By Lou Ponsi, Special to the Independent
To meet a state housing mandate, Laguna Beach must plan for 394 additional housing units, with nearly 50 percent of those units accommodating low and very low-income categories.
The information was included in a report presented to the City Council and Planning Commission as part of an April 6 workshop focused on updating the city’s housing element.
Community Development Director Marc Wiener and Acting Assistant Director So Kim presented the report and then took feedback from the two panels.
A state-required housing element offers an analysis of the city’s housing needs for all income levels, along with strategies to provide for those needs. The Laguna Beach City Council will consider adoption of its latest housing element during the summer.
The report was compiled from Planning Commission and House and Human Services workshops and included recommendations from the Affordable Housing and Senior Housing task forces.
Based on the County’s annual median income (AMI) of $90,900 for a family of four, Laguna Beach will need to provide 118 units for very-low-income households (below 50 percent of the AMI), 80 units for low-income households (50 to 80 percent of the AMI), 79 units for moderate-income households (80 to 120 percent of the AMI) and 117 units for above-moderate income households (more than 120 percent of the AMI).
The report noted that seniors 65 and older make up 23.3 percent of the population and the 65 and older group combined with residents aged 55-64 make up 44 percent of the population.
“These (statistics) point out that there is some real need here, not just a need to develop a document that is required by the state but the need to address this issue,” Commissioner Steven Kellenberg said.
Kellenberg praised city staffers for using input from committees and prior meetings to compile the report. He added that he’d like to see an action plan put together listing the programs and an action plan and schedule on how to complete the planned studies.
“Rather than just floating out there in the future somewhere, there is an actual concrete plan to pursue some of these things,” Kellenberg said.
A housing element can be developed using criteria that considers current housing projects, expected projects, sites that meet the qualifications for residential development and current and projected number of accessory dwelling units.
Two current projects, one expected project, and four new housing element sites and 120 projected accessory dwelling units were identified in the report.
“I’m very encouraged by this policy document,” Planning Commission Chairperson Susan Whitin said. “It doesn’t present itself as a document that is going to sit on the shelf. The tools for implementing housing development are in this document. I’m excited by the implementation tools that are in this document.”
The report also presented a variety of strategies to meet the goals of the housing element.
Those included encouraging developers to work with the arts community to provide live-work spaces, encouraging churches and school districts to developing housing on their surplus properties and encouraging adaptive reuse to support affordable housing.
Jorg Dubin said the report doesn’t discuss incentives for developers to build units.
“In reading through this draft document, there is a lot of verbiage dedicating to encouraging some of these policies and programs to be put in place,” Dubin said. “The term ‘encourage’ doesn’t really encourage a developer or individuals from doing anything especially when it comes to my pet project which is artists’ work-live units. I would really like to replace encourage with real incentives that would get peoples’ attention.”
The California Department of Housing and Community Development requires housing elements to be updated and certified every eight years.
The current housing element, which must be certified by state officials by Oct. 21, will cover the planning cycle of 2021-29. Laguna Beach last adopted its housing element in 2014.
