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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/09/1978City-Council Minutes May 9, 1978 Page 2 1. The City Council met in joint session with the City Housing Authority for an update report and:. recommendations from.the.Authority. Mildred Roske,.member of the Housing Authority, presented a short slide program on the progress -of the local Housing Authority in the City of San Luis Obispo showing efforts.of:units constructed by the.Housing Authority and also units leased by the Housing Authority. Leland Bilatti, Chairman of.the Housing_Authority,.then reviewed for the City Council various factors effecting -housing'assistance programs.in the City of San Luis Obispo. He stated that the Department of Housing and Urban Development was the primary funding..source. for housing assistance programs.. Funding levels were determined by Federal legislation which essentially allocated funds on an urban /rural basis with 80% of the funds going to urban areas and 20% to rural areas. He'stated that this year's allocation.of funds by:HUD for the County of San Luis Obispo through .other rural California counties and 12 Arizona Counties were 362 units under various programs of HUD. He stated that competition for these funds were expected to be highly competitive because of the limited dollar amounts. He continued that there were some funds available from the State of California through its Department.of Housing and Community Development-and the California Housing Finance Agency. The dollar amount of these funds were very limited. Additionally, there was no allocation plan for distribution of financing available for new construction. The funds being allocated were on the basis of private and /or public developer demand. He stated estimates by'the Housing Authority for housing assistance needs varied in range. from 1500 households (HUD estimate) to .700 (City estimate). Part of the reason for the difference stemmed from different data bases from which the estimates- were.based: Although the estimates'for.need varied, pro- bably the most important aspect of the need for housing assistance was the rate at which the figure was growing. He stated that the Housing Authority did not have firm figures on the local growth rate and housing assistance needs, but he did know that the number of households.needing assistance was increasing. The increase in need-was due largely to the fact that household housing costs were increasing at a greater rate than-the household income. He stated that although the housing cost income problem affected the rate at which housing assistance needs were growing, there were.other contributing factors. A reduction in supply of existing rental units could contribute to this problem, especially when there was a low vacancy rate in the rental market. Rental unit reduction under such circumstances tended to push rental rates of the remaining rental units to higher levels. He stated that landlord restrictions placed on existing rental units further limited the availability of rental units for particular segments of the households in need of housing. Perhaps the prime example of this problem, was the common practice of restricting rental units to families without children. He stated that in the City of San Luis Obispo today, there are more rental restrictions against children than there were against pets. The effect of these restrictions was to severely limit housing opportunities for families. Finally, he stated the need for housing assistance consisted of a mixture of household types:. housing for the.elderly, handicapped, families, etc. which required different -types of program response. For example, new con- struction efforts should emphasize building two and three-bedroom units because of the lack of these types of rental units in the city. Another limitation was the availability of water.which would ultimately limit the city's growth. Additionally, as the city grew to its population capacity the availability of land, which would support this .added population, would also be limited. When a commodity such as land became.a limited resource, its value increased. Limited availability of land-and increasing land value affected new con- struction housing assistance efforts in a number of ways: 1) the first and most obvious way essentially involved the increasing cost of land. Both publicly and privately sponsored new construction housing assistance programs had great difficulty in paying high land costs. Increasing land costs could eventually price land out of the reach of these programs; and 2) a second and less obvious factor involves the site selection criteria for assisted housing programs. Site criteria standards were very high for these programs and thus further limited the number of available sites. City Council Minutes May 9, 1978 Page 3 Finally „delays.in government review processes at both the local and the Federal level had - become a significant ' factor-which added to. the cost.of housing. New.construction housing assistance..efforts..were subject