Courts, market support denser housing

A state Supreme Court decision and favorable market trends increase the likelihood that Yorba Linda will add a sizeable number of high-density multi-family residential units to the city’s housing stock within the next few years.

The court turned down an appeal by Irvine that contested a state mandate for 35,000 new housing units, including 21,000 in the “affordable” category, in that city by 2014. Yorba Linda’s City Council had filed a letter with the court supporting Irvine’s failed argument.

The decision let stand a Fourth District Court of Appeals ruling that courts don’t have jurisdiction over housing allocations issued by the Southern California Association of Governments.

Yorba Linda’s allocation is 2,039 units, including 831 lower- and 412 moderate-income units, with possible non-compliance consequences involving court sanctions, mandatory rezoning and lawsuits by affordable housing advocates, property owners and developers.

To meet this requirement, the council has identified 13 sites for potential rezoning to 10-, 20- and 30-units per acre to add up to 1,087 units for low- and moderate-income families.

After development, the units on these sites, 11 on the westside and two at Savi Ranch, would meet state requirements, when added to existing and currently planned housing.

A timeline submitted to the state Housing and Community Development Department lists an anticipated date of November 2011 for a vote on the rezoning. If some sites don’t win ballot approval, the city will propose alternative sites for rezoning and a second election.

The city’s report to the state also noted, “…market trends in Yorba Linda support development at the high end of the density range,” citing the apartments on Yorba Linda Boulevard across from McDonalds and the Presidential Walk homes near the post office.

In addition, city officials indicated they’ve contacted the owner of two sites totaling 12.8 acres at Bastanchury Road and Lakeview Avenue “and there appears to be interest in the increase in zoning density” to 10-units per acre on one and 30-units per acre on the other.

And the relocation of the St. Joseph’s medical facility to Bastanchury Road and Rose Drive will open the existing 4.08-acre center on Yorba Linda Boulevard and Prospect Avenue to a potential 122-unit multi-family development at 30 units per acre.

City officials also stated that early next year “the city will be contracting with an urban design firm to fine-tune…standards and establish multi-family design guidelines, while ensuring achievement of maximum permitted densities.”

In related action, the city will turn over 26 units in the 52-unit Evergreen Villas condo development at Yorba Linda Boulevard and Avocado Avenue to a management firm as housing for very low-income seniors. The units currently have a 40-person waiting list.

Town Hall meetings, Duvall and Gullixson

This week I’ll update topics from past columns and add a social note:

First, only one resident attended the most recent Town Hall meeting, an event initiated in January 2007 to provide an informal forum for citizens to comment on and ask questions about city actions and policies and generally held when a month has a fifth Tuesday.

Attendance crested at 82 at the July 2007 gathering but dwindled to the mid-40s in 2008 and the low-20s recently, not counting City Council members and top-level city staffers.

Nancy Rikel, a longtime council critic elected to the governing body on a reform slate in November 2008, commented that the low turnout could be interpreted as “a good thing.”

Rikel explained, “I think this actually says a lot about transparency, as I can remember the days when having a Town Hall meeting was not even a possibility. We have had so many meetings and made ourselves available on many levels.”

Second, my recent Mike Duvall column drew several e-mails and on-line comments, with some suggesting the 40-year resident owes answers to his Yorba Linda constituents. But the once-gregarious Duvall remains tight-lipped and still hasn’t answered media inquiries left at his Lemon Drive insurance office.

Yorba Lindans cast 51,441 ballots for Duvall during his 10-year political career. He won 8,614 in the 2000 council race and 16,400 for his 2004 re-election.

Yorba Linda Republicans gave him 3,138 votes in the 2006 primary for the city’s west-side Assembly seat nomination and 3,206 in an uncontested 2008 primary. He received 8,059 Yorba Linda votes to win the seat in 2006 and 12,024 for a second term in 2008.

One answer from the former two-time mayor and Chamber of Commerce president is due by Jan. 31, 2010. That’s when he’s required by law to account for the $66,732 he listed in his 2010 Assembly re-election treasury June 30.

