The Seal Beach Planning Commission will hold a special meeting to look at the city’s Housing Element on Wednesday, March 14.
The City Council will hold a hearing about the Housing Element on Monday, April 9.
The meeting will also review a proposed amendment related to the Housing Element of the General Plan as well as an amendment to the Zoning Code related to the Housing Element.
The city’s Housing Element includes references to affordable housing, an issue that has been controversial in recent weeks.
State law requires Seal Beach to have a General Plan that includes the Housing Element. A housing element must designate potential locations for affordable housing. The owners of the property at those locations are under no legal obligation to actually build affordable housing.
Some residents of Seal Beach’s College Park East and the neighboring community of Rossmoor have expressed concern because the current draft of the housing element includes the Shops at Rossmoor center as a potential site for affordable housing.
Some residents of the Rossmoor Park condominium complex, which is actually in Seal Beach, have also expressed concern that placing affordable housing in their neighborhood could lower their property values.
A Seal Beach citizens’ committee selected seven potential sites for “affordable” housing on Monday, Feb. 13. The shopping center remains on the list.
District 4 Councilman Gary Miller, who represents College Park East, has said there was not enough public notice about the committee meetings that discussed affordable housing sites.
Legal notice of the March 14 Planning Commission hearing was published in the March 1 issue of the Sun. The notice said the hearing would include the General Plan and the Housing Element. However, the notice did not mention affordable housing.
Defining affordable housing
Senior Planner Jerry Olivera said that the definition of affordable housing is based on the median income of Orange County. He said individuals who make up to $100,000 could qualify for “affordable housing.”
Then-Director of Development Services Mark Persico said much the same thing in a telephone interview with the Sun in late February. (Persico’s last day with the city of Seal Beach was Friday, March 2.)
“You can have a very good income and still qualify as low income,” Persico said.
He said that in Orange County, someone who made up to $46,150 a year would meet the definition of “very low income.” Someone who made $73,850 a year would meet the definition of “low income.”
Housing poll
In December, the sunnews.org website conducted a poll on the subject of low income housing. The question: “Should the state force cities like Seal Beach to have low-income housing?”
There were two possible answers: yes or no.
Sixty percent of voters said yes.
Only two comments were posted on the site, one for and one against low income housing.
Speaking on behalf of opponents, an individual identified only as On the Beat said: “Why shoud we be forced into the added costs dealing with crime, drugs, robbery, graffiti and trash. Look at all the other model low income areas with the unresponsible low income housing residents. The entitlement can stay in Sacramento, we all have the same opportunity, work for it.”
Thelma Turner disagreed.
“Low income housing doesn’t mean addtional crime, drugs, etc. A perfect model of how low income housing can be put into effect is in Carlsbad. They have some wonderful complexes that are lower than the ‘normal’ rents—some for families, and some for adults. People should find out what the low income housing actually means before they pass judgment,” Turner said.
A copy of the draft of the Housing Element is now available at the Seal Beach city website, www.sealbeachca.gov.
To make a comment on this story at the Sun Newspapers’ Web site, go to www.sunnews.org.
