State Calls Seal Beach Housing Plan Inadequate : Affordable homes: The state wants to know how the city will implement its low-cost housing commitment. The freeze on new home construction continues.

Saying that the city didn’t show enough commitment to providing affordable housing, state officials this week decided the community’s state-mandated housing plan is inadequate.

The decision means the freeze on new residential construction in Seal Beach will continue until the City Council adopts a housing plan that has been revised to comply with the state’s comments.

Last month, an Orange County Superior Court commissioner ordered the city to revise its housing plan, which was to have been in the hands of state officials last summer. The order also blocked the city from issuing permits for new residential construction pending revisions to the plan, which details the city’s strategy for accommodating future housing needs.

Two days after the court order was issued, Seal Beach submitted a revised plan to the state. The Department of Housing and Community Development responded this week with a nine-page letter, asking Seal Beach to revise the document to specify how the 250 low- and moderate-income housing units called for in the plan will be provided.

“In our opinion, a housing-element program should include a clear commitment, a schedule for action and specific objectives for implementation . . . “ the letter said. “Actions such as ‘seek funding from federal and state sources . . . ‘ do not, in our opinion, commit the city to undertake any specific action.”

Seal Beach development director Lee Whittenberg said that city officials are working to revise the plan to respond to each of the state’s comments. But he pointed out that the city has had a hard time complying with state law because most land in the city is already developed.

“Opportunity for new development in the city is fairly restricted,” Whittenberg said. “There aren’t a lot of pieces of property for sale out there.”

The city told the state of plans to build 125 units of low-cost housing near a 329-unit development planned for the Hellman Ranch property, the largest piece of undeveloped property in Seal Beach. But the letter from the state noted that the land for the 125 units is currently being used for oil production and has not been offered for sale or development.

The housing plan should have included information on how the land would be acquired and developed, the state’s letter said.

“That’s one tough area that we’re still working with,” Whittenberg said. “We’re trying to find some mechanism that would show more specifically how we can do that; I don’t have any answers on that right now.”

The city is obligated to show how it will provide its share of the regional housing need, which is determined by the state using population-growth estimates and census figures. By 1994, Seal Beach will need 49 very-low-income residences, 97 low-income units, 87 moderate-income residences and 158 upper-income homes, according to the state.

City Councilman Joe Hunt said the city’s land shortage does not excuse Seal Beach from its affordable-housing obligations.

“I think it’s going to take some imagination on our part to resolve this in a manner that is acceptable to the community and to HCD, but I think it can be done,” he said. “. . . I think, morally, we are all obligated to have an appreciation for the need to provide low-cost housing.”

Seal Beach officials hope to present an amended housing plan to the Planning Commission and City Council on Monday. The Planning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on April 18, and if the new plan is approved, the City Council will hold a public hearing and may vote on the plan April 23.

After City Council adoption, the revised plan will be returned to the state for further comment.