to.exten- sive reviews.at.the Federal.level in-addition to the normal local government review process. .The.potential for delays in a.very lengthy process was great. The delay potential as well as the.pr(icess itself.had resulted in eroding ..private developer interest and participation in new construction housing assistance programs. Lee Balatti, Chairperson..of the Housing Authority, stated.that he felt that .one of the policy issues involved - was.that the Housing Authority felt the .city could play a more active role in efforts to address problems.of provid- ing housing to-meet housing assistance needs. He felt the city's housing element and its growth management policies of the General Plan should specif- ically.identify its.role regarding housing assistance in this community. A number._of techniques that could . be employed by the.city to help.solve some of the.problems_ identified would be to displacement, rental discrimination, increasing rents, review process and availability of land. Rich Chubon,.Executive Director..of.. the .Housing Authority, submitted some examples-in which the City Council might help the Housing Authority to accomplish their goals: 1) Adoption.of a displacement. ordinance which protects low income house- holds, from. displacement_ which. occurs when existing rental units were converted to.commercial or condominium use. Such -an ordinance might prohibit such conversions.unless replacement housing was available, i.e.,.rental.vacancy rate of 4% to 6 %. 2). Adoption of an ordinance which would prohibit discrimination.in rental housing solely on the basis.of children being members of a household. ' 3). Adoption..of_.an.ordinance which established controls on rent increases by limiting.increases.to justifiable increases in costs, i.e., tax, utilities, maintenance, etc. 4) Adopt an accelerated review process for new-construction projects which provide additional low rent housing. 5) .Adopt an ordinance which-allowed-density bonuses for new housing units which provided low rent housing... This would help lower the pier -unit land costs. 6) Adopt an ordinance which required.that any annexation of new land would require that a portion of the annexed-land was set aside for the develop- ment of low rent or moderate income.housing.. 7) Adopt an.ordinance which required.that new multifamily subdivisions creating more than a.specified number of lots make available land to .,be purchased for public housing. 8) Adopt an ordinance establishing the-number of housing units to be built each year and allocating housing unit.permits by type (single family/ multifamily) and income level (high, middle and low). 9) Adopt an ordinance which based..permit approval of new construction multi- family.unit projects (10:units or more) on making a.specified number of these new units available for Section 8 housing assistance. The Housing-Authority also felt the city should consider developing programs which leverage available Federal funds. Examples of such programs could include: 1) Donating.city surplus land for development of Federally funded public housing. 2) Providing off- site.water and sewer improvements-for Federally funded low rent housing. City.Council Minutes May 9, 1978 Page 4 3) Purchasing land..and.writing down-land-costs-to levels..which improve the funded_low. rent Housing programs. 4). Providing.. add itiona1 rent supplement funds -to provide. additional housing assistance (one city had already done this,, Marin,.California). Finally, the Housing Authority stated that the City Council could establish a revolving housing development fund which would provide interest -free "seed" money to private /public nonprofit sponsors_of..low rent.housing. Such money ..could be utilized by.these sponsors,to_pay"the costs of meeting preliminary requirements prior .to.securiing.Federal..housing funds. This money would,be returned to the city.for re =use when these sponsors obtain Federal funding. The City Council and Members .of.the.Housing.Authority present held a lengthy discussion.on.the various items.brought.forth by.the Housing.Authority in attempting to carry out.their goal . of_providing. additional housing for low and moderate income families and also discussed proposals made by the Housing Authority for city participation in the housing program. ..The City-Council and.Housing Authority.then discussed appointments and con- siderations for membership on the Housing Authority- Housing Authority members present felt the City Council should give more credence to recommend- ations made by-the Housing Authority.as it was a.very technical type of board and.was . not.one_.that would . readily accept new members.on every two year basis. They felt that the Housing Authority should make nominations to.the City Council of members whom they wished to continue as members and then if these members did.not wish reappointment, allow the City Council to advertise or to look for members with guidance from the Housing Authority. Mayor Schwartz suggested that of.all.the advisory boards and commissions of the city, the Housing Authority was the only one with different dates for appointment and he: asked the Housing Authority, through .their. Executive Director, to.check with HUD and_see.if it.could be arranged_ so that as the terms became due, they would all expire on the 30th day of'June, regardless of the length of service and that way there would be no way of missing an appointment... The Housing Authority-stated they would be most happy to cooperate with the Council looking. into. changing dates-of .appointments...and.also asked the Council.to favorably consider their request for membership on the Commission. Mayor Schwartz declare d_a recess of 9:40 p.m. At 9:50 p.m..the meeting reconvened with all Councilmen present. 