Napa County leaders vote for builders’ fees to fund affordable housing

By John Ramos

On Tuesday, Napa County Supervisors approved a new set of builders’ fees intended to generate money for affordable housing.

But there are some who say what they’re doing may result in very few houses of any kind being built there.

The median income in Napa County is only about $70,000, but the median home price is $977,000. It’s a big concern for a region that relies so heavily on the labor of low-income vineyard workers.

“You look at our farmworkers who are traveling from Stockton, from Lodi, to be able to come and work here, and their families are over there because they cannot afford the rental rates,” said Napa County Supervisor Belia Ramos.

So, at their Tuesday meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a new set of developer fees to generate funds for affordable housing while putting a major cost on so-called luxury housing. Generally, homes over 2,500 square feet would be taxed $43 per square foot, with the fee starting at 50% in 2026 and escalating to the full rate over the next three years.  

The current fee is only $9 per square foot. Supervisor Ramos made the motion that put the matter to a vote.

“We have to look at, what are we incentivizing?” she said. “Mandating doesn’t work, incentivizing does. We’re incentivizing those smaller types of homes, I guess that’s an opinion, if you think 2,500 square feet is small.”

The fee, for projects submitted after Jan. 15, would only apply in the rural unincorporated areas of the county

“I think all of us were, like, shocked.  It was — It was, are we serious about it?” said Gianna Giovannoni.  

She was at the meeting and said the size and abruptness of the fee hike took the entire construction industry by surprise. She works for Gagetta Construction, the famliy business, and said it will probably lead to less housing being built, overall.

“I don’t picture it being more, that’s for sure,” Gianna said. “And they’re probably going to be driving the wealthy developers to go anywhere else but Napa.”

Mick Gagetta is Gianna’s dad and the owner of the company.  He pointed to plans for a 2,500 square foot, single family home that he is currently helping to design.

“They may rethink what we’re talking about here,” he said.  “They might just pull the plug on it.  They want to add 600 square feet and they might just pull the plug on it because we’re talking about approximately $60,000 additional in fees on this project.”

Right now, only about 35 homes are built each year in the unincorporated areas. But the county is under a State housing mandate, so the loss of even a few could make a big difference.  Ironically, Mick said there may be a building boom, initially.

“They’re going to get pushed in right now so they can avoid this tax,” he said.  “So, we’ll see a spike in construction, and then after that, everybody’s going to be very aware of what’s happening, so they’re going to take their projects and shelve them.”

With State mandates, the entire Napa area has to build more affordable housing.  The county thinks the new fees may help make that happen.  

“This is how we begin to create a more livable community where everyone who works here can afford to live here,” said Supervisor Ramos.

Those who work in the industry don’t seem to agree with that.

“The families won’t be able to afford to build their homes here,” said Gianna.  “And you’re probably going to be pushing more people out instead of bringing more people in.”

The original fee was proposed for homes over 2,000 square feet, but it was changed to 2,500 at Tuesday’s meeting.  Because of a number of amendments, it will require one more vote for final approval.