HomeMy WebLinkAbout3-1_Additional Materials Received_MosherOctober 21, 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
The Re-imagining of the HEUAC
I don’t see it on the agenda, but the HEUAC members should be aware their powers and duties
were reshaped at the October 13 City Council when, as part of Item 19 the Council adopted
Resolution No. 2020-93 repealing the old list of powers and duties and adopting a new list. As best
I can tell, the revision consisted solely of stripping from the list all references to the Circulation
Element, leaving intact such now anomalous duties as “Review responses to the Request for
Proposal for services to update the Housing, Land Use, and other Elements deemed necessary”
and “Make a recommendation to the City Council regarding the selection of consultants to assist in
the update of the Housing, Land Use, and other Elements deemed necessary” (two things the
HEUAC has never done and likely doesn’t plan to do).
As the other part of the same item, the Council approved sending to SCAG the RHNA appeal letter
reviewed by the HEUAC at its October 7 meeting (with a later addition by Chair Tucker). I
personally found the letter long, convoluted, repetitive and much in need of editing, but the Council
apparently thought it was fine as is.
As to stripping the Circulation Element from the HEUAC’s duties, the Council delegated the deleted
duties to the Planning Commission, but did not spell out what those duties are.
As a result, I have trouble seeing how this new arrangement will work. Apparently the HEUAC will
be overseeing the public outreach which the Planning Commission will somehow use, while
remaining apprised of what changed housing patterns it is designing circulation for, and with
consultants working for multiple masters.
To resolve some of this, as Item 8 at its October 22 meeting, the Planning Commission will be
appointing one Commissioner “to work with the HEUAC outreach subcommittee to facilitate the
public outreach process.” But this is apparently not a proposal to create a joint committee to meet
and make coordinated recommendations. That might be because the Brown Act would then
require all its meetings to be noticed and open to the public, something the City tends to avoid.
City Working at Cross-purposes to HEUAC
While the HEUAC struggles to find viable sites for new housing, members should be aware City
staff continues, albeit at a slower pace, to reduce the existing housing stock and the potential for
housing in Newport Beach through discretionary approvals at the Zoning Administrator hearing.
The most recent hearing, on October 15, 2020, is typical of this trend.
First, as Item 4 on that agenda, the Zoning Administrator approved the merger of two duplex-zoned
bayfront lots on Balboa Island into a single duplex-zoned lot. Since the two existing lots contained
single family homes and a new duplex was proposed on the merged lot, there was no immediate
loss of actual housing, but the potential for housing on the combined site was reduced from four
units (for the two lots) to two (for the new single lot), for a net reduction in citywide housing
Housing Element Update Advisory Committee - October 21, 2020
Item No. III 1 - Additional Materials Received
Public Comments on Non-Agenda Items
potential of two units. Staff noted mergers on Balboa Island as a positive trend, since they create
lots in closer compliance to the minimum size standard for new lots they have written into the
Zoning Code and Coastal Implementation Plan. However, creating lots of that citywide minimum
size puts them out of compliance with density standard set for Balboa Island in the General Plan of
30.0 to 39.9 dwelling units per acre. The existing lots with single-family homes were operating at
roughly 16 du/ac, but with a potential to go to 32 du/ac (if a duplex were built on each). The new
merged lot has no chance to go over 16 du/ac, since a single duplex is the most that can be built
on the merged lots.
Second, as Item 6 on the agenda, the Zoning Administrator approved replacing a bayfront duplex
on the Peninsula with a single-family home, for a net reduction of actual housing by one unit
(although the potential to build two units on the site remains). The City website had formerly said
that the recently-passed SB 330 prohibited such things, requiring demolished housing units to be
replaced, through 2025, on a one-for-one basis (Government Code Section 66300(d)(1). However,
it has recently been revised to reflect a novel interpretation of SB 330 by HCD, urged on it by the
City. It seems SB 330 added not just the demolition provision, but also amended and referenced
Government Code Section 65589.5, known as the Housing Accountability Act, which limits local
agencies’ authority to deny certain kinds of “housing development projects,” and contains a
definition of that term apparently going back to AB 2348 in 2004. Although Government Code
Section 13 has long held there is no difference between singular and plural in California law, HCD
posted a September 15, 2020, Technical Memo placing emphasis on the plural (“residential units”)
in the kinds of housing projects the HAA applied to. From this, the City has concluded, and HCD
seems to agree, the housing units are protected by SB 330 only if the application to demolish them
becomes a “housing development project” by including a proposal, as part of the demolition, to
replace them with two or more units. A straight demolition is not a “housing development project” to
which SB 330 applies, and hence no units are protected if the developer separates their application
into two parts, the first involving demolition without rebuilding, and the second involving rebuilding
without demolition.
State of the GPU/“Newport, Together”/HEUAC Websites
I have long thought the City website in general could profit from some sort of independent review
as to its usefulness to ordinary citizens.
Its portrayal of the General Plan Update effort, including the Housing Element, is no exception.
Indeed, naively typing the words “Housing Element Update” into the search box on the City website
brings up a page titled Housing Element Update, but its content is entirely related to the existing
2014-2021 plan (which it says is “Off Line” – apparently meaning “completed”), with no hint a new
effort is underway to update the Housing Element for the coming cycle. The following hits, to the
HEUAC and 2020 Housing Action Plan pages are little better, nor are the ones that follow. The
“Newport, Together” logo first shows up about nine hits down, and while the “Latest News” page it
links to links to the “Newport, Together” site, it describes the status of the 2019 General Plan
Update Steering Committee as of October 2019, with no indication the Steering Committee has
been disbanded.
The Housing Element Update Advisory Committee page, is similarly out of date, continuing to not
list the Committee’s subcommittees, who is on them, or what they are tasked with – even though
staff indicated a willingness to add that at the last HEUAC meeting. Or even the new “Purpose &
Housing Element Update Advisory Committee - October 21, 2020
Item No. III 1 - Additional Materials Received
Public Comments on Non-Agenda Items
Responsibilities” approved by the Council with Resolution No. 2020-93 on October 13 (see their
Item 19 as described on page 1, above).
It likewise continues to contain no links to any of the pages detailing the effort being overseen by
the committee, including the Newport, Together website, even though that is supposed to be
intimately related to the HEUAC, nor does it provide a way to send a message to the Committee as
a whole.
Meanwhile, the “Newport, Together” site (and for that matter, the entire City website) contains
nothing I can find regarding the results of the Newport, Together effort up to this point, all trace of
which seems to have been erased, with the exception of the “How would you rate your knowledge
about what a General Plan is?” poll on the “Newport, Together” Our General Plan page, which poll
appears to have racked up at most 1 new vote in the last year (my recollection is the total stood at
18 votes last year, and it is now 19). And that appears to be the only invitation for interaction at the
moment.
The “Newport, Together” home page inexplicably lists the October 7 and November 4 meetings of
the HEUAC, but fails to list the October 21 one, which also seems to be missing from the “Key
Dates” timeline on the Calendar page, which, oddly, contains no calendar.
The “Newport, Together” Circulation Element page provides a link to a copy of that element without
the fold-out maps, and with no hint as to where to find them, and doesn’t mention when the
Circulation Element Workshop/W ebinar might be, even though a date of “November 16” is shown
on the “Newport, Together” home page – a date which is contradicted by information being
presented to the Planning Commission as Item 8 at their October 22 meeting, where they will be
told the workshop is scheduled for “November 23.” .
Housing Element Update Advisory Committee - October 21, 2020
Item No. III 1 - Additional Materials Received
Public Comments on Non-Agenda Items