City debates the high cost of low-income housing mandate
Jan. 24, 2013Tiobe Barron, OVN correspondent
Amid objections from area residents Ojai officials are wrestling with how to implement a state-mandated Housing Element to its General Plan.
The state requires each city to show it could accommodate its fair share of affordable housing units. If necessary, the cities must rezone portions of their communities to somehow accommodate the additional units.
The state has decided Ojai should be responsible for 433 affordable housing units during the 2006 to 2014 housing cycle. According to state estimates, it is 177 units shy of that goal.
Additionally, the state mandates that cities may not prohibit three-story buildings as a blanket rule, fearing such restrictions could stymie development.
“We are now in the stage of putting meat on the bones, of crafting ordinances to support the policy you adopted,” explained consultant Thomas Figg, during a presentation at Tuesday night’s Ojai City Council meeting. “Let’s talk about community context, because this has always been a recurring theme — the thought that 20 units per acre is going to translate into a change in the fabric of the community. The reality is that you already have some 20-odd properties that are 20 units per acre or more. So it isn’t as if the community does not already have high-density development.”
At this last statement, Councilwoman Betsy Clapp told Figg to keep his opinions to himself.
Clapp gave a presentation of her own, showing slides of locations around the city from which the Topa Topa Mountains are currently visible, but that could potentially be blocked by three-story structures.
“If that (zoning change) occurs, we can’t say ‘no’ (to three-story development). Oh, sure we can ‘design it differently.’ We can put lipstick on a pig,” said Clapp. “Don’t fool yourself. And don’t patronize us with that crap. The reality is it would destroy our community, destroy our way of life, destroy our economy.”
Many Ojai residents echoed similar concerns.
“This is a threat to our fragile fiscal and physical environment,” said Chamber of Commerce CEO Scott Eicher, citing a negative impact on traffic, density and views in the tourism-driven Ojai Valley. “The state has looted our coffers for years, borrowing property taxes, borrowing gas taxes, taking vehicle licensing fees and recently eliminating the redevelopment agencies, creating even more financial turmoil. I urge Council to send city manager Rob Clark to Sacramento to tell the state to amend the Housing Element so it does not include provisions for three stories.”
“Ojai is a really, really, really, really special place. I know that goes without saying, but I think we need to be really careful about what we do in response to what the state is mandating,” agreed Ojai resident Tom Francis. “People come here from all over the world, and they come for a reason. We should look at bioregional capacity. Maybe it’s time to do updated traffic, air quality studies before we begin rezoning. I want you to tell Sacramento what they can do with their one-size-fits-all housing programs.”
Citizens were not alone in wanting to scrap the adopted Housing Element, or make drastic alterations.
“What do we want for our town? Do we want to continue to submit to Draconian measures of the state?” queried Clapp. “Are we going to say, ‘Oh, we were just doing our job?’ I’ve heard that somewhere before. I think people who were leading people into the gas chambers said that.”
“Oh Jesus, stop it Betsy,” interjected Councilwoman Carol Smith. “When I first moved here, my house was $35,000. How do people afford it now? They don’t! We want young families here. We don’t want to exclude them. I just don’t see how that will ruin our community.”
But others voiced worry that a rapid increase in development would do precisely that.
“I was born in Hueneme. When I was a kid, it was a cool town to live in, like something from ‘Little Rascals.’ Then in the late ‘60s it underwent urban renewal,” said Ojai resident Alan Thornhill. “They basically tore it down and rebuilt. And at their city council meetings, there seems to be the sentiment that it’s no longer a cohesive neighborhood, it’s lost that sense of village. … It could happen here, too.”
Mayor Paul Blatz related to Thornhill’s anecdote.
“Although I’ve lived in Ojai for 30 years, I grew up in a town one-third the size of Ojai, in Connecticut. The governing body there was called the town council. Sometimes I think we should be called that,” mused Blatz. “We are truly blessed to live in Ojai. And we are blessed because the leaders in the past have seen how important it is to maintain our unique, small-town character. … Let the message be heard loud and clear that we, as citizens of Ojai, will not accept anything less than what we believe is in the best interests of preserving our city.”
