First published in the April 7 print issue of the Outlook Valley Sun.
Aware of the daunting task that lies ahead in creating the sixth cycle to the housing element of the general plan in time, La Cañada Flintridge will seek help from a third party to get the city to the finish line and develop a document that the state will accept.
The City Council and Planning Commission held a joint meeting Tuesday and agreed to hire a team of architecture and economic consultants to evaluate densities and development standards necessary to help the city show that it can accommodate the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA, which projects how many dwelling units are needed throughout California and tells cities how many they should be ready to provide.
The city was tasked with showing that it can allow for the building of 612 residential units — though that does not necessarily mean they would be built — by the Southern California Association of Governments, or SCAG, but there is concern from city staff and planning consultant Patricia Blumen that the current list of potential development sites may not convince the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD.
“As part of this cycle update, you don’t have to just show sites that theoretically could accommodate housing, you have to show that those sites have a likelihood of discontinuing their nonresidential use within the planning period. This is obviously an issue for built-out cities like La Cañada Flintridge,” Blumen said during her presentation.
City staff received feedback from several property owners who objected to having their property on the city’s sites inventory list. Alex Khachaturian, whose family owns the former site of Pier 1 Imports and a parking structure on Foothill Boulevard, asked to have his family’s properties removed from the list and said that neither the city nor any consultant spoke to them about including their sites as potential housing units.
“The housing element sites inventory was not completed in the spirit of the state’s public policy goal, which is to maximize the production and availability of housing affordable to families at all income levels,” he told the council.
“Rather, the city seems to have deliberately included sites where they know with certainty that housing will not get built. The city should not be engaging in deception but instead should make a sincere effort to promote development of housing in accordance with state laws and public policy objectives,” he added.
Blumen said that property owners may not be interested in housing development because of the city’s zoning code, which allows 20 to 30 dwelling units per acre in mixed-use and residential 3 zones.
“Even though they might be interested, the densities would not be worth their while to develop for housing or mixed-use,” she said.
Susan Koleda, the city’s director of community development, said she has received feedback from the state and was told that the city’s existing standards constrain development, and they must show some evidence that housing is possible on the sites on the inventory list.
“We do believe that [hiring a consultant] is a way that we can have an objective report that will show what is actually feasible rather than us just trying to present something to HCD and essentially have them come back with, ‘Try to prove it,’” Koleda said.
With due diligence needed on multiple sites and the task of finding a consultant, city staff is working against the clock in submitting a housing element that would be accepted by the state. Prior to sending the document to HCD, the city would have to post it for public view for 30 days. HCD would then review the city’s revisions and respond within 90 days.
At the suggestion of Vice Chair Jeffrey McConnell, a subcommittee consisting of City Council and Planning Commission members will be created to guide the consultant in developing acceptable requirements that would appease the community.
“First step is to get those professionals hired. Second step have some correspondence with HCD and have outreach with residents and commercial areas affected by this,” Mayor Terry Walker said.
Some residents expressed disappointment with staff’s recommendations and felt that they were thrown a curve ball with information that was not on the agenda. They also disagreed with the idea of increasing density along Foothill Boulevard.
Linda Deacon, a long-time resident, said that other cities comparable to LCF were assigned with less than 400 units in their RHNA and La Cañada should make a case to appeal the 612 residential units that it was assigned.
“The state does not have the right to just come in and unilaterally deprive people of their property rights on arbitrary and completely unjustifiable grounds,” she added. “What’s the reason we’re tagged with twice as much?”
McConnell responded to that question later in the evening with a simple answer: “The number is so high because we didn’t build any [housing] in the last cycle,” he said.
“I spent some time this weekend reviewing the Foothill Master Plan that was put together years ago and it continues to not be fulfilled for a variety of reasons,” McConnell added. “I think we have to take a larger look at why Foothill Boulevard hasn’t been developed over those years into the vision that people wanted over a decade ago.”
Another important factor in the high RHNA number given to LCF was the dearth of low-income housing, and so SCAG applied a social equity adjustment that impacted the city’s housing figure.
No multi-family residences have been built in La Cañada Flintridge since the Downtown Village Specific Plan, or DVSP, was implemented 20 years ago. The city shot down a proposed three-story mixed-use structure at 600 Foothill Blvd. that would have provided 47 senior housing units last November after many residents objected to having such a large development.
“I think we can say the DVSP has been very successful in preventing development in the downtown corridor where I think we should be promoting it,” said Garret Weyand, an LCF resident who partially owns the parcel at 600 Foothill Blvd. He suggested the city simplify its zoning code.
Councilman Mike Davitt also asked that staff keep an open line of communication with the state and try to get some of its recommendations in writing.
“I don’t think that we’re that (further) behind than a lot of the other cities,” he said. “I think we need to communicate that to HCD that we are moving forward based on their recommendations and try to solve this problem.”
