HomeMy WebLinkAbout05 - Amendment to Newport Place Planned Community Development Plan Related to the Minimum Percentage of Inclusionary For-Sale Housing within the Residential Overlay (PA2025-0196) - CorrespondenceReceived After Agenda Printed
November 4, 2025
Agenda Item No. 5
From: Mikayla Cook
To: City Clerk"s Office
Subject: Public Comment on City Council Meeting Agenda
Date: November 03, 2025 3:43:28 PM
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Dear City Clerk,
My name is Mikayla and I am a student at UCI Law. In advance of tomorrow's City Council meeting, I
would like to comment on item number #5 on the consent calendar, which is to amend the Newport
Place Planned Community Development Plan. This resolution specifically aims to cut the required
minimum affordable for -sale housing percentage in half, from 15% to 7.5%, within the zone called the
Residential Overlay.
This amendment is part of the overall 6th Cycle Housing Element Implementation Program, which was
adopted in 2022 to help the city meet its regional housing needs by allocating almost 5,000 new
housing units with varying affordability levels. The program originally required that 30% of the new
housing development within the Residential Overlay area would be affordable to lower -income
households. "Lower -income households" includes households that make under 50% of the area median
income (very low-income households) or between 50% and 80% of the area median income (low-
income households). The area median income, per the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, is $136,600.
In 2023, the Council adopted an amendment to halve the minimum affordable housing percentage from
30% to 15%, where it currently stands. The minimum affordability percentage was ostensibly dropped
because of burdensome governmental constraints that rendered projects financially infeasible. For this
amendment, the developer requests the adoption of the reduced rate to mitigate "potential
governmental constraints" and to facilitate construction of market -rate housing. Newport Beach should
carefully consider whether it really needs more market -rate housing, or whether it needs to provide for
the many residents who contribute meaningfully to its community but cannot afford to buy a home at
market rate.
I respectfully request that the Council consider: (1) pulling this item from the consent calendar to allow
residents to more fully understand and respond to the proposed changes, and (2) seeking to improve,
not remove, opportunities for more affordable housing in Newport Beach.
Sincerely,
Mikayla Cook (she/her/hers)
J.D. Candidate, 2028
University of California, Irvine School of Law
mmcook1 &Iawnet.uci.edu