Moon Bay voters will decide in November whether to allow a 40-unit affordable housing development for older farmworkers to move forward, extending a years-long fight that has drawn threats from Gov. Gavin Newsom and could exacerbate an ongoing confrontation between city and state officials over housing mandates.

The City Council unanimously voted July 21 to place the disputed ordinance on the ballot after opponents collected enough signatures for a referendum. Voters will determine whether to allow a 99-year ground lease and related development agreements with the developer, without which the project planned for city-owned property at 555 Kelly Ave. cannot proceed as planned.

A rejection could do more than kill the project. State housing officials have warned that Half Moon Bay might need to make additional changes to its state-mandated housing plan, deepening an already serious clash that could expose the city to fines and erode its control over local development.

“The Governor has budgeted millions in funding and resources to ensure that those working in the agriculture industry receive support from the state, and locals need to do their part,” the state housing department said in an email.

The warning comes as Newsom’s administration separately presses Half Moon Bay to secure state approval for its broader plan to accommodate more housing. Less than a week before the council’s referendum decision, the administration sued Half Moon Bay and four cities outside the Bay Area over their failure to adopt compliant housing plans. Half Moon Bay officials have said they are working closely with the state to get approval.

If the jurisdictions do not meet the state’s planning requirements, they could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines and lose permitting authority over some housing projects and other developments.

The state housing department said it has alerted Half Moon Bay that if voters halt the project, local officials may need to do even more work to get regulators to sign off on their plan. During last week’s council meeting, officials said councilmembers would discuss any impacts of the state’s lawsuit in closed session, as is normal with most pending litigation.

The dispute over the farmworker development stretches back to the aftermath of the January 2023 mass shooting that killed seven farmworkers and exposed dangerous and unsanitary living conditions at some farms along the coast.

In 2024, Newsom threatened to sue Half Moon Bay after accusing local officials of slow-walking the project.

“This delay is egregious and jeopardizes the well-being of Californians,” Newsom said at the time.

The city’s Planning Commission approved the five-story apartment complex later that year. The City Council approved the ground lease and property disposition agreement by a 3-2 vote in late April, prompting the referendum campaign. If councilmembers had declined to place the referendum on the ballot, they would have been forced to repeal the lease agreement.

Supporters say the development is desperately needed by older farmworkers who have spent decades working in the area.

“There is no dignified retirement for our elderly farmworkers,” resident Carolina Carbajal said in Spanish through a translator at last week’s council meeting. “We work excessively until our bodies can’t take anymore.”

The local group behind the ballot measure, “Let Half Moon Bay Voters Decide,” has identified the height of the project as a primary concern. They worry it could open the door to more tall apartment buildings in a city made up largely of single-family homes.

Some residents also voiced frustration over what they described as administrative delays in allowing the project to go before voters.

Hal Bogner, speaking on behalf of the group, said the measure would provide the “opportunity for everyone in the community to be heard.”

Housing is a particularly fraught issue in Half Moon Bay, where development is constrained by Coastal Commission oversight, environmental protections and Measure D, a voter-approved limit on residential growth.

As housing construction has stalled, home prices and rents have soared while the largely agricultural area struggles to house its farmworkers.

Jordan Grimes, a housing advocate with Peninsula for Everyone, warned that rejecting the farmworker project could make the state less willing to approve Half Moon Bay’s housing plan, prolonging the city’s exposure to the builder’s remedy.

That provision of state law allows qualifying housing developments to bypass local zoning restrictions in cities without compliant housing plans. Grimes said it could allow projects much larger than Half Moon Bay’s zoning would ordinarily permit, pointing to recent proposals in Palo Alto and Santa Monica.

“Know what you’re in for if you vote the project down,” he said.