Poway OKs Low-Income Housing Plan : Development: State pressure forces ‘City in the Country’ to revamp general plan, but added housing still may not satisfy law.

Poway’s new general plan, the subject of acrimonious debate for more than a year, provides for higher-density housing for more than 1,200 lower-income families.

The revamped city plan approved Tuesday night provides for more housing and lower-priced housing than the community wanted when it incorporated in 1980. Included in the housing plan is an action program that outlines how the state Department of Housing and Community Development standards for affordable housing will be met in the coming five years.

The City Council also designated a citizen committee to consider 35 sites within the city that could be rezoned for higher densities to allow construction of apartments for low- and moderate-income families. That report is due from the advisory committee in June.

“We’re going to remain ‘the City in the Country,’ ” Mayor Jan Goldsmith said after passage of the general plan. “I believe we have found a better way to meet our obligations. I believe we have reached a community consensus.”

The city’s plan to create lower-cost housing in the community that prides itself on large homes on big lots will be submitted to the state housing agency for review to see if it meets state standards designed to provide a mix of housing throughout the community.

The state review and decision are expected by mid-February. If the Poway plan is rejected by the state, it must be strengthened or the city will face loss of its zoning and planning powers until state housing standards are met.

Residents of the city have vociferously objected to bringing in any more lower-cost housing than the 550 units called for in the old general plan. None of those units has been built.

But Legal Aid Society attorney Catherine Rodman said the new plan does not go far enough and predicted that the state will reject it, forcing the city to provide a time schedule and a specific project list designed to meet required housing quotas for families earning 20% less than the county’s median household income of $39,700.

“It is entirely inadequate. It’s a lot of generalities that just won’t fly,” Rodman said.

The Legal Aid Society has sued the city, claiming it misused redevelopment funds to pave roads rather than provide affordable housing.

The adopted housing element calls for applying “affordable housing” overlay zones on selected sites. On those sites, developers would be offered the opportunity to build at much higher densities than the original zoning if they build lower-cost housing.

Developers also would be required to set aside at least 15% of their new projects as affordable units or to pay sizable fees to the city to provide low-cost housing elsewhere.

High-density, low-cost housing also would be encouraged within the commercial areas of the city, especially along Poway Road and Pomerado Road, where low-income families could to be close transportation, stores and public services.

A proposal for a single-room-occupancy hotel, at first included in the housing plan, was dropped in final drafts after the council decided to study whether one is needed.