Councilwoman Carlon Strobel reminded those present that the Housing Element has already been adopted for the 2006 to 2014 period, and thus, the focus should be taken off of amending or retracting this Element, and geared toward the 2014 to 2021 Housing Element, which is due in October this year.
“I would like to find a way to create exemptions for small towns, whether based on geographical size or constraints,” said Strobel, who suggested teaming up with like-minded small communities in approaching the state’s next Housing Element.
Newly appointed Councilman Severo Lara worried that the state’s requirement to not create a blanket ban on three-story development could place the city in a no-win situation — that it would face litigation from the state if the Housing Element is abandoned or by developers should the city refuse three-story projects.
“We can look at it on a project-by-project basis,” city attorney Joseph Fletcher assured the Council. “All we need to do is write an ordinance that can achieve our share of the housing mandate in a fashion that is compatible with this community. I think it can be done. We do have a schedule, but the most important thing is to take the time to do it right, to come up with something that reflects the community’s needs. I think we can do both, I think it’s possible.”
Fletcher suggested, as possible alternatives to a blanket ban on three-story buildings, limiting building height or rooflines, reiterating that it was best to play along with state mandates, as the Council is a “subdivision of the state. We are not an autonomous government entity.”
“In implementation, like anything else, the devil is in the details, and that’s what we need to focus our attention on,” summed up Blatz.
Council voted to hold a joint meeting with the Ojai Planning Commission Feb. 20 to discuss those details, such as potential site designation for affordable housing projects.
Visit www.ci.ojai.ca.us to view previous meetings or read agendas for upcoming meetings.
I have never agreed with anything Clapp’s purportedly “stood for” since she’s been in office—nor anything Smith’s had to say, for that matter—but damned if that “…gas chamber” comment didn’t make me wish I’d attended THIS Council meeting! Finally! One of Ojai’s “in crowd” REFUSED to BEND OVER AND DROP THE SOAP [for, not just California\'s preposterous RHM(andates), but for Ventura County\'s CEDC (Cabrillo Economic Development Corp), the allegedly \"non-profit\" affordable housing outfit that ALWAYS gets the contract to build the 177-or-whatever-the-number-du-jour atrocities, er, projects, whoops, \"affordable housing units\" this town\'s mandated to build. See: The Pearl/Fulton Street dreck, er, DEVELOPMENT that we citizens were ASSURED could never be \"...sublet, refinanced, sold for profit, etc.\"]
I, for one, wish Clapp had been part of the “in crowd”/a Council member during the LAST round of our Regional Housing Mandate—Sacramento issues RHM’s every decade… with, of course, no regard for the nature of the “region” it’s issuing them to—talks. Her presence mightn’t have changed anything, but it surely would’ve made We, the People’s, purely masturbatory objections [raised during 167+ meetings] more palatable, i.e., fun.
P.S. to “Tabitha” : You were ALSO “dead-on” when you referred to the absurdity of Ojai’s damned-near-idolatry of oak trees—look me up later on THAT topic
Ms. Clapp’s invocation of the “gas chamber” analogy was absolutely disgusting. What an embarrassment to our community.
Are you kidding me! Ojai can’t handle three story buildings? Seriously! Give me a break. It will not destroy our precious Ojai, our community, our economy. For gods sake our stinkin oak trees block most of the view of the moountains anyway and god forbit we cut one of those down.
Good grief Ojai… lighten up.
How unbelievably offensive that Council Member Clapp would draw a comparison of much-needed affordable housing to Nazi death camps. Mind blown.
So our environmentalist council member Carol Smith was the ONLY voice in support of the mandate. Carol, what planet are you living on? And to think I voted for you! Kudos to all the rest and especially Betsy Clapp for being a true leader at a crucial junction.
Ojai has been here before with similar issues and will be there again….
