California Escalates Pressure on Half Moon Bay to Approve Farmworker Housing

State officials are escalating pressure against Half Moon Bay to approve a long-delayed affordable farmworker housing project there.

The five-story, 40-unit building for seniors aging out of farm work received a boost of support following the 2023 mass shooting at a mushroom farm in the city, which spotlighted the substandard living conditions many farmworkers face.

But three years later, the project has yet to receive a final green light. That prompted the Housing Accountability Unit — the enforcement arm of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) — to send a sharply toned letter earlier this month to Half Moon Bay city officials with a clear message: approve the project quickly or face fines, a loss in state funding, and potential legal action.

“HCD strongly encourages the city to expeditiously approve the agreements necessary to facilitate the project,” the letter read. Further down, it warned officials: “If HCD finds that a city’s actions do not comply with state law, HCD may notify the California Office of the Attorney General that the local government is in violation of state law.”

City Manager Matthew Chidester said the city is taking the letter seriously and the city council plans to vote on the project next week. He said he felt the tone of the April 9 letter implied the city was “thumbing our nose at the state and its requirements.”

“We’re not indignant or not prioritizing affordable housing, but the opposite,” he said. “This project … just had more complexity [for the council] and caused a longer timeline.”

Colloquially called 555 Kelly, the project faced initial support soon after it was introduced in 2022. That support grew the following year after the city experienced the worst mass shooting in San Mateo County history, which took place at a mushroom farm and killed seven people. The shooting exposed the substandard living conditions of many farmworkers there and became a call-to-action for state and city leaders to make way for more affordable housing for farmworkers in particular.

The city’s planning commission approved the project in May 2024, but appeals were subsequently filed against the project. A month later, the City Council denied the appeals and upheld the planning commission’s approval. But since then, the project has been stuck behind negotiations surrounding its land-lease agreement. As the state faces an increasingly dire housing crisis, officials are using whatever tools they can to push cities towards approving more housing.

The state knows Half Moon Bay can move quickly to approve projects. A year after the mass shooting, city and county officials approved a different affordable housing development for farmworkers called Stone Pine Cove. That development included 47 affordable factory-built homes, and residents moved in last year.

But Jeremy Levine, policy manager for the local pro-housing group, Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo, said that project and 555 Kelly are very different. Stone Pine Cove is located on the east side of the city. It’s directly across from the California Terra Garden, where the mass shooting happened.

“555 Kelly is closer to the commercial part of Half Moon Bay,” he said. “It’s more walkable, it’s more integrated into the community writ large, rather than being sort of to the side, in a corner.”

Its location is intentional. The development will include a community resource center, where residents can receive mental health care, case management and other services. Chidester said the project is centrally located so that residents can take advantage of the fact that the development is on a main artery leading into the city’s downtown and is across from a health clinic and a farmers market.

But during public meetings about the project, its location has proved controversial among some neighbors who worry that traffic and parking could be impacted by additional residents. And at five stories, it would be the tallest building in Half Moon Bay.

Chidester said, as city council members negotiate the land-lease agreement, which would be valid for 99 years, they want to make sure neighbors’ concerns don’t go unnoticed.

“The council wants to just make sure that the terms of the agreements really protect the city in the long run,” he said.

State officials are watching these negotiations play out and want to see a decision soon, but their hands are somewhat tied because the development is on city-owned land. Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California, Davis, said he has seen cities delay approvals on projects built on private land, but this case is different.

“State law doesn’t provide nearly as strong legal hooks for controlling cities’ disapproval of projects on land that they own than it does for controlling city’s disapproval of projects on privately owned land,” he said.

So, the state pulled the only lever it could pull: warning the city that it could be violating state housing law by delaying action on a project it promised it would build. In 2024, the city adopted a state-mandated plan to allow for more homes to compensate for growing demand. It included Stone Pine Cove and 555 Kelly Ave. as projects that would help it achieve that goal.

“They made some progress, but you don’t get to claim that you’re getting an A-plus because you complete half of the assignment,” Levine said. “I think we can celebrate [Stone Pine Cove] and the city’s success, while still recognizing that there are farm workers who need housing, who are living in terrible conditions, and it is the city’s responsibility to meet those needs.”