Newport Beach lacks affordable housing

June Casagrande

Even as the city prepares to add 150 low-income senior apartments,

the goal of meeting state affordable housing standards seems farther

away than ever.

The city is already two years late in getting state approval for

its housing element, the only portion of the general plan that

requires the state’s blessing and, therefore, should be finished

before the rest of the general plan is updated.

Instead, city officials are wrangling with the state Department of

Housing and Community Development over details of the document. But

even when these details are worked out on paper, the city will be a

long way from fulfilling the state’s dictate that Newport, like all

other cities, provide its fair share of affordable housing for the

region.

By this measure, the city would have 254 units of affordable and

market-rate housing. A plan to build a 150-unit senior affordable

housing complex at Lower Bayview Landing will take a bite out of this

quota, but where the rest will come from is anybody’s guess.

“The city isn’t required to build or necessarily pay for the

housing, but we’re required to provide sites where low-income housing

can be built, which is getting harder and harder because there’s no

open space left in Newport Beach,” Assistant City Manager Sharon Wood

said.

Under state guidelines, the city is also required to create

programs to make it easier for developers to build affordable and

market-rate housing, which Newport Beach has done by offering to

waive some building and permit fees and by loosening standards on the

density of affordable housing locations.

Developers can also ask the city to help pay to build low-income

housing. The money would come from funds that the city receives as

fees from developers. Builders of homes are required either to

include some affordable housing or pay a fee in lieu. The city has

about $2 million of these fees in a fund, from which

affordable-housing developers can request assistance.

Related Companies, the developer of the 150 senior units slated

for Lower Bayview Landing, will likely request some of these city

funds, Wood said. That project is expected to break ground in January

2004.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].