Over the past decades, Dublin has been one of the fastest growing cities in California. While we have been quick to add new market-rate housing, affordable housing has been slow to catch up. To be a vibrant and sustainable city, we need to focus on being a truly inclusive community, expanding affordable housing across economic/income categories. 

As a planning commissioner, on every new project, I have been pushing for more inclusive housing and will continue to do so. I look forward to partnering with affordable housing advocates and experts to explore concrete action steps, including increased accountability and additional incentives, the City Council can take to ensure that the City meaningfully addresses this critical gap in affordable housing.

Unfortunately, due to COVID, many small businesses have been forced to make the very difficult decision to close their doors. We need to focus on both supporting current businesses and attracting new business through economic development, both of which I have experience with. Additionally, we need to find ways to deal with the incredibly high unemployment rate by bringing more jobs to Dublin. 

Every business is on a journey to respond to the current crisis, recover from it, and reimagine their business. No two businesses will look alike. We need to create programs to grow, sustain, and support all businesses by connecting them with the community and providing the right incentives to thrive.

It is important to promote environmental sustainability through a more bike-friendly, livable city, where residents can meet their needs without having to continuously rely on a car. A mixed-use and accessible downtown with housing, retail, restaurants, green spaces, etc., would further provide a valuable center of activity for the city, acting as a catalyst to direct growth within our existing urban footprint, and promoting more active and sustainable lifestyles. 

Fundamentally, we need to prioritize up-to-date environmental impact reports to ensure we understand the current situation and address issues appropriately. These reports assess the impact of several facets including overcrowding in schools, traffic flow/congestion, and infrastructure including public transit, water, sewage, trash, clean energy, etc. 

To build a vibrant environmentally and economically sustainable city, we need to have a balance of both homes and businesses. This will help to both promote a healthy and sustainable walkable/bike-able city and also help to keep tax dollars within Dublin to support the needs of the city. 

By focusing on vacant lots (in-fill development) and creating mixed use spaces, we can attract a variety of housing, commercial and retail businesses. To ensure that Dublin can grow into the vibrant, economically sustainable city we envision, it is critical that the City Council, staff and residents set the tone for future development through thoughtful land-use planning and zoning.