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Same task, different approach
Next door, the City of Santa Barbara is quietly
updating its own housing element. Many often
point to their effort and use it as an example
that the County should emulate.
The State has assigned the city a target figure
of 2,333 units to rezone for as part of their
housing element update. However, in their housing
element the City of Santa Barbara points out
that “State law acknowledges that total
housing needs identified may exceed available
resources and the community’s ability
to satisfy this need. Under these circumstances,
the quantified objectives need not be identical
to the total housing needs.”
The report goes on, “the quantified objectives
present the City’s best estimate of what
will actually be constructed in the 2001-2007
planning period based on market conditions,
property owners’ willingness to develop/redevelop
and implementation of the 2003 Housing Element
Update policies and programs. For the very low,
low and moderate income housing, the estimate
was based on past performance as well as budget
estimates for affordable housing subsidy sources.”
Ultimately, the City of Santa Barbara has come
to the conclusion that they will likely build
1,127 units or 48% of the State’s allocation.
The City calculates that the typical per unit
subsidy to produce affordable housing is now
in excess of $80,000. This is one factor that
has led the City of Santa Barbara to conclude
that there are not sufficient resources to satisfy
the State’s target of 2,333 units.
Beyond this recognition that there are significant
obstacles preventing the City from meeting the
State’s housing number allotment they
have adopted several policies that are of particular
interest to PANA. Here are two of them.
Policy 3.2: The character and quality of life
of single-family zoned neighborhoods should
be protected and preserved.
Policy 3.3: New development in or adjacent
to existing residential neighborhoods must be
compatible in terms of scale, size, and design
with the prevailing character of the established
neighborhood.
PANA commends the City of Santa Barbara for
the effort they have put into drafting their
housing element. We encourage the County of
Santa Barbara to redouble its efforts to create
a housing element that is balanced and presents
a comprehensive approach to housing in the unincorporated
area. But we are under no illusions, the City
of Santa Barbara contains no land zoned for
agriculture and therefore their housing element
update process lacks a main point of contention
that Goleta faces – should we be converting
agriculture land to housing?
Residents of this region understand that there
are many issues like traffic, infrastructure
and the desire to protect open space that must
be balanced when discussing growth. The County,
so far, has not allowed this discussion to take
place. Nor has it answered the recurring question
of how will we respond to State housing mandates
in 2008, 2013 and beyond? We would like a full
discussion to take place and cannot be supportive
of any plan that is vague, misleading or completely
silent with regard to many of these concerns.
In a poll conducted locally in 2000, 83% of
the respondents in the 93111 zip code indicated
that control over land use planning was of great
or substantial concern to them. This sentiment
has not changed.
The next draft of the County’s housing
element update is scheduled to be released on
August 27, 2003 and should be available to the
public at www.countyofsb.org/plandev/comp/programs/housing/2003.
PANA hopes to see evidence that the community’s
concerns have been listened to and incorporated
into this next version.
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