Third, the social note: Rev. and former three-term Councilman John Gullixson officiated at the recent wedding of his son, John William Gullixson, to Christine Serventi.

The groom is an Esperanza High, UC San Diego and Seton Hall law school graduate now employed as a Toll Brothers project manager in New York. The bride is an Arizona State communications grad working for a Manhattan real estate firm.

Gullixson, a former Messiah Lutheran lay leader, said he was ordained by the Universal Life Church, “a libertarian organization” that doesn’t “subscribe to a particular religious philosophy but instead allows one to exercise his or her own spirituality and beliefs.”

The three-time mayor, now living in Portola, added he’s “in the final stages of retiring but will maintain a small law practice.” His wife, Kelly, continues as an “on-call” nurse at St. Joseph’s in Orange, and they’ve bought a Laguna Woods condo for winter use.

Ethics, campaign finance and whistle-blowing

Violations of Yorba Linda’s proposed ethics ordinance would be prosecuted as misdemeanors, and the state Attorney General might handle specific individual infractions, according to recent City Council discussion of the law’s likely provisions.

The council is scheduled to act on the final draft of the ordinance at an upcoming meeting, possibly Oct. 20, Mayor Mark Schwing noted. Schwing, John Anderson and Nancy Rikel are expected to provide the three votes needed to implement the new law.

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho would handle reported violations of an adopted ordinance as misdemeanors, unless the suspected breaches involve her council member employers.

Alleged infractions by council members would be turned over to the District Attorney, a special prosecutor or the state Attorney General, with the latter two more likely because Anderson’s position as an assistant DA could create a conflict of interest.

The ordinance would apply to elected and appointed city officials, including the city’s 20 council-appointed commissioners, and include matters related to campaign contributions, endorsements from city employees and commissioners and guidelines for city officials.

Other draft provisions address protection for “whistleblowers,” required ethics training, banning closed-door council and commission committee meetings, audio taping closed-door council sessions and prohibiting misuse of city resources and staff in elections.

A major change from present practice would outlaw soliciting campaign contributions from an individual or firm “under current contract to do business with the city or [that] desires to contract to do business with the city….”

Included would be labor associations of contracted entities, such as the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, the union representing 790 firefighters employed by the county Fire Authority, which contracts with Yorba Linda and 21 other cities.

Another key change from current custom would prohibit council members from taking $250 or more in donations or loans from recipients of a permit or decision during a 12-month period after approval.

And members would be disqualified from acting on any permit or decision involving a person who contributed $250 or more during a 12-month period preceding the decision.
Also banned would be soliciting endorsements from city employees and commissioners.

The ordinance also would require council to adopt a “Code of Conduct for Elected and Appointed Officials” to describe how council members and commissioners should treat each other, city staff, constituents and others when representing the city.

And the ordinance would require council to adopt a separate “whistleblower” ordinance to protect employees reporting improper governmental actions.

City Council members get long-term benefits

Residents and others who pay the taxes and fees that keep Yorba Linda’s municipal government and city Redevelopment Agency in business provide only a modest per month salary for the five City Council members who oversee both operations.

But the elected leaders are able to tuck a larger sum each month in their retirement accounts because they receive the same benefits afforded full-time city employees.

Monthly salary for council service is $500, plus an extra $30 for Redevelopment Agency meetings, up to four per month. Generally, RDA meetings are held concurrently with the council sessions at the rate of two each month, so members usually earn $560 per month.

However, if council members waive city-paid health benefits, the city will put $833 each month into their respective 457 deferred compensation retirement plans, similar to 401(k) plans, according to city Finance Director Susan Hartman.

Four council members—John Anderson, Jan Horton, Mark Schwing and Jim Winder—each put $9,996 into these accounts annually because they don’t take the health benefits.

Nancy Rikel is enrolled in the health plan, so only $374 is put into her 457 each month, Hartman noted, for a $4,488 total each year.

