HomeMy WebLinkAbout3_Additional Materials_MosherJuly 1, 2020, HEUAC Agenda Comments
The following comments on items on the Newport Beach Housing Element Update Advisory Committee
agenda are submitted by:
Jim Mosher ( jimmosher@yahoo.com ), 2210 Private Road, Newport Beach 92660 (949-548-6229)
Item III. PUBLIC COMMENTS ON NON-AGENDA ITEMS
1.The committee’s enabling Resolution No. 2020-21 calls for the Mayor to appoint a chair and
vice-chair (possibly subject to confirmation of the Council?). I do not see a vice -chair
identified on the agenda.
2.It would likewise be good to clarify the significance of the Mayor’s non -voting status. The
enabling resolutions refer to ten members, wh ich would normally mean a quorum is six.
However, there are only nine voting members. What is a quorum? And how many members
(including the Mayor?) can confer without being regarded as a majority of the committee?
3.From the “Memo to Housing Element Update Advisory Committee ” attached to agenda Item
IV.a, I gather the chair, at least, sees the committee as a group of real estate professionals
volunteering their time to do something City staff lacks expertise in doing, namely
connecting property owners with developers to create opportunity sites. That seems a task
rife with potential for conflicts of interest, and it would be good to know how suc h conflicts
will be disclosed and handled. Possibly there has been some delay, but t o date, I have been
able to find FPPC Form 700’s posted only for O’Neill, Tucker and Kiley.
Item IV.a. Three-Pronged Strategy of City Council and Focus of the
Committee
1.At some point, I have to say I disagree with the basic premise of the committee’s existence,
which is to comply with a state mandate that seems, itself, to be based on three “prongs,”
none of which I agree with:
a.That perpetual growth in population is both inevitable and a positive good;
b.That (despite California’s population growth being at historic lows) we have to plan
not just to eradicate existing deficiencies, but to create a housing surplus (apparently
to encourage still more growth; and
c.That (at least on a county level) housing should be equally affordable in all locations,
independent of their desirability.
2.Beyond that, this item, which references multiple documents but contains no formal staff
report, will apparently touch on the role assigned to the committee by the City Council when
it created the committee by adopting the (apparently staff-written) Resolution No. 2020-6
and later amended that with Resolution No. 2020-21.
In defining that role, I think it should be noted that under “Purpose & Responsibilities,” both
resolutions continue say the committee is being appointed, in part, to “Review responses to
the Request for Proposal for services to update the Housing, Land Use, Circulation, and
Housing Element Update Advisory Committee - July 1, 2020
Item Nos. III, IV(a), IV(b), IV(c) and IV(d)
Additional Materials Received 1