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7.A. - Page 31 of 41 Silicon Valley February 20, 2020 Mayor Howard, Vice Mayor Masur, and City Council Members c/o Mark E. Muenzer, Community Development & Transportation Director City of Redwood City, Community Development Department 1017 Middlefield Road Redwood City, CA 94063 RE: Sequoia Station General Plan Amendment Initiation Request Dear Honorable Mayor Howard, Vice Mayor Masur, and City Council Members, We are writing regarding the upcoming Council meeting on February 24th, 2020, where a General Plan Amendment Initiation Request will be considered for the Sequoia Station property. We urge you to allow this project to move forward in the planning process. Housing Trust Silicon Valley has been a part of the development of almost 20,000 housing opportunities throughout the greater Bay Area for 20 years. We believe that our communities are more diverse, sustainable, and vibrant when everyone has a safe, stable, and affordable place to live. When developers partner with a lender that both navigates financing reliability and is also a trusted leader in addressing affordable housing in the community, affordable housing becomes a reality. More specifically, we have worked with Eden Housing for many years and have collaborated with them on six developments in the last six years and have first-hand experience that Eden is a premier developer of quality, accessible affordable housing. Through our many years of providing acquisition loans for Eden we can attest that Eden not only delivers a high-quality building but also provides high-quality long-term property management and stewardship of their developments -- becoming a valuable member of the communities they do business in. As a lender focused on affordable housing, we know that the greatest challenge for an affordable housing developer is land acquisition, followed by the inaccuracies and stereotypes people put on affordable housing developments. While we believe the latter has become more understood, the former remains of critical concern. It is incredibly difficult to secure land to construct affordable units, and often the only way to fund successful land acquisition is through partnerships with market rate commercial and housing developers. Specific to Sequoia Station, we expect the commercial portion is driving this affordable housing development and unlocking the opportunity to provide up to 225 very low, low, and moderate -income homes. 225