State requires Fullerton to plan for 13,209 units over next eight years

In her final meeting with the City of Fullerton before moving into a new position with the City of Anaheim, city planner Heather Allen presented Fullerton’s housing element project to the Planning Commission on January 19 to get their contribution. After giving their comments, the Planning Commission voted to continue the item, pending comments from the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

The Housing Element is an important document that describes both how the City has succeeded in achieving its stated goal of “a supply of safe housing that varies in cost and type to meet the needs of all segments of the community and how the City plans to meet the housing needs of residents of all income levels over the next eight years.

An important part of the housing component is the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), a projection of Fullerton’s housing needs across all income areas. According to the Housing Element, Fullerton continues to fall short of its housing affordability targets.

Between 2013 and 2021, Fullerton has set a goal of licensing 710 units that are accessible to low and very low income residents. Only 410 were built. Meanwhile, Fullerton has set a goal of approving 794 housing units for upper-to-moderate income residents. In fact, 1,230 were built.

RHNA’s current numbers are significantly higher than last time. While the target for the total number of housing units was 1,841 from 2013-2021, the target for 2021-2029 is 13,209 units. This increase reflects the statewide housing affordability crisis.

To achieve these numbers, the City must identify sites and propose programs to meet the City’s projected housing needs.

The Housing Element Project proposes to leverage two current state laws/programs and two newly proposed local programs:

Existing State Laws:

• The Surplus Land Act: (Any property declared surplus that is not sought for open space must be built with at least 25% affordable housing)

• Accessory dwelling units (ADU/JDU): any single-family residence can build an ADU and a junior ADU (JDU) on its property

New local programs offered:

• Housing Incentive Opportunity Zone (HIOZ): an overlay zone that allows a landlord to develop multi-family housing on a parcel with an underlying non-residential zoning classification (such as commercial, industrial, office, greenbelt, railway and religious) in exchange for the provision of a specified percentage of affordable restricted deed housing units.

• Religious Institution Properties: Allows properties containing religious institutions to be developed with permanent supportive housing and/or deed restricted affordable housing.

Together, the housing component shows that these four programs potentially provide over 30,000 homes, well beyond the 13,209 required, should some not be possible. For comparison, in 2020 the city has 49,163 dwellings.

Newly appointed commissioner Arif Mansuri said he received a letter from the Public Law Center stating that the city’s housing unit project did not meet all legal requirements. Mansuri said he was sorry to see Allen go, as she is the most experienced staff member who has worked on the housing element. He asks if the City has adequate staff to carry out the process.

Acting director of community and economic development Greg Pfost, who will lead the housing component process, said the city has adequate staff, as well as a consultant it has hired.

Mansuri asked if the city might miss the approval deadline for their housing element, and what are the consequences if HCD does not certify our housing element.

Pfost said the city is unlikely to meet the Feb. 12 deadline, the penalty for which would be that Fullerton has less than a year (instead of three years) to approve its plan to implement the element of lodging.

During public comments, Jane Rands suggested that in order to meet the need for affordable housing, the city requires a need for 15% or more affordable housing, rather than the 10% envisioned, in the incentive zone. housing (HIOZ) and the properties of religious institutions. .

Rands also asked if there was an ongoing legal challenge from the RHNA that Fullerton is a part of. The assistant city attorney said there was a lawsuit filed that was lost in trial court. An appeal is expected.

Jane Reifer suggested the City look at all opportunities to create affordable housing, but without overbuilding. She suggested a city scorecard for each building project that comes before the city to see how each development contributes to affordable housing.

She also called for all city grants to be decoupled from above-market housing proposals, especially once these requirements are met, so that the city’s scarce resources can help meet the most needed levels of housing. and the weakest who are traditionally not satisfied.

Reifer wondered how the original 2020 HIOZ concept to encourage affordability in 15 zones turned into the current 363 plots.

Finally, Reifer suggested an inclusive housing program of 15-25% affordable units for new developments, saying several Fullerton developers she consulted indicated they would have provided affordable units in their projects without hesitation. otherwise at market price, if the city had requested it. Commissioner Arnel Dino requested that a discussion on inclusive housing be scheduled at a future meeting.

Allen said the city doesn’t want to set the inclusion number too high and get nothing. “We want to make sure that we set a number that market rate developers can actually achieve.”

The assistant city attorney said state law complicates matters when cities exceed 15 percent.

Fullerton Heritage’s Ernie Kelsey said he would like to see more historic preservation areas and urged the public to contact him for help in designating neighborhoods. He requested a cross-list of historic Fullerton properties and HIOZ lists and surplus lands to ensure that no historic resources or environments are at risk of overdevelopment next to them.

Commissioner Peter Gambino expressed concern about the loss of commercial properties. Planning Commission Chairman Douglas Cox shares this concern. “Because at the end of the day, there’s sales tax revenue that these places generate.”

Chairman Cox asked if the City’s proposed programs could provide an “as of right” development standard that would not be brought before the Commission or City Council.

Allen said that once the ordinance is passed, the amendments associated with the zoning code and general plan would then have to be passed in a separate action to confer the “de jure” or “ministerial” rights. She confirmed that from then on approvals would be handled by the building department, rather than the Commission or Council, unless there was something beyond the standards and requiring a waiver.

Commissioner Gambino pointed out that rezoning would already be in place for properties in HIOZ zones, and expressed concern that these discretionary zone changes would be taken away from the Planning Commission. “I can’t help but wonder why are we here,” Gambino said. “There’s very little about it that’s discretionary, it seems.”

The housing element project is available at www.cityoffullerton.com/housinggameplan.

The Housing Game Plan website above also includes a standalone version of Table B-6, listing all potential HIOZ plots, but including mailing addresses for easier identification, and a new map that shows all locations. To simplify your research, review Chapter 4 (p. 57 of pdf) which discusses the four draft City policies that will become the City’s decision-making framework, and Appendix HB (p. 83 of pdf), which argues that the City has a site to meet its share of regional housing needs.

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