Council to Weigh 3 Housing Projects for Moderate-Income Buyers

The Ventura City Council is scheduled to consider three projects Monday that would add more than 400 units to the city’s housing stock for moderate-income buyers.

Low-income and affordable housing projects were the only exemptions allowed to a building moratorium imposed by the new slow-growth City Council shortly after its electoral victory last November.

All three projects to be considered Monday call for construction of mostly three- and four-bedroom units for moderate-income buyers. The projects would be located on vacant lots in unincorporated county areas just east of the city limits. The city would have to annex the proposed sites for the projects to be built.

Affordable Communities Inc. has applied for permits to build 153 houses in an undeveloped area bounded by Cabrillo Village, the Southern Pacific railroad tracks, the Santa Clara River and the Sudden Barranca drainage canal.

Wittenberg-Livingston has applied for permits to build 100 houses east of Saticoy Avenue and south of the Southern Pacific railroad tracks.

KNM Development Co. has asked for permits to build 150 houses in a block bounded by Telegraph Road, Reata Avenue and the Franklin Barranca.

If approved, they would become the first non-rental units to be built under the city’s affordable housing program since 1988, and the first housing projects since the moratorium began in March.

Council members said they adopted the moratorium because the city’s acute water shortage prohibits a large number of new water hookups. Critics in the development and retail communities have repeatedly accused the council of exaggerating the severity of the water shortage.

Under the city’s affordable housing program, developers cannot charge mortgage payments higher than 110% of the area median income, which is determined by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Everett Millais, community development director.

In Ventura, this translates into a price tag of about $140,000 for three-bedroom houses, Millais said. “These projects are really for the middle- to moderate-income range of $35,000 to $40,000 a year,” he said. “This is not housing for the truly needy.”

Prospective buyers would have to provide a 10% down payment and mortgage payments of between $1,000 and $1,150, Millais said. “And I’m sure they’re going to sell right away,” he said. “There’s nothing equivalent in the single-family market.”

All three projects have been tentatively approved by the city Planning Commission. The first two had no neighborhood opposition, but the city has received a petition signed by 91 residents opposing the KNM project on the grounds that it would increase traffic in the area.

Deputy Mayor Donald Villeneuve--one of the staunchest slow-growth advocates on the council--said he sympathizes with residents who oppose the project. But he said he could not vote against a project that would help fill one of the city’s most basic needs.

“After holding office for three years,” he said, “I’ve learned that there’s the ideal world and the world of reality. It would be nice to freeze out all development forever. But while I’m in office, I have the responsibility to provide a housing niche for people of all incomes, including the homeless.”

He added that unless the city allows some development, the state or the federal government would order Ventura to do so.

Mayor Richard Francis said he saw no conflict between the council’s slow-growth philosophy and allowing the proposed developments to take place.

“The slow-growth strategy that I believe most City Council members subscribe to is one of being careful with the kind of developments we allow,” he said.

He noted that the city’s affordable housing stock has not increased in the last two years. “These developments make up for that,” he said.