HomeMy WebLinkAbout3_Additional Materials Received_MosherOctober 7, 2020, HEUAC Agenda Comments
These comments on an item 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
Comment 1
The HEUAC last met publicly on September 2. Considering one the body’s purposes is to foster
public engagement, calling the committee members and public together at unpredictable, in his
case six-week, intervals without any advance material to review for most of the agenda items
provides little sense of continuity or momentum that the community can engage with.
This might not be so bad if the City website filled in the missing information, but it does not.
More likely, it breeds confusion.
If one follows “Trending,” or searches for “General Plan Update,” one land on page featuring the
“Newport, Together” logo, but with at most a cryptic link to information about the HEUAC, and
with navigation to a Latest News page announcing the October 16, 2019, meeting of the now
defunct Steering Committee, and a Schedule showing phases the City is no longer following.
If one alternatively follows “Trending” to the 2020 Housing Action Plan page one finds a lot of
documents, but not, it would seem, Newport’s most recent draft RHNA allocation (did the City
receive a letter?). I see no mention of “Newport, Together,” there, and only with effort can on
discover a link to the HEUAC. Confusingly, it also provides a link to a Housing Sites Analysis
and Inventory page, which gives no mention of the updated analysis and inventory that I believe
the HEUAC is working on.
The HEUAC page also makes no mention of the “Newport, Together” effort and links to none of
the other pages.
Assuming interested parties do discover the Newport, Together site, I notice the Circulation
Element page confusingly announces October 22 and November 19 Planning Commission
meetings, but not the November 16 virtual workshop mentioned in the present agenda Item V.c.
Additionally, it might be noted that although City staff previously went to considerable effort to
prepare a PDF of the current General Plan including the fold-out illustrations, and the Newport,
Together site invites visitors to study the Plan, the versions of the elements linked to do not
contain the illustrations, leaving readers confounded.
Comment 2
It may be of interest to the HEUAC that at its October 13 meeting, the City Council is expected
to consider revisions to the HEUAC’s enabling resolution, including formal assignment of the
Circulation Element Update to the Planning Commission and an update on AB 1063 (the
legislative prong of the City’s three-pronged approach to RHNA).
Housing Element Update Advisory Committee - October 7, 2020
Item No. III Additional Materials Received
Public Comments on Non-Agenda Items
Comment 3
It may be of interest to the HEUAC that as Item 15 at its September 22, 2020, meeting, the City
Council approved, without advice from the HEUAC, a General Plan amendment for properties
along Campus Drive that had formerly been designated for Airport Office development, and
adopted a “planned community” zoning for them, under which a portion of it could be developed
for residential use.
As protected by a development agreement, the owner can build residential units provided the
development includes 10% moderate-income or 10% low-income or 5% very-low income units.1
The owner’s lobbyist assured the Council I was mistaken when I told them the owner would
have no obligation to build any low- or very-low income units at all. But I believe I am read the
text correctly: providing 10% moderate-income, and nothing else, would fully satisfy the
requirements imposed by the City.
It seems important to realize that if the City’s full RHNA requirement for moderate and below
dwelling were to be satisfied using this “Saunders formula,” the number of new units needed
can be estimated, and as Chair Tucker said at the last meeting, the math is simple. At these
percentages, we would need to allow a minimum of:
10,480 units of development to meet the 1,048 unit moderate income goal
another 9,280 units of development to meet the 928 unit low income goal
another 29,060 units of development to meet the 1,453 unit very low income goal
for a total of something like 49,000 new housing units to be planned for by 2029 – which
exceeds the City’s entire current housing stock (thought to be around 45,000 units).
It might be argued that this is an overestimate since some of the moderate and below quota will
be met by other means. But it could be an underestimate, as well, since I suspect that by
providing affordable units the developers may quality for bonus units not reflected in these
estimates.
1 See Section II.E.9 on page 11 of the Planned Community Development Plan (on Council agenda packet
page 15-102), which is guaranteed against change by the Development Agreement.
Housing Element Update Advisory Committee - October 7, 2020
Item No. III Additional Materials Received
Public Comments on Non-Agenda Items