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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-08; Housing Element Advisory Committee; MinutesJuly 8, 2020 CALL TO ORDER: 3:01 p.m. ROLL CALL: Committee members Luna, Proulx, Barnett, Evans, Novak, Perez, Sachs, Streicher, Weis. (9/0/0) APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Motion by Committee Member Sachs, seconded by Committee Member Streicher to approve the committee meeting minutes of June 22, 2020. Motion carried 9/0/0. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None. NEW BUSINESS: Chair Luna directed everyone’s attention to the screen where a PowerPoint presentation for today’s new business items would be displayed. 1.Regional Housing Needs Allocation – Draft Housing Sites Identification Approach Consultant Rust discussed the City’s housing needs and the housing affordability levels of each income category on the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) table. Additionally, Mr. Rust discussed housing and jurisdictional constraints for site selection, and the seven sources for housing units to satisfy the City’s RHNA numbers. Mr. Rust emphasized that the City needs to demonstrate an ability to accommodate RHNA and provide a buffer to accommodate “no net loss” of housing units. Mr. Rust used maps to show specific sites that identify potential sources of housing and how these sources can be used to satisfy RHNA. Mr. Rust opened this agenda item for discussion with regards to RHNA allocation and site identification. Chair Luna asked if these numbers will be taken to the City Council. City Planner Donnell noted that this presentation is for information purposes and is intended to be used to prioritize site selection. Committee Member Barnett raised concerns that many of the identified sites on the presented maps are in the same quadrants and are not spread out evenly throughout the city. Consultant Weatherby presented a spreadsheet listing the seven sources of housing where each committee member can rank their preference for each source option presented. Housing Element Advisory Committee Minutes July 8, 2020 Page 2 Committee Member Streicher inquired about the housing sources and asked how many accessory dwelling units (ADUs) currently exist. Mr. Rust clarified that some vacant lots were dropped out of the housing analysis for various reasons and gave a figure on how many ADUs exist. Chair Luna pointed out that ADUs are processed at a ministerial level. Committee Member Evans stated that she visited some of the identified sites and some that are identified as vacant don’t look that way. Committee Member Weis approved of the idea of converting industrial sites to residential and notes that there is not much of that identified in his quadrant. Committee Member Perez asks for clarification on areas designated R-30 and notes that there might be sites missing in certain areas. Mr. Perez asks if each quadrant could be looked at more closely. Ms. Weatherby shared a map of the City with all currently identified potential sites. Committee Member Proulx asked for clarification on sites identified as current planning projects. Mr. Donnell clarified that the term “current planning projects” refers to projects that are currently in the planning process or projects that are already under construction. Mr. Donnell notes that affordable housing is included in some of the current planning projects. Committee Member Proulx raised concerns regarding traffic and asked if there are any discussions to widen roads to accommodate traffic increase. City Planner Neu noted that the goal of the General Plan is to not overbuild the circulation network, with the focus being to shift to away from cars and to other modes of transportation. Committee Member Perez noted that traffic in the northeast quadrant is high and discussions regarding the further widening of El Camino Real are currently taking place. Committee Member Evans noted that portions of El Camino Real have been widened and the streets are still busy. Mr. Neu stated that increasing housing opportunities near job sites will hopefully alleviate traffic. Committee Member Weis pointed out that the southwest quadrant doesn’t have many big lots and there are many underutilized lots that are good candidates to reach RHNA goals. Committee Member Novak said that she supports industrial conversion and is less supportive of ADUs. Committee Member Evans noted that redesignation from industrial to residential would be good but there isn’t enough inventory to reach RHNA goals. Housing Element Advisory Committee Minutes July 8, 2020 Page 3 Committee Member Sachs asked if expanding mobile home parks would be an effective way of expanding affordable housing. She also asked about evaluating the impacts of locating housing and whether the city has a senior housing designation. Mr. Donnell stated that mobile home parks were allowed in Carlsbad, but that there haven’t been any new or expanded mobile home parks proposed in recent years. He also noted project impacts would be evaluated before a property were designated for a certain use and that the city doesn’t have an overlay for senior housing. However, the housing element could include programs regarding senior housing. Committee Member Streicher mentioned that some housing quadrants are much more impacted than others and is concerned about traffic congestion. Committee Member Weis mentioned that his quadrant is very walkable and many of these housing units will encourage walkability. Mr. Weis was favorable to the idea of using underutilized sites for housing. Committee Member Evans noted that it would be beneficial to redesignate commercial to residential in the Village area so more people could walk to work. Committee Member Perez asked if El Fuerte Street could be extended. City Planner Donnell clarified that there is no plan to extend El Fuerte Street from Faraday Avenue to College Boulevard and extending it would conflict with a conservation area. Committee Member Proulx asked if the ranking process will be used to identify specific sites. Ms. Weatherby noted that the ranking sheet will be used to rank preferences for housing sources. Chair Luna commented that the ranking of housing sources is only to gauge the preferences of the committee. Committee Member Weis stated that sites identified as vacant and planned projects are important for the city to reach their numbers because they are already going to be used for residential. Committee Member Weis asked why they should consider vacant and planned projects if the ranking is a strategy for site selection and vacant and planned projects are already going to be residential. Committee Member Novak concurred. Committee member Perez asked about the planned projects, particularly the one that will complete the Poinsettia Lane gap. Mr. Donnell noted this project contains units that will