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Home My WebLink About01-20-2015 PH1 LopesSubject: FW: Housing Element Comments for January 20, 2015 Attachments: CC_1- 20- 15_Housing_Lopes.docx.doc COUNCIL MEETING: 1-2-0-115 ITEM NO.: W 1 From: James Lopes Sent: 1/15/2015 4:11 PM To: Ashbaugh, John; Carpenter, Dan; Christianson, Carlyn; Codron, Michael; Dietrick, Christine; Lichtig, Katie; Marx, Jan; Meiia, Anthony; Rivoire, Dan; Corey, Tyler; Johnson, Derek Subject: Housing Element Comments for January 20, 2015 � 14 Dear Mayor Marx and Council Members: ��EC�F°I�1E JAN 15 2015 Attached are my comments about the Housing Element Update, which support a broader yet more in- depth, bold approach. S LO CITY CI ,FV R K The current and proposed Housing Element update have lots of creative ideas to nudge the housing problem at various points toward solutions. I'm suggesting as I did for the Land Use and Circulation Element update, that a macro -scope be applied to the city's housing and non - residential land planning, to engage the community in solutions that are more effective. I'm asking that your Council continue the hearing indefinitely to revise the draft accordingly. I discuss and propose difficult issues and problems because I engaged in them for over 35 years as a professional land use planner for the County of San Luis Obispo. I know that you have enormous pressures politically and bureaucratically, but please take some time to read and think about my suggestions for a different approach to this and other City plans. We can't keep doing the same old planning and expect different outcomes; we have to address the major, big issues in detail. Thanks. Sincerely, James Lopes James Lopes 1336 Sweet Bay Lane San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Ph. 805- 781 -8960 1336 Sweetbay Lane San Luis Obispo, California 93401 January 15, 2015 City Council City of San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Subject: Housing Element Update — January 20, 2015 Agenda PH1 Dear Mayor Marx and Council Members: The San Luis Obispo City Council will decide how to address the tremendous gap in housing affordability and availability within San Luis Obispo next Tuesday night. The hearing on the Housing Element Update will present a draft plan which does not grasp and present the essential problems abiding in the structure of the City's General Plan. The land use plan is seriously out of whack between the land planned for housing and for employment and commerce, and partly due to this imbalance, San Luis Obispo is consistently ranked among the most unaffordable places in the United States to live. It is clear that the City cannot manage the supply or rate of housing that can be afforded by employees within the city by relying on the usual business preference to develop single family residences. Only 30 percent (or less) of employee incomes are high enough to afford the 90 percent of housing that is built in detached units. The City cannot plan huge increases in land for housing, politically or environmentally, to bring down the high cost of land, due to an enormous pool of wealthier individuals who now know of our happy city and who wish to can afford to move here. It also is clear that the City cannot rely on or pay for assistance programs to subsidize the development of sufficient affordable housing for even lower income groups. It is clear that the regional housing needs allocation (a required feature of the Housing Element) as a fraction of total regional housing projections, does not take into account that employment growth in San Luis Obispo is projected to outstrip residential growth by 3 to 1 over the next 20 years. The five -year allocation for moderate and above - moderate incomes cannot be met in single - family detached housing, because it will be too expensive due to limited land, growth management and a vast demand pool. What is abundantly clear as the proverbial elephant is that the supply and capacity of land planned for non - residential growth will generate far more employees and their families than the land planned for residential development in the city. The land planned for housing remains much less (by half) than needed to accommodate the numbers of employees which will be generated by the land planned for employment. Politically, city residents prefer to keep the residential growth rate at or below one - percent annually in order to be a small -scale city. Yet, City staff and Council prefer not to set an equal or lower growth rate for non - residential development. And, they refuse to engage a more effective zoning tool, to phase or reduce the amount of land planned for non - residential development enough to balance with the land available for residential growth. As employee commuting and regional shopping trips to San Luis Obispo continue to escalate, Highway 101 is becoming dangerously crowded and congested; drivers are diverting to and crowding city streets and other roads and highways. All of the funding agencies acknowledge that funds are simply not foreseeable to widen Highway 101 from four to six lanes to accommodate the projected employee growth of San Luis Obispo plus all other traffic. Despite this being a commonly known fact for the last 10 years or more, City staff and decision makers proceeded through the Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE) update without directly and functionally addressing the issue, letting the LUCE environmental impact report only dismiss it as an unavoidable, un- mitigable impact. To truly avoid unsustainable impacts upon the city and region, the Housing Element Update should fully consider and respond to these issues with bold, creative policies and programs, many which can be found working elsewhere. Here are the essential strategies which should be directed through the Housing Element Update: • A second round of the LUCE update should proceed which addresses how to allocate land to non - residential growth which will result in a reduction in existing Highway 101 congestion and avoid it growing due to city development. • The City should seriously and fully engage the facts with the Economic Development community to change the mindset that San Luis Obispo should be the peak or hub of all non - residential development in the county, and engage in prosperity thinking in a sustainable manner. • The City should engage the transportation agencies to find regional solutions to future employment growth as well as shopping customer growth, so that land use and housing plans are revised to somewhat balance within communities as well as in the region. Solutions are needed to reduce the competitive chase for local sales tax revenue, and 2 coordinated land use planning is needed to allocate non - residential land in communities where land planned for housing can be most accommodating and convenient. • The City should engage in a strategic dialogue (concepts, pros /cons, plans, actions) with all groups and agencies such as the Airport Lane Use Commission to re- allocate, shape and time non - residential growth with the sustainable supply of residential land. • The City should set a goal and policies to require that its annual housing growth management be weighted almost entirely to permits for moderate to high density housing. Rather than the 10 percent which typically is built in these densities, the City should allocate higher density housing to the approximately 70 percent of employee incomes which can afford it. By seriously engaging in the dynamics between housing, non - residential land uses and transportation, the City and its citizens may find effective ways to avoid a future calamity of unlivable dysfunction within our region. As proposed, the Housing Element Update will contribute to significant air quality and transportation impacts within the region by escalating vehicle travel. It will benefit all parties if the Council continues the hearing on the Housing Element to give more thought to these issues and solutions. Sincerely, James Lopes 3