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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/13/2008 PC Reports MINUTES JOINT CITY COUNCIL/PLANNING COMMISSION STUDY SESSION CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE 183 NORTH MAIN STREET LAKE ELSINORE, CALIFORNIA TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2008 **************************************************************************************************** CALL TO ORDER Mayor Hickman called the Joint Study Session to order at 4:37 p.m. ROLL CALL PRESENT: MAYOR HICKMAN MAYOR PRO TEM KELLEY COUNCILMAN BUCKLEY COUNCILMAN MAGEE COUNCILMAN SCHIFFNER CHAIRMAN O'NEAL VICE-CHAIR GONZALES COMMISSIONER FLORES COMMISSIONER ZANELLI ABSENT: NONE COMMISSIONER MENDOZA Also present were: City Manager Brady, City Attorney Leibold, Administrative Services Director Pressey, Community Development Director Preisendanz, Public Works Director/City Engineer Seumalo, Planning Manager Weiner, Associate Planner Carlson, Planner Bitterolf, Redevelopment Project Manager McCarty and City Clerk Munson. PUBLIC COMMENTS Tim Fleming, resident, expressed his concerns regarding the proposed General Plan Land Use Map. He stated down-zoning and devaluating properties is wrong and indicated the City needs more neighborhood commercial designations in order to create more interest and opportunities in the community. BUSINESS ITEMS (1) CITY COUNCIL AND PLANNING COMMISSION RECEIVED AND FILED THE HOUSING ELEMENT UPDATE Community Development Director Preisendanz gave a brief overview and introduced the City's consultant Hogle-Ireland. He indicated the Housing Element was adopted in 1995, was updated in July of 2002 and State law requires the Element to be updated every five years. He stated Housing of 1 Community Development (HCD) approved an extension of time until June of 2008. Ms. Viado of Hogle-Ireland presented a brief overview of what their firm has been doing with the update of the Housing Element. She gave a PowerPoint presentation on housing statistics, census count, accomplishing the City's fair share of housing needs, housing constraints, new legislation, i.e. SB 2 - emergency shelters, SB 520 - reasonable accommodations, and indicated they will make recommendations to address these issues and will ensure the City has sufficient supporting documentation for when State and Federal grant funds need to be secured. Ms. Viado stated the three main areas to focus for the City of Lake Elsinore are the needs, constraints and resources which will be used to form the housing plan which will identify all quantifiable housing accomplishments of the City since 2002 plan was approved, modify or delete any of the policies and programs from 2002 and identify any new policies and programs for this cycle. Ms. Viado indicated she would address any questions of the City Council and Planning Commission. Commissioner Flores indicated it would have been helpful to have a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. Chairman O'Neal inquired if the homes that are currently in foreclosure could be turned over into above-moderate income. Ms. Viado indicated they could not. Commissioner Zanelli inquired if there was any funding that came along with the emergency housing for the homeless mandate. Ms. Viado indicated there was not. Commissioner Zanelli inquired what the minimum standards for the facilities are for homeless. Ms. Viado responded there is as part of the Senate bill, information on what will be required. Ms. Stetson of Hogle-Ireland responded the State does not specify exactly what cities have to do for emergency housing. She stated cities need to address the emergency housing whether it is for a couple of nights stay or long term. Commissioner Zanelli inquired about the number of people needed to be housed. 2 Ms. Stetson responded there has to be zoning in place to allow somebody to put an emergency shelter in the City. Councilman Magee concurred with Commissioner Flores regarding having a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. He inquired what the median-income number was based off of. Ms. Charpentier of Hogle-Ireland responded the median income for Riverside County for the new 2008 standards is up to 62,000 and for the City of Lake Elsinore is 48,305. Councilman Magee inquired how the City will accomplish promoting estate housing and will the document address this. He indicated the City is in dire need of estate homes and this needs to be accommodated in the Housing Element and in the City's General Plan. Ms. Stetson responded it will not and is not a legislative mandate but can be addressed in the City's Housing Element. She indicated estate homes would be considered above-moderate and the City's goal is to facilitate 2,300 above- moderate which can be anything from a standard 4-bedroom home to an estate home. Community Development Director Preisendanz agreed and stated the areas