I.V. is housing savior

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

As the 2008 deadline to accommodate 1,235 state mandated affordable housing units quickly approached, Santa Barbara County officials found the housing deficit answer in the depths of the Isla Vista Master Plan.
There they found 62 acres of downtown Isla Vista property that the County Planning Commission, after several years of discussion, rezoned to handle 25 to 45 units per acre.
This rezone, according to the County’s Division of Long Range Planning, fully satisfies the State HCD (Department of Housing and Community Development’s) requirement that the county accommodate, not build, 6,064 units between 2003 and 2008.


“I think that this is a solution that balances the state mandate with community planning preferences and shows how community plans can contribute to the ability of the community as a whole,” said David Matson, deputy director of the County’s Office of Long Range Planning.
The County Board of Supervisors approved the Isla Vista Master Plan on Aug. 21.
With that approval, Isla Vista got a long-range blueprint for growth, and the county got a quick-fix to the issue of state mandated affordable housing. And it came months after the State HCD laid down new preliminary housing requirements that call for the accommodation of more than 13,000 between 2007 and 2014 in all cities and unincorporated areas of the county.
The County Planning Commission will receive a briefing on the satisfaction of the state mandated housing element during their meeting today.
Michael Cooney, planning commissioner for the First District, said the commission was originally scheduled to identify alternative sites throughout the county that could be rezoned to accommodate higher densities.
But he said the agenda was changed last week when it became apparent no further alternative rezone sites needed to be identified.
“When the staff report came out last week and said we don’t need to do any rezoning it was surprising,” Cooney said.
During the course of drafting the Isla Vista Master Plan, Cooney said he didn’t know the rezones that the commission approved would be the answer to the county’s affordable housing mandate.
“It was never suggested throughout the master plan process that ‘Oh by the way, what you’re doing here could have impacts for the housing element as well,’” Cooney said. “We didn’t see that as necessarily part of our consideration. The fact that it turned out to do that isn’t bad, it’s good for the entire county.”
But not everyone thinks lumping the 1,235 units in Isla Vista is a good idea.
Chris Henson, director of the Coastal Housing Coalition, called the decision to put the units in Isla Vista “The easy way out” and “poor planning at its finest.”
He said zoning these sort of densities in Isla Vista does little to quell an affordable housing thirst that is countywide.
“The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has let you down,” Henson said in a written statement yesterday. “They have found a quick solution to a problem that has been plaguing their office for nearly 5 years -- what to do about the state housing mandate and how to get the County’s Housing Element certified. The answer staff has come up with? Dump all housing in Isla Vista.”
Henson cited language in the county’s housing element policy that says the county will accommodate its “fair share” of housing needs at all income levels “and in all housing market areas.”
“The housing that will be approved in Isla Vista addresses a narrow section of the county and should not be used as a complete fulfillment tool for housing for families in the workforce in the county,” Henson said.
Cooney said he disagreed with Henson’s statement, saying the need for housing on the South Coast is greater than in North County and that as long as the rezone occurs somewhere in the South County, it’s a good thing.
When and if the parcels of land are developed, the developers will be required to classify a certain percentage of the units as affordable.
Third District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, who’s district includes Isla Vista, said this is by no means an end in the Santa Barbara County housing saga.
“It’s never solved,” Firestone said. “It is an ongoing debate with the State Housing Authority and the various communities.”
Though the Planning Commission won’t have to identify any sites to accommodate affordable housing during their meeting today, Cooney said the job is far from over, and next time, Isla Vista might not be able to pull the slack.
“I don’t think we’ve done anything but defer the question,” he said. “Isla Vista hasn’t solved the problem of affordable housing and that’s an issue that the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors will have to deal with in the next period of the housing element.”
The commission meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the County Engineering Building at 123 E. Anapamu St.