Mono County officials review housing authority powers, market trends and program pipeline

Chair Dugan convened the Mono County Housing Authority meeting and the county—s legal counsel and staff gave a series of briefings on housing authority law, building-permit trends, the county—s 2024 Annual Progress Report to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), nonprofit development activity and county-run housing programs.

County Counsel Chris Beck provided an overview of the legal framework for housing authorities under state law, noting the enabling provisions in the Health and Safety Code and the kinds of programs a housing authority may operate. "I'm here to provide an overview of the Mono County Housing Authority," Beck said, and he summarized powers including operating voucher programs, acquiring or developing housing projects, conducting investigations of housing conditions and issuing subpoenas where authorized.

The presentation contemporaneously placed the county—s housing work in context: County staff reported a marked increase in permitting and HMO fee collections in 2024, the county—s 2024 Annual Progress Report met the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) totals for the current housing element cycle, and nonprofit and county partners described recently completed and pending projects.

Why it matters: the legal powers Beck described determine what Mono County may do using a housing authority structure (for example, whether it may own property, operate tenant-based or project-based rental-assistance, or require resident commissioners if the authority owns housing). The permit and valuation increases reported by Community Development staff reflect near-term growth in housing activity that has budgetary and program implications for county housing efforts.

Key points from the presentations

- Legal framework: County Counsel Chris Beck said housing authorities were created by state law in chapter 34 of the Health and Safety Code (citing the enabling statute and related sections). He noted specific code references used to create and operate a local housing authority including provisions that allow counties and municipalities to create a housing authority (cited as "34 2 40" and "34 2 40.1" in the presentation) and explained that if a housing authority owns property it must add two resident commissioner seats (including a senior representative age 62+).

- Building permits and HMO receipts: Michael Jones of community development said the county—s Housing Mitigation Ordinance (HMO) was adopted in December 2019 and to date has collected about $272,363. He reported steady growth in both permit counts and valuation: 279 permits were issued in 2024 (compared with 196 in 2023), and annual permit valuation rose to about $15,200,000 in 2024 from about $10,900,000 in 2023. Jones also reported the county collected about $731,000 in permitting and plan-check fees in 2024 versus roughly $402,000 in 2023. "The housing mitigation ordinance is the main policy that we deal with with building permits," Jones said.

- Permit fees and typical costs: Jones provided worked examples of permitting and plan-check fees by unit size and elevation. Under 7,000 feet elevation, fees for a 1,200-square-foot home were shown at roughly $6,500; 1,600 square feet about $7,800; 2,000 square feet about $9,200. Above 7,000 feet those same model homes rose to roughly $8,200, $10,000 and $12,000 respectively. He told the board those fees amount to about 0.8% to 1.2% of construction cost under the county—s assumptions.

- 2024 HCD Annual Progress Report (APR) / RHNA progress: Staff reported the county recorded 40 building-permit applications, 28 building permits issued, and 23 certificates of occupancy in calendar year 2024 (HCD tracks each milestone separately). Staff said, as far as they were aware, none of the newly permitted units in 2024 were deed-restricted. The report noted no multifamily projects applied or received COs in 2024; many completed units were single-family detached, manufactured homes, or ADUs. Staff said 2024 was the strongest year in the current housing-element cycle and that the county met its RHNA allocation for each income category for the cycle to date.

- Nonprofit and development updates: Patricia Robertson, executive director of Eastern Sierra Community Housing, described recent project work. She said Innsbruck Lodge (a converted bed-and-breakfast) received its certificate of occupancy and held a March 19 grand opening; Access Apartments broke ground in July 2024 with an expected CO in mid-2025; and other projects in the developer—s pipeline include the Valley Apartments rehabilitation in Bishop and a tax-credit project under development with Visionary Home Builders. Robertson also reviewed Eastern Sierra Community Housing—s program work: housing navigation services contracted with the county, deed-restriction monitoring, a CalHome down-payment assistance grant, and operation of Birch Creek transitional housing.

- County-run programs and supports: County staff summarized cross-department housing work. Behavioral Health described hotel/motel vouchers, a transitional housing program tied to substance-use treatment, rental assistance and the Sawyer permanent supportive housing site (13 units). Health and Human Services outlined targeted state-funded programs serving child-welfare-involved families and seniors, as well as disability application assistance and the new CalWORKs homeless assistance option. Community Development staff summarized zoning and permit topics under review (ADU provisions, short-term rental policy outreach, safe-parking site coordination) and reported nine visitor-rental applications since the moratorium ended; several were denied at planning commission.

Discussion and next steps

Board members and staff discussed several operational items and next steps that were identified during the meeting: launching employer/employee surveys for a regional housing needs study (aimed for May), sending formal county comments on the proposed safe-parking site (staff said a comment letter to the Town was nearly complete), meeting with public works to start improvements at 85 Kirkwood (a Bridge program acquisition), and preparing an updated HMO fee study in next year—s budget process. Staff also agreed to bring an annual housing-authority/housing-program update to the board in April 2026.

Votes at a glance

- Election of officers: Motion to elect Commission Member Salcedo as Chair and Commission Member Kreitz as Vice Chair. Motion passed, 5-0.

- Approval of minutes: Motion to approve minutes of 07/18/2023. Motion passed, 5-0.

Ending

Staff and nonprofit partners said they would continue outreach and project work through the summer and bring programmatic updates and potential policy proposals (including short-term rental regulations and potential housing-authority uses) back to the board in 2025 and at the planned annual check-in in April 2026.