be under construction after June 30, 2020, or the beginning of the sixth housing cycle. Chair Luna called for the committee member rankings on the site selection strategy for satisfying RHNA, based on the numerical order of the seven sources listed on slide 18 of the PowerPoint presentation for agenda item 1: • Committee Member Weis: 6, 7, 4, 1, 2, 3, 5 • Committee Member Streicher: 4, 5, 3, 2, 1,7, 6 • Committee Member Sachs: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 2 • Committee Member Perez: 3, 7, 4, 5, 6, 1, 2 • Committee Member Novak: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 5, 2 • Committee Member Evans: 5 (only source she voted on) • Committee Member Barnett: 1, 3, 7, 6, 4, 2, 5 • Vice Chair Proulx: 1, 4, 7, 6, 3, 5, 2 • Chair Luna: 1, 4, 3, 2, 7, 6, 5 Housing Element Advisory Committee Minutes July 8, 2020 Page 4 Ms. Weatherby noted that due to technical difficulties, she was unable to present the results of the members’ votes. Mr. Rust mentioned that the preferences of the committee will be used to brief the council and to inform the consultant team if there are any specific sites that need to be looked at. Mr. Rust further mentioned that there will be a traffic assessment based on the ranking and the sites that have been identified. 2. Scheduling Update Consultant Weatherby updated the committee on the timeline and schedule of the Housing Element, noting that the City is still on target to meet the April 2021 deadline. 3. Public Engagement Update. Communication and Engagement Director Ray explained that the City is still in the early stages of public outreach. Communications Manager Lemons showed a video that will be used to provide awareness of the Housing Element. Ms. Lemons added that an online survey will be included as well. Committee Member Barnett approved of the video and said it shows an easily followed step-by-step approach. Mr. Barnett commented that the video starts off a little fast. Committee Member Barnett left the meeting at 4:49 p.m. Committee Member Streicher mentioned that the video needs more diversity, audio quality needs to be improved, and the video should mention that the Housing Element will meet the housing needs of the people. Committee Member Evans asked how the public will be notified that the video exists. Ms. Lemons clarified that the video will be shared across social media channels and will be mentioned via direct mailing and email blasts. Committee Member Novak stated that the video is well done for a first draft. Ms. Novak mentioned that the video needs to emphasize that the Housing Element will meet the requirements from the state while keeping the character of Carlsbad. Committee Member Sachs asked if there will be a Spanish version of the video. Ms. Ray stated that production of a Spanish version of the video was not anticipated. Committee Member Perez asked if the video will include captioning options. Committee Member Luna mentioned that the video needs more diversity and to address the fact that the Housing Element is intended to both improve Carlsbad and satisfy State requirements. Consultant Weatherby stated that the stakeholder list is comprehensive and will be used to send out email blasts. Ms. Weatherby asked the committee to review the list and add stakeholders to it as needed. Committee Member Proulx asked if the stakeholders list can be done alphabetically. Committee Member Perez asked if Native American tribes are included on the stakeholder list. Ms. Weatherby clarified that Native American tribes are not included on the stakeholder list, but they will be notified as part of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process. Housing Element Advisory Committee Minutes July 8, 2020 Page 5 Chair Luna mentioned that many of the Homeowner’s Associations on the stakeholders list are managed by the same property managers. Committee Member Weis mentioned that it is difficult to navigate the city website and requests that the HEAC page be more readily available. Committee Member Evans agreed and speculated that this might be why there have been no public comments yet. Ms. Rey mentioned that information received from this committee will be incorporated into the survey. Committee Member Proulx left the meeting at 5:19. Ms. Lemons discussed the outreach plan during COVID-19 and what strategies will be implemented to engage with community members. Committee Member Sachs asked if public engagement meetings will be conducted via a webinar format. Ms. Lemons confirmed that public engagement meetings will be online. Ms. Lemons reviewed the public engagement timeline and the three key milestones of public input: online survey, virtual scoping meeting, and virtual public workshop. Chair Luna mentioned that a common complaint from the public is that they don’t want housing built near them. Ms. Ray mentioned that public engagement will underscore what the Housing Element brings to the community, and that public outreach fosters input and understanding from the community. Committee Member Streicher asked if this committee could get input from the Mayor and City Councilr. Committee member Weis shared this sentiment. City Planner Neu mentioned staff intends to check-in with the City Council in August or September to receive direction regarding strategies to pursue. That direction will be shared with this committee. Committee Member Perez said that the traffic and mobility commission is very interested to see what happens in this committee and are looking to get information. Chair Luna mentioned that committee liaisons can help get items scheduled on commission agendas if certain items need to be discussed. COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS: None STAFF/CONSULTANT COMMENTS: Ms. Weatherby showed the ranking spreadsheet (“site selection strategy ranking”) of the housing sources based on each committee member’s ranking that occurred as part of the agenda item 1 discussion. The spreadsheet presented the rankings of each committee member individually and the rankings of the committee as a whole. City Planner Donnell stated that HEAC has a website and mentioned how the general public and committee members can navigate to it. Housing Element Advisory Committee Minutes July 8, 2020 Page 6 CONTINUATION OF PUBLIC COMMENT: Administrative Secretary Flores read into the record a public comment received from Diane Rivera about mapping affordable housing by quadrant and determining how much housing would be necessary to satisfy the lower income housing need if only 15 percent of all projects units were counted toward satisfying the need. NEXT REGULATORY SCHEDULED MEETING: August 12, 2020, at 3 p.m. Motion by Streicher to conduct the meeting on August 12. Motion seconded by Streicher. Motion carried 7/0/2 (Barnett and Proulx absent). ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 5:41 p.m. Jason Montague Minutes Clerk