the City is looking at are County Club Heights and some areas along the lake. Councilman Magee inquired if vacant un-occupied structures can be considered. Ms. Stetson responded the RHNA is really a requirement for new construction, so units that were built long ago that are currently sitting vacant, do not count towards meeting the current housing supply. She also indicated if housing was built between January 2006 and January 2008, these can be counted towards satisfying the current need for housing. Councilman Magee indicated part of a balanced community and a balanced inventory of housing stock includes the high-end as well as low-end housing. Councilman Buckley suggested to consider incentives for high-end homes and to consider what was done in Oakland. He stated hillside residential will be a key to this, County Club Heights for the larger lots and also indicated the top of Flagstaff Hill may also be considered for high-end homes. City Attorney Leibold stated for Redevelopment inclusionary housing purpose is the above-moderate income category does not come into play. She stated to satisfy the Redevelopment Agency inclusionary housing requirement; the units have to have a recorded covenant restricting both the income eligibility of the occupant and the affordability of the unit in terms of purchase price, and resale restrictions or affordable rent. She also indicated the units that are built to satisfy 3 the Agency inclusionary requirement can double serve to satisfy the RHNA target obligations but the reverse is not necessarily true. She indicated the units that satisfy the City's RHNA numbers do not have to have the long term restrictions but the definitions of affordability are the same and the afford ability calculation is the same. She stated the numbers under RHNA are target numbers and the numbers for inclusionary housing are absolute statutory obligations. She noted it is an Agency obligation that can be facilitated through a City ordinance or conditions of approval on new development. Redevelopment Project Manager McCarty responded the City's outstanding inclusionary obligation is projected by 2010 to be 800 units and 40% of those units have to be restricted to very low-income. Mayor Pro Tem Kelley inquired if the emergency housing requirements can be satisfied by non-profits orthe City. Ms. Stetson responded the City has to allow that type of emergency housing in its zoning code by right. Ms. Stetson indicated there is a provision in State law that says if there are units that are really awful and there is a program to rehab these units, sometimes they can be counted. She indicated the City will not be penalized if there are not 5,589 new units built between now and 2014. She noted the City is only obligated, under current Housing law, to show the City has the capacity, because of zoning and the General Plan to accommodate this number of units. She stated it is up to the market to provide these units based on the regulations the City has put in place. Councilman Schiffner inquired what influence does this plan have or should it have on the Council's decision as far as lot size and densities. Ms. Stetson responded the State has provided an out, which says if the City has a zoning category or General Plan Land Use designation that allows at least 30 units per acre, the State will not question whether or not very low and low income housing can be built. She indicated if the City does not have densities in that 30+ range, it will be a little more difficult of a dialog with the State as to how the City is going to meet the obligations to facilitate low and very low housing. City Attorney Leibold stated one other distinction between the Agency inclusionary housing obligation versus the City's target under RHNA, if the project involves existing housing in what's called substantial rehabilitation, which is the cost of the rehab equals or exceeds 25% of the after improved value of the property or the improvements, then that can count to satisfy the inclusionary obligation. She noted the summary of the income categories is the common summary, but in actuality the low income calculations is not a straight mathematical calculation of the 80% of median. She stated there are adjustments made by HUD for a variety of reasons and the best way to understand what the 4 limits are for each of those categories is to look at the chart that is published annually by HCD. Mayor Hickman inquired who determines the number of 5,590 units. Ms. Stetson responded it is determined by the SCAG and by the State. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Hickman adjourned the Joint City Council/Planning Commission Study Session at 5:22 p.m. .~ ~~. L-;;)--.. . ....,....,..,..~...:...,~/. . L."Ol(RYL HICKMAN, MAYOR CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE CT:LL_ VIVIAN M. MUNSON, CITY CLERK CITY OF LAKE ELSINORE L 0' EAL, CHAIRMAN ING COMMISSION 5