City meets state's low-cost housing requirements

At last, there's good news to report about this city's compliance with a new state mandate to meet future demands for low-cost housing: the city already has identified enough properties to satisfy the assigned affordable housing numbers for the next eight years, through 2021.

In fact, in total numbers for housing availability at all economic levels, the city has properly zoned land that exceeds the state's 669 new-unit requirement for 2014-2021 by 409 units, with a notable overage in the state-defined lower and moderate income ranges.

That means city officials won't need to go through the wrenching process of designating more sites for lower-cost, multi-family housing that caused so much consternation among residents during the 2008-2013 “housing element” planning period.

A “housing element” is a key component of a city's General Plan, which guides development decisions throughout the municipality. This city's plan currently is undergoing a revision, the first since a 1993 update of the original, voter-approved 1971 document.

Interestingly, all the designated sites that will meet the state's requirements for the 2014-2021 period were originally identified to satisfy state mandates for 2008-2013 because numbers for the upcoming timeframe are considerably less than the previous period.

New numbers assigned to Yorba Linda include the total 669 units, with 80 for the extremely low-income category, 80 for very low-income, 113 for low-income, 126 for moderate income and 270 for above-moderate income, based on the area's median income level.

Already identified sites, with the necessary 10-, 20- and 30-unit-per-acre zoning rules in place, include property allotted for 621 units for the three low-income categories, 391 for moderate incomes and 66 for above moderate incomes, totaling 1,078 units.

The 2008-2013 numbers tallied 2,039 units: 230 for extremely low-income, 230 for very low-income, 371 for low-income, 412 for moderate income and 796 for above-moderate income.

The numbers for six counties and 187 cities are assigned by the Southern California Association of Governments under a process known as the “regional housing needs assessment” or RHNA, with an overall 412,137 housing units needed to meet demand.

The numbers assigned the city are “a planning target for new residential growth and not a building quota [and] so long as a jurisdiction provides sufficient sites and does not impose constraints to development, it is not penalized for falling short of its RHNA target,” noted a draft of the new housing element scheduled to be viewed by the City Council July 16.

Measure B, a local ordinance requiring a public vote on major changes to zoning and density regulations, was considered a “constraint,” so the council placed measures on the June 2012 ballot which won density increases on 11 parcels.

The sites, along with others already rezoned, allow the city to meet mandates through 2021.