HUNTINGTON BEACH : City Falls Behind in Low-Income Units

This coastal community is falling behind state requirements for low-cost housing, city officials said this week.

State law requires cities with redevelopment projects to make at least 15% of new housing in the projects affordable for low-income families. Extensive redevelopment in this city has already produced a deficit of 50 affordable housing units, a city report said. In addition, the city is required by state law to replace 47 more low-cost housing units razed for redevelopment downtown .

“We just keep talking and talking about affordable housing and never getting any,” Councilman Jack Kelly said. “We’ve got to get down to nuts and bolts. . . .”

Discussion of the low-cost housing problem came during a joint meeting Monday night by the City Council and Planning Commission.

A city staff report warns that Huntington Beach faces a requirement to increase its low-cost housing in the next four years.

“It is estimated that 3,500 (new housing) units will be built in the Main Pier Redevelopment Project Area” surrounding downtown Huntington Beach, the report says. “Thus, 500 affordable units, or 15%, need to be provided in the project area.”

The report also says that as many as 270 units of affordable housing must be replaced during the next four years in the downtown area. That represents the total in existing low-cost housing scheduled to be torn down as redevelopment progresses downtown, the report says.

In a related matter, the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce notified the City Council that it opposes imposing mandatory quotas on developers in building low-cost housing.

In a letter to the council, chamber President Haydee V. Tillotson says city government should use incentives rather than quotas to get more low-cost housing.

“The production of affordable housing cannot be satisfied by the building community alone,” the letter says. “There must be cooperation between the city and builders to establish standards and criteria that are mutually acceptable and would encourage the building of the greatest number of affordable housing units.”

Tillotson’s letter offers these suggestions:

* That the City Council adopt an ordinance that would encourage the building of hotel-like, one-room residences.

* That the city study all vacant land it owns and consider some of that as sites for affordable housing.

* That the city permit small housing units to be added onto properties with existing residences. These units, usually called “granny units,” are often for elderly parents.