3. The City Council considered._a..resolution authorizing condemnation of property_for.expansion of.the police facility. On motion of Councilman Petterson, seconded by Councilman Jorgensen, the following resolution was introduced: Resolution No._3565 (1978 Series), a resolution of the Council of the City of San Luis..Obispo finding and declaring the necessity for condemnation of private.property for` expansion of police facility, City of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California. Passed and adopted on the following roll call vote: AYES: ..Councilmen Dunin, Jorgensen,.Petterson,..Settle and Mayor Schwartz NOES:. None ABSENT: None 2. The City Council considered a report by Henry Engen, Community Development Director, dated March 10, 1978 entitled "Current Major Development Applications ". Henry Engen stated that the purpose of the memorandum was.to appraise the City Council of the general scale, location and status of major development City Council Minutes May 9, 1978 Page 5 requests currently being... processed_within.the..City Planning-Department. The .volume of land. _development:entitlements.being requested..would.bear_directly on the respective..work_.loads of the Planning,.Engineering.and Building Inspection ...Division of the Community. Development - Department in addition -to other departments. He said the number of applications also raised basic issues relative to the city's growth management.processes. 1 He continued.that- there... were.12.major. residential land projects in various stages of_review = and /or.approval and -had a potential of.2,358 dwelling units which would represent a potential population increase of 5,900 persons. .This reflected a 17% increase over the October, 1977 estimated city pop- ulation of 35,200 persons. He stated that in addition to the dwelling unit residential land projects, there were three major non - residential projects which would add 153 new lots for commercial and industrial develop- ments, together with.the proposed San Luis Mall, which would provide from 300 to 400 full and part -time jobs within its proposed 37 stores. He stated that the target population capacity of the community general plan was some 55,000 persons, with present water and sewage capacity allowing for approximately 42,000 people. Build -out of the residential projects now being processed would result in ,a population of over.41,100 persons in the city. The city's General Plan.contained a growth rate goal of 4% through the 70's and 2% through the-80's. Therefore, the population addition noted above would provide the capacity..to..bring..population growth to a 1983 projected level and to the threshold of water -and water and sewage treatment limits. The city's General Plan..initially proposed a staged progression of develop -. ment;.however, this was changed to reflect a horizon year plan containing broader policies for.determining- growth areas. The problem with this approach was that we have, in effect, a.first- come - first -serve policy for processing developments as opposed to the city indicating where and under what conditions it wants which developments to occur. He felt that as a professional planner that the city needed a more precise set.of guidelines reflecting which pro- ' jects and what types of projects the city desires. He concluded his statements by saying the Community Development Department would be proposing a growth management plan as part of the 1978 -1979 budget process. The City Council, Housing Authority members present, planning staff and citizens present also discussed the philosophy of establishing a growth management strategy or plan for the city and whether the proposed strategy as submitted by the staff was restrictive or an expansive plan. After lengthy discussion of growth management as supported by the General Plan, and in view of the recommendations of the Housing Authority's recommendations submitted to the City Council this evening, the matter was referred to the planning staff for inclusion in the city's proposed housing element of the General Plan and also for presentation of the so- called growth management strategy or plan in the 1978 -1979 budget. There being no further business to come before the City Council, the Mayor adjourned the meeting to 7:00 p.m. Friday, May 12, 1978 at 11:20 p.m., Tuesday, May 9, 1978. APPROVED: June 20, 1978 Fitzpatrick, City Clerk