An Orange County municipality isn’t fighting over housing mandates imposed by the State of California, but it seems tempted to simply live with Sacramento’s wrath.
The Fullerton City Council is facing a Jan. 31 deadline to approve a plan for rezoning that would accommodate about 13,000 new residential units. Potential lawsuits, fines, a loss of state funds and the threat of builders remedy hang in the balance.
The body will continue to discuss the matter but it’s not certain incentives or penalties will convince them to approve the rezoning, the Orange County Register reported.
“That’s an increase by over 30 percent of our housing stock,” Mayor Nick Dunlap said during a recent public meeting, according to the Register.
Fullerton has already lost an appeal seeking a lower that unit total from the state, which began issuing mandates for residential development in localities in 2021.
The city has yet to devise a plan to meet the state goal — foot dragging that led the state Department of Housing and Community Development to turn to the Attorney General for action.
That led to a settlement earlier this year, when city officials cited turnover at City Hall as the reason for failing to comply in a timely fashion and promised to do so in the future.
City planners are currently proposing a “housing incentive overlay zone” that would open various areas currently designated for commercial or industrial development to residential projects.
One sticking point is a requirement that any residential development in the oHIOZ would include a minimum of 10 percent of units as affordable.
“The biggest elephant in the room for me is the fact that this is only 10 percent affordable housing,” City Councilmember Ahmad Zarha told the Register. “It needs to be more than that.”
Zarha and his colleagues spent several hours in session on Nov. 19, when a roster of residents gave them an earful of concerns over traffic congestion expected to accompany denser housing.
The City Council asked city staffers to draw up plans that would reduce density in various areas of the city affected by the overlay zone, with plans to review them at a public meeting next month.
“Can we bring this back with surgical precision in terms of what we’re looking at, numbers-wise, and then give us a few options before we present it to the state?” Councilmember Fred Jung asked.
The next meeting is sent for Dec. 3.