I’m confused. Ojai is supposed to about a clean environment, inclusion, helping the less fortunate. I guess that means as long as you don’t have to actually live with poor people. You know, those people that work here. The ones who have to drive up from Ventura and Oxnard. The young families who have to move away because the cost of housing is too high. You know, the kinds of people that create the dynamic, multi-cultural town you all profess to want.
yep, do all that and more, just don’t follow a STATE mandate to have to do something that could injure OUR town.
this has nothing to do with ‘poor’ people. Cali housing politics is a mess. in Ojai single landlords own 20+ houses and rent them as holiday lets distorting the local market. why you’d build another 177 units into a narrow valley cars and polution and all is beyond me.
Urban sprawl is destroying California in more than one way. The real estate lobby is running the show, this needs to be curtailed.
Take a vote, if the majority of the voters want to ignore Sacramento’s decree then so should it be.
What would be the consequence of simply ignoring the state mandate?
And part of the answer to your question would be to look to other municipalities–are there are several–to see what happened to them, even get advice from them on how they handled it….
Ditto on that. As I understand it, we might loose some general fund grant money. Maybe not much more. That is one option that may be explored…as I understand it.
WTF? “leading people into the gas chambers…”
This isn’t about whether affordable housing is a good thing or a bad thing, or whether change is good or bad. This is about a draconian law that emanates from Sacramento and is applied without distinction to every city and county in the state, without regard for special circumstances such as THE FACT THAT OJAI – UNLIKE VIRTUALLY EVERY OTHER TOWN IN CALIFORNIA – IS NOT ON THE STATE WATER SYSTEM. The law requires cities like ours to accommodate hundreds of affordable housing units with every cycle (cycles are every six years and they are in perpetuity). In our current cycle, we are at 433 units; the next one, who knows. The numbers have always gone up. And guess what? What will bring these developers here is the fact that they only have to designate 15% of them as affordable in order to trigger all of the priority zoning, building, setback, utility hookup and OTHER incentives that make it impossible to resist. In other words, they get to sell 85% of those units at market rates, having only devoted 15% of them to affordable housing. With 433 affordable housing units as our assignment, and only 15% per project required to be affordable, do the math. We are looking at doubling our population, then tripling, then quadrupling, and on and on.
see my post Peter.
In what scenario do you see Ojai GROWING in the next 10 years? It ain’t happening.
So I suggest watching a pink moment, sipping a mimosa and letting the unlikely fade from our minds. The more we make a fuss, the more our city leaders waste time on this unfunded mandate.
Be a pragmatist. Chill.
While I agree that large scale development would impact Ojai in a bad way, that is not what this plan is about.
Developers are active now because costs are low. But any developer worth his salt will not develop unless he/she sees a scenario where housing demand will increase.
In Ojai, there will always be new homes for the upper end ownership market. However these rules and Ojai’s ordinances don’t matter. All these homes are evaluated on a case by case basis.
This state plan is about managing net population increases. And that is not in Ojai’s future. So we do the plan REALIZING that “tract homes” or low income housing is not in the offing anytime soon. The return on investment is not there because Ojai is not growing.
And for those honorable long term residents who want things to be just as they were 30 years ago…well perhaps none of those people follow the OVN blog. Change happens.
I think it is very short sighted to say “not in my lifetime” OR “not in my backyard”. We will and should regulate growth but I like to sing “old lang syne” only once a year and that with a drink in my hand.
So…don’t we have the right to self determination, or do we have to acquiesce to government forces dictating how to run our town?
We know how America’s founding fathers felt on this issue. What we are up agains here is the ever increasing encroachment by freedom destroying, leftist politicians. I say resist the forced building of low income housing thru every legal means possible. If we don’t, there will be no end to it until every visible hill is covered in 3 story rabbit hutches.
Why don’t you build those three story houses with walk out basements?
Oh, that’s right. California doesn’t believe in energy efficient basements.
If you build the homes into hillsides, all three floors can be walk out basements.