Goals to create more housing set by the city of Ceres seven years ago failed miserably – but then so did just about every jurisdiction in California. That was a glaring fact outlined in the new Housing Element which is out for public review.

“Like many other communities, Ceres has had little success in meeting its housing needs,” noted the draft Housing Element prepared by EMC Planning Group, the Monterey consultant hired by the city to produce the document. “In the last housing element cycle (2014-23), the city issued 79 housing permits. This was only a small fraction of Ceres’ Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), which called for the construction of 2,571 new housing units.”

Of the 79 units built, 71 were for above moderate-income families, seven were moderate-income housing, and only one for the low-income.

The lack of building in Ceres isn’t because the city isn’t trying. As California continues to experience a severe housing shortage crisis, cities are struggling to meet housing goals for a number of reasons out of their control. Factors include the high cost of materials, land, and building fees, lack of enough construction workers and regulations.

According to the Public Policy Institute of California — a non-profit, non-partisan think tank — the state lost roughly 800,000 residents between 2020 and 2023 while there are now almost 800,000 more housing units. 

So why is California still in a housing crisis? According to Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at PPIC, estimates peg California at being 3.5 million housing units short of what is needed to accommodate a population of 39 million.

The existing Ceres Housing Element was approved on Jan. 25, 2016 and must be updated by Dec. 31. The new Housing Element will be in effect from 2024 to 2031. Christopher Hoem, director of Community Development for the city of Ceres, said the Housing Element is “basically a ‘chapter’ that goes into our General Plan. It speaks about different parts of the housing resources in the city and it identifies the community needs for housing, it establishes goals and objectives for housing production, rehabilitation and conservation and it does an inventory of the existing housing resources.”

Hoem said the Housing Element must be adopted by the end of the year.

Building more homes is critical if the region is going to prosper and grow. 

The Housing Element reads, in part: “In the coming 30-year period, the Stanislaus Council of Governments (StanCOG) region is projected to add 64,266 jobs, which represents a 27 percent increase. These changes will increase demand for housing across all income levels, and if the region can’t identify ways to significantly increase housing production, it risks worsening the burden for existing lower-income households, many of whom don’t have the luxury or skill set to move to a new job center but that are nonetheless faced with unsustainable increases in housing cost.

“If the region becomes less competitive in attracting high-skilled workers and increasingly unaffordable to lower-income workers and seniors, then social and economic segregation will worsen, only exacerbating historic patterns of housing discrimination, racial bias, and segregation.”

To meet the demand, the element determined that Ceres will need to build 3,361 units between now and 2031, including 1,505 units for above moderate income folks; 661 units for moderate income residents; 489 for low-income residents; 353 for very low income; and 353 for the extremely low income. 

City leaders have approved a number of apartment complexes in recent years but they have yet to become reality. They include:

• A 28-unit apartment complex on a 1.2-acre site at 2125 Moffet Road just north of the Richland Shopping Center which was approved in 2021. The project is in the building plan review.

• Earlier this year the Ceres City Council approved Dhillon Villas, the 145-unit, high-density apartment complex on Mitchell Road opposite the Ceres Post Office.

• A proposal to build a 58-unit apartment complex at the northwest corner of Morgan and Service Road was approved in 2022.

“It isn’t very often that someone receives approval from the Planning Commission or City Council and that they hit the ground running immediately afterward. It does usually take several months at least before something is submitted and that’s because the engineers and architects that are working for the developer need time to produce their product.”

In 2022 the city ordered a master plan for the development of the 534-acre Copper Trails project west of Highway 99 south of Service Road.

The proposed project is bordered by Service Road to the north, the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, Highway 99 and Mitchell Road to the east, the TID Lower Lateral No. 2 canal to the south, and Blaker Road to the west. The project area encompasses Central Valley High School, Hanline Elementary School, and Hidahl Elementary School, along with rural homes and farmland. Before Copper Trails could become a reality, the city will need to annex the acreage.

Also yet to develop is housing planned for the West Landing Specific Plan area of 960 acres was annexed into the city in June, 2012. It’s estimated that West Landing could result in the addition of 12,000 new residents in Ceres as well as beef up commercial, office and industrial space as far west as Ustick Road.