In addition to the 457 plans, the city pays about $1,500 each annually for Anderson, Horton, Rikel and Schwing to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which pays benefits that can begin at age 55 after a minimum of five years service.

The CalPERS benefit is based on council and RDA salaries—usually the $560 monthly figure—and is computed by multiplying service years by salary and Yorba Linda’s two percent at age 55 formula granted full-time employees.

Thus, a participant serving two terms and retiring at 55 would receive $89.60 per month, and a participant serving the current three-term maximum would receive $134.40 per month, plus annual cost-of-living adjustments, for life.

The two percent factor increases to 2.418 percent at age 63, so a participant serving two terms and taking benefits at or after 63 would collect $108.33 monthly, and a participant serving three terms $162.49 monthly, plus annual COLAs, for life.

The council recently suspended a $100 monthly auto allowance and cut back on city-paid meals at meetings but still collect a $36 telephone stipend. “We are self-insured for vision and dental, and employees do not contribute towards this cost,” Hartman added.

Council members also are paid to represent the city on county boards. The agency-paid, per-session stipends range from $100 to $212 for the bi-monthly and monthly meetings.

This year, Anderson serves on the Sanitation board, Rikel on the Fire Authority board, Schwing on two toll road boards and Winder on the Vector Control board. Horton was on the fire and toll road boards in 2007 and 2008.

Yorba Lindans will vote on affordable housing

Yorba Lindans will eventually cast ballots on the rezoning of 13 specific properties to accommodate higher density affordable housing, according to a timeline City Council submitted to the state Department of Housing and Community Development recently.

The timeline is one part of a package of responses to a California official’s call for revisions to Yorba Linda’s state-mandated “draft housing element” for 2008-2014.

An “anticipated date” of November 2011 is listed for an election, required under terms of the Measure B “right-to-vote” initiative approved by voters in 2006 by a 299-vote margin out of 13,543 ballots cast in the city's single costliest campaign.

Measure B requires voter approval for major zoning changes, such as residential zoning to densities exceeding 10 units per acre and heights greater than 35 feet. Developers and real estate interests raised $174,000 in opposition, while proponents spent some $15,000.

The sites subject to a vote—11 on the westside and two at Savi Ranch—were identified for potential rezoning to multi-family residential at 10-, 20- and 30-units per acre. They total 48.24 acres and could be developed with 1,087 low- and moderate-income units.

Two 30-unit-per-acre sites are at Savi Ranch, each 3.2 acres listed for 96 units: vacant land owned by John Force and an abandoned automobile dealership.

Other 30-per-acre sites: 4.11 greenhouse acres on Prospect Avenue for 123 units, 1.68 acre home and storage at Wabash Avenue and Rose Drive for 50 units, the 4.08-acre St. Joseph’s facility at Prospect Avenue and Yorba Linda Boulevard for 122 units and 8.5 nursery acres at Bastanchury Road and Lakeview Avenue for 255 units.

Three 20-per-acre sites: the 4.7-acre “strawberry field” on Lakeview Avenue for 94 units, vacant 2.39 acres at Lakeview Avenue and Altrudy Lane for 47 units and 4.11 acres of an equestrian business at Bastanchury Road and Lakeview Avenue for 82 units.

Four 10-per-acre sites: 7.01 acres on Yorba Linda Boulevard across from the Nixon Library for 70 units, 4.34 acres of the Bastanchury Road and Lakeview Avenue nursery for 43 units, the .49-acre car wash/center on Eureka Avenue for 5 units and .43 acres at 3741 Rose Drive for 4 units.

City personnel said voters will be asked to say “yes” or “no” on each site separately, and the report to the state noted, “To the extent a shortfall exists in sites receiving Measure B approval, the city will propose alternative sites for rezoning….”

The report added, “Should a second Measure B vote designating adequate sites fail to pass the electorate, the City Council will seek a legal opinion from the state Attorney General’s office as to how to proceed.”

Each election could cost the city $140,000, less if combined with other balloting.