Developer Bill Gallaher enlists political pressure to advance affordable housing plans

Politically active Sonoma County developer Bill Gallaher has, through a nonprofit, submitted plans for a large housing project north of Santa Rosa, while at the other end of town, taken aim at county supervisors’ commitment to affordable housing in a Highway 101 billboard that was recently taken down.

Gallaher Community Housing submitted plans Wednesday to the county’s building and permitting department that outline 1,464 affordable multifamily units on Brickway Boulevard, a few blocks east of the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport.

The units as outlined would be marketed for very low, low, or moderate‐income households, according to the plans.

The project spans 40.57 acres and would offer units ranging from one to three bedrooms, 10,000 square feet of commercial space and 1,908 on-site parking spaces, according to the application.

It comes just after Gallaher Community Housing threw its weight behind an effort led by another local nonprofit, Generation Housing, to push local governments to lower housing impact fees that developers must pay to build new housing projects. That campaign is gaining steam, with meetings set on the issue before several city councils.

Gallaher and his family have spent millions of dollars on Sonoma County political campaigns, establishing themselves as major donors in election cycles over the past decade. Most recently, Gallaher donated $50,000 to a local political action committee supporting Healdsburg City Council member Ariel Kelley in her unsuccessful bid for the District 2 Assembly seat.

This latest foray into politics also includes a billboard that, for at least three weeks up until this weekend, had been prominently located north of Golf Course Drive in Rohnert Park off northbound Highway 101. In bold, white font over a teal background, the billboard questioned county supervisors' commitment to affordable housing.

“Sonoma County Supervisors claim they want affordable housing. Will they act?” it read.

A link advertised on the billboard directed viewers to a website — featuring Gallaher Community Housing’s name — that asserts the need for lower building fees, which developers contend are a barrier to adding affordable housing units.

“Essentially, they cost more to build than they’re worth,” the website reads. “The only housing that is feasible with the current fee structure are large single-family homes and luxury apartments.”

The website also encourages visitors to sign a petition from Generation Housing that urges local governing boards to reduce impact fees based on square footage.

By Saturday, a day after this story published online, the billboard had been changed to an advertisement for Poppy Bank, of which Gallaher is founder and chairman. Despite the affordable housing ad being removed, the website was still active as of Sunday afternoon.

Efren Carrillo, Gallaher Community Housing’s CEO, declined a Press Democrat request for an interview Friday morning and again refused to comment Sunday when asked about the change to the billboard.

In addition to his work with Poppy Bank, Gallaher has developed a vast real estate and housing portfolio. Phone messages left Thursday, Friday and Sunday with his wife, Cindy Gallaher, a board member for Gallaher Community Housing, were not returned.

In 2021, Bill Gallaher spent $1.7 million on an unsuccessful effort to recall then-Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch, after her office brought a civil suit accusing his company of abandoning elderly residents in two Santa Rosa care homes during the 2017 Tubbs Fire. Gallaher’s retirement home company Oakmont Senior Living and its affiliates paid $500,000 to settle the unlawful business practices lawsuit.

Outside of political spending, Bill and Cindy Gallaher also have made significant local philanthropic donations. They recently contributed $5.5 million to the Roseland Community Clubhouse, a center dedicated to youth in Santa Rosa’s Roseland community that opened last year.

Development impact fees vary by jurisdiction. According to Tennis Wick, director of Permit Sonoma, the county’s planning and building department, impact fees for projects in unincorporated Sonoma County benefit three areas: infrastructure, parks and housing.

There are also some special districts in parts of the county that may charge additional fees such as fire or school districts, Wick said.

Gallaher Community Housing’s project sits in an area governed by the county, between Santa Rosa and Windsor.

In a twist, Gallaher Community Housing’s project could be exempt from a portion of the fees it is protesting. The county’s housing impact fee structure applies to projects with units that are 1,000 square feet or greater, Wick said. All of the units in the Brickway Boulevard project are under that threshold.

“We applaud the applicant’s development program reaching almost 1,500 units, all of them smaller units,” Wick said. “We do not need another McMansion in Sonoma County.”

Gallaher Community Housing’s project qualifies for a fast-track review and approval process under the state’s builder’s-remedy pathway because a pre-application was submitted before the county finalized its state-mandated housing blueprint last year, Wick said.

Under that housing blueprint, the county must add 3,824 new units in unincorporated areas by 2031, more than seven times the mandated 515 units in the area during the previous eight-year cycle.

Gallaher’s latest project is poised to help make a sizable dent — 38% — in that allotment.

“The whole point of builders remedy is not to avoid any step of the process, especially environmental review, but to accelerate it,” Wick said. “This project has already received and will continue to receive the maximum attention of staff until construction’s underway.”

The county has 30 days to respond to Gallaher Community Housing’s application with feedback on the project details.

As the project moves through the county process, the impact fee discussion is expected to simultaneously come before the board during budget workshops in upcoming months. It is being spearheaded by Generation Housing, with a growing list of allies from the business community and nonprofit world.

In separate interviews, Supervisor David Rabbitt, the board chair, and Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, the vice chair, said they think the county should look at lowering the impact fees. They said they have met with Gallaher and Carrillo, a former county supervisor, about the issue.

Reducing impact fees based on square-footage “would allow smaller footprint apartments or (accessory dwelling units) to actually be built more affordably,” Hopkins said. “We’d be incentivizing the kind of development we want and need.”

Amid that stated interest from some supervisors in pursuing fee reductions, the website linked with the Highway 101 billboard is pushing much harder on the county’s five elected board members, calling for “a modicum of cooperation.”

“We believe it is both hypocritical and shameful to talk about the need for more affordable housing while simultaneously implementing and maintaining policies that discourage its development,” the website reads.

It has raised eyebrows among county supervisors.

Rabbitt, who passed the billboard on his commute north from Petaluma, called the advertisement “excessive” given that multiple supervisors have expressed support for lowering impact fees.

“I think it's really kind of ironic,” Rabbitt said. “Pay for an expensive billboard to an outfit in New York but you don't want to pay the impact fees to the County of Sonoma in which your project is built?”

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.