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An interview with Dominic D. Dutra, vice mayor of the city of Fremont

Dominic D. Dutra is the vice mayor of the city of Fremont, and principal with Promus Consulting, a marketing, brokerage, and entitlement services firm. His role as an elected official, combined with his professional background, gives Mr. Dutra a broad perspective on the housing issue. Mr. Dutra is also a member of the League's Housing/General Plan Task Force.

A graduate of Santa Clara University, Dominic holds a bachelor's degree in business management and a master's degree in business administration.

Q. How do you think your background in real estate sales and development has combined with your current role as an elected official to shape your perspective on housing issues?

In my professional career, my work deals with the marketing, sale and development of underutilized parcels of land. I work with land owners to assess how their land might best be utilized which often includes obtaining entitlements for their land prior to sale. This could include complex issues such as annexation, infrastructure issues, how to finance projects through bonds, and other matters. This background is very helpful in my work on the city council, since our city is concerned with all of these considerations when it comes to providing more housing for our residents. Additionally, my background means that I bring an understanding and appreciation of both the developer concerns and the interests of the city.

Q. Before you were elected to the Fremont City Council, you said that one of your goals was to expand affordable housing "by proactively rezoning old and underutilized commercial and industrial areas." Have you made progress on that goal?

I think our city has made great progress! We have been very creative in terms of providing additive residential zoning to underutilized industrial and retail sites as well as "upzoning" vacant land parcels. In doing so, we've implemented "by right" zoning for 5000 residential units on 234 acres of land We've also invested significant Redevelopment funds with Affirmed Housing to provide 131 units of affordable housing on a five-acre site and Bridge Housing to provide 100 units of affordable housing on a two-acre site - our first 50 units/per acre development in the city.

Many people speak theoretically about rezoning and upzoning land, but we've done it! By using "by right" zoning, developers can have confidence that they can develop these sites at the listed densities while the city can have equal confidence that they'll get a quality project by retaining the right to site plan and architectural review. This provides developers certainty that other cities simply don't - or won't - provide.

Q. It's extraordinarily difficult for communities to agree on affordable housing projects. What do you think is necessary to change negative public perception about affordable housing and the benefits it can bring to a community?

Right now, the two curse words are "density" and "affordable." To counter these negative perceptions, we need to demonstrate that these homes can be built in an architecturally pleasing manner AND that they can be maintained as quality communities well into the future. We've been fortunate in this regard by creating successful developments with Bridge Housing, Affirmed Housing, Mid-Peninsula Housing and Eden Housing, where developers have the background and experience to not only build quality residential homes, but are legally required to screen applicants for this housing and provide on-going property management to assure that these communities remain "quality" in the future.

People are also realizing that the people moving into those developments are key service providers such as police officers, firefighters, and teachers. That really helps change the perception of an affordable housing development.

Q. As you know, many of the state's senior citizens are on fixed incomes, and as the cost of housing rises, some of California's elder population is struggling to find places to live. How has Fremont addressed the need of affordable living for seniors?

We've done it in innovative ways. The first big project occurred about 10 years ago and was quite controversial. It started out as a 100 percent affordable housing project that ultimately evolved to having a significant blend of senior housing mixed with families. This once controversial project, Orysom Village, has not only been a huge success in this community, but it recently won a Golden Nugget award for architectural excellence. Seniors interacting with families in that development proved successful in our highest income location - the Mission San Jose area.

Another innovative partnership was with faith-based communities to provide affordable housing on excess land they owned near their places of worship. In one specific example, the city partnered with a faith-based community to not only provide affordable housing for seniors, but they went a step further to specifically design this project to accommodate hearing-impaired seniors. With Fremont being the home of the California School for the Deaf and School for the Blind, this was a natural outgrowth of our communities' experience. It also helped that this vision came from members of our faith-based and deaf community, as they were instrumental in the design, construction and management of this successful development.

Q. What are your hopes for the League's Housing/General Plan Task Force? What do you think will be necessary to reach broad consensus on a package of legislation and fiscal incentives?

I think that we have a good thing going. The League and its partners in the development arena agree that the process is much too complex. I think we've gone a long way toward coming together to see how we can streamline that process.

I think in the end, the League has proven itself to be effective political body, working with stakeholders such as developers to create a win-win situation for all. The state needs housing, and to the extent we can solve infrastructure and service problems along with providing housing, constituents will be supportive. I think we are going to be successful.

League of California Cities: Focus on Housing

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