Long-anticipated affordable housing development still can’t open
The Lincoln Avenue Apartments affordable housing complex consists of 78 units. Of the 77 units that will be rented out, 37 are one-bedroom, 20 are two-bedroom and another 20 are three-bedroom. Photo by Danielle Wilde.
There is still some distance to cover before a new affordable housing complex – originally scheduled to open last fall – can welcome its first occupants, city staff said this week.
It was one year ago this month that eligible tenants were first told they could move into the 78-unit Lincoln Avenue Apartments. However, construction issues around the installation of a sewer line connected to the project have delayed its occupancy.
The new sewer line, which runs under Lincoln Avenue from Brannan Street to Fair Way, was deemed operational this month, Calistoga Public Works director Derek Rayner told the Tribune. Construction crews still must fill the abandoned sewer main and manholes and repave the roadway.
Now, other stipulations in a contract between the city and developer For the Future Housing appear likely to further delay occupancy of the complex, located on the east side of Lincoln Avenue between Silverado Trail and Brannan Street.
Of some 63 conditions agreed to as part of the project approval process, For the Future Housing still has about 20% of them to complete, Rayner said. This includes the developer’s commitment to build a multi-use pathway along the Lincoln Avenue frontage of the property.
Because the apartment units themselves are complete, the developer asked the city for a temporary occupancy permit that would allow tenants to move in while the pathway is constructed and the remaining conditions of approval are met.
That request was denied by the city.
“Due to safety concerns and hazards for residents and visitors of the property, we’ve been unable to grant that,” city spokesperson and Fire Chief Jed Matcham told the Tribune last week. “Access and egress are the biggest safety concerns and that revolves around the multi-purpose pathway they’re supposed to put in; the pathway is going to be key to this project.”
Matcham said that without the pathway, and until the driveways are paved, residents, in the event of an emergency, would not have adequate exit routes.
Jim Rendler, vice president of For the Future Housing, did not respond to the Tribune’s most recent requests for construction updates or comment.
Gustavo Auqui, the project manager for Echelcon Inc., a contractor hired by For the Future Housing, said on Tuesday that construction of the multi-use pathway would begin this week. The timeline to complete the pathway, he said, was weather dependent but the goal is to finish the job in four weeks.
Multiple move-in dates have been set for tenants since last November. At that time, Rendler told the Tribune he believed hopeful tenants would be able to move in before year’s end. In May he told the Tribune he hoped to have people in by July. Those deadlines came and went, keeping many of those hopeful tenants in housing limbo.
Some have secured different housing while others have found temporary solutions to hold them over until the complex does open.
A downtown Calistoga restaurant manager who asked not to be named due to concerns that her mother’s occupancy status could be affected, said she has seen first-hand the process unfold over the last year and a half. In summer 2023 she helped her mother and two employees apply to Lincoln Avenue Apartments. Her mother, and one employee were initially approved and given estimated move-in dates of last November.
Since then, the woman said, she has been given a constantly shifting timeline for tenancy.
“It’s just heartbreaking,” she told the Tribune. “Just let us know what’s going on; we want to know when people can move in… Instead, people have been relying on rumors and information shared via word of mouth with possible updates that have not been confirmed.”
The woman’s mother, who also works at a local restaurant, had been a longtime Calistoga resident until last fall when, around the same time the new complex was supposed to open, the building she was living in sold and she had to move out.
“She went into a depression and was couch surfing (for months),” the woman said of her mother, who rented a room in Middletown and began commuting to Calistoga, where she has also been paying $127 a month for a small storage unit for some of her belongings. “It’s ruined her life; month after month, they’ve said, ‘It’s going to be next month, it’s going to be next month.’”
Because the initial applications submitted in summer 2023 expired, the woman again helped her mother and an employee re-apply last month. Still though, there is no move-in date. If their applications are accepted this time, it’s unclear whether the units will open before those, too, expire.
An employee of FPI Management, the company hired by the developer to oversee Lincoln Avenue Apartments, confirmed this week that applications are still being accepted. The approval process, she added, can take between eight and 10 weeks.
“We don’t want to give out an expected move in date because we can’t control when we will get approval to be able to move in,” said the FPI employee, who asked that she remain anonymous. “But the units are ready whenever we get city approval.”
She said that once approved, applications expire after 120 days if tenant leases have not begun.
For applicants to qualify, their incomes must be between 30 and 80 percent of Calistoga’s median income, which according to Calistoga’s Housing Element, is $67,119.
Applications for the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments are currently being accepted on a first-come, first-served basis at 1429 Lincoln Ave. in the old Bank of America building.
