IRVINE : Affordable-Housing Plan Up for Review

The City Council and Planning Commission will hold a joint meeting this afternoon to consider modifying the city’s year-old, affordable-housing plan.

Under the current plan, the city’s goal is to require 25% of all new homes be affordable to families earning less than the county’s median income. Half of those homes would be for families earning less than half of the county’s median income, which for a family of four is about $49,100 a year.

But current council members have criticized those affordable-housing goals as unworkable or onerous.

Last week, the City Council waived the affordability requirement for a mobile home park owner who objected to a requirement that one of four planned new coach spaces be set aside for a low-income tenant. The council’s recent approval of a planned 3,700-home development also did not mandate affordable units inside the project, as specified by the housing plan.