Third phase of Yorba Linda housing program begins; lower estimate for sales tax revenue

 This month marks the beginning of a third phase of Yorba Linda city officials working with a consultant to provide community engagement and public outreach assistance related to revisions in the city's General Plan Housing Element for a 2021-29 planning period.

The current phase is part of a two-year-long city effort to meet a state requirement to provide opportunities primarily through zoning changes for 2,415 new housing units in the 20-square-mile city or face severe state- and court-imposed penalties.

The third phase will run through June, when City Council members are expected to place a measure on the November general election ballot that – if approved by a majority vote – will permit the zoning changes necessary to preserve state certification of the city's housing plan.

A fourth phase of the continuing public outreach effort will run from the date of council's ballot measure placement through Dec. 31 with the Tripepi Smith consultant group, which was hired in April 2023 to begin the public outreach process in two initial phases.

Expert guidance was needed when Measure Z, the city's first effort to win voter approval for rezoning sufficent land to meet the 2,415-unit mandate, was defeated by 75% of the vote in November 2022.

A public vote on the matter is required by Measure B – the so-called “right-to-vote” initiative – which passed in 2006 with a 299-vote margin during a controversy that was related to former plans for a Town Center development.

One portion of the public outreach plan was formation of a Housing Policy Resident Working Group, a 17-member committee that hashed out a zoning change proposal forwarded to the council last year and will form the basis of zone changes for the planned November vote.

According to a March 5 report from Community Development Director David Brantley, “Staff intends to continue to conduct extensive public outreach to ensure that Yorba Linda residents (and voters) have all the pertinent information to make an informed decision come November.”

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Yorba Linda sales tax revenue is projected to be $440,000 less than anticipated when the current fiscal year budget was adopted, based on a mid-year update presented to council.

City Finance Director Dianna Honeywell reported to the council, “Decreases in sales taxes are driven mainly by declines in general consumer goods, which includes lower gasoline sales impacted by lower gasoline prices.”

She added: “Home furnishing stores have also declined more significantly than originally anticipated as consumers shift spending from the purchase of tangible goods...to leisure, entertainment and travel.” Also negatively impacted is the business and industry sector.

Partially alleviating the sales tax loss is $265,000 in lower payments to the Sheriff's Department in part because the city overestimated the raises eventually granted its employees when the budget was adopted.