Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Chapter 21.61 relating to Maintenance of Low Income Housing in the Coastal Zone, read and adopt as read.  (Citywide)
Unanimously. Thank you. Next item is item number 19. Report from development services. This is the last hearing also. Recommendation to determine that the project is categorically exempt from CEQA declare ordinance amending Title 21 of the Long Beach Municipal Code to amend maintenance of low income housing in the coastal zone. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of City Council for Final Reading and adopt a resolution authorizing Director of Development Services to submit amendments to the California Coastal Commission citywide. Mr. Modica last hearing for development services tonight, Christopher Koontz will make this presentation. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the Council. In January of this year, we were in front of the City Council regarding what's called the Mello Act, which is how we deal with affordable housing that is proposed for demolition in the coastal zone. We presented an ordinance to the council at that time and council had a number of comments and requested changes that were all positive changes. We spent the month since that time working with staff, working with city attorney, and working with outside advocates to refine the ordinance. And we think we have it correct now, per your instructions back in January. So Patricia Defender is going to walk us through those changes and what's now in front of the council. Good evening again, mayor, vice mayor, council members. Patricia, do you even defer as deputy director Christopher Coons said, this item was before you on January 19th of this year. At that time, based on comments from the public, council instructed staff to make revisions to the ordinance, and that is the ordinance that is before you this evening. It incorporates those revisions, and I will describe them a bit later in the presentation. Mm hmm. Just to provide some background again, state law adopted in 1981, known as the Mello Act, requires replacement of affordable housing that is demolished in the coastal zone. It allows payment of in lieu fees as an alternative to providing onsite replacement of units. In 1988, the city adopted its Mello Act ordinance to implement the state law and establish the new fee. The city's adopted 2014 2021 housing element. The current housing element identified updating the Mello Act as a program to pursue and to update the in lieu fees. While the city has not collected any mello in lieu fees in the area because no projects have triggered it, the fee is being updated at this time. As previously noted, the draft ordinance has been revised per council instruction to better align the proposed Mall Act amendments with adopted inclusionary housing and no net loss ordinances. Proposed fee schedule is based on the market study of current development. In addition to updating the fees, the Zoning Code Amendment removes exemptions for single family houses, duplexes and accessory dwelling units, which are commonly among the things that are demolished in the coastal zone. Planning Commission did approve the recommendations and recommended that council approve this these amendments October of last year. This slide shows the the revised in lieu fee schedule, which varies based on the number of bedrooms and the affordability level of the unit. These fees will be tied to the construction cost index to ensure that fees escalate when the index increases to keep up with the cost of the increases in cost of construction. The changes that were made since the January ordinance that was before you are described on this slide here, both rent and tenant income will be considered in establishing replacement unit for unit affordability level. This ordinance will pilot that approach. The revision eliminates alternative ways to comply with the affordable unit replacement requirement, such as rehabilitation or conversion of existing units to affordable or offsite units. Those will not be permitted to count toward replacement requirements. Units to count towards or place requirements will have to be constructed onsite or applicants will have to pay the in lieu fee replacement units have to be at the same or greater levels of affordability. The revisions further ensure that the new fee maintains pace with construction costs and the affordability covenants remain for the life of the project . Public outreach was conducted on this project and and noticing in accordance with code requirements, the proposed zoning code amendment is exempt from secure. The actions before council this evening are to determine that the project is categorically exempt from secure to adopt an ordinance amending the Chapter 2161 to limit exceptions to the requirements to replace affordable units and to modify the in lieu fees in the coastal zone of the city. And to adopt a resolution authorizing the Director of Development Services to submit the amendments to the California Coastal Commission for its review, approval and certification. That does conclude the presentation and staff is available to answer questions. If you have a motion in a second. I think we have two members of the public. Yes. Abraham Zavala and son, I can say, please come to the podium. Good evening, City Council. I just had to answer a call from. A baby sitter, so I'm a little distraught. Let me gather myself. It's been a long night. I want to urge City Council to adopt this current ordinance, the mill ordinance, as one critical tool to address the city's desire or the dire affordable housing needs that we have. Specifically, we support the following provisions of the ordinance that was recognized from February 2021. First point the alignment with inclusionary housing and no known net loss ordinances. The requirement that affordable replacement units be provided the same or deeper affordability level. The requirement that affordable units be provided as net. New units so that. Rehabilitation or subsidy of existing units is not permitted. The prohibition of off site compliance for construction of affordable units so that all affordable units must be built on site. Or developers. Developers can pay the in lieu fee. We also agree with the extension of the affordability covenants for new affordable units to 55 years or for the life of the project, whichever is longer. And lastly, we also agree with the inclusion of a pilot program to monitor the implementation of affordability requirements that are defined by looking at both the rent and income levels of tenants. So once again, we strongly urge you and maybe I introduce myself because I was so frazzled. And with Bebe Circle, my name is Abraham Zavala and I'm with Long Beach. Residents Empowered a group that's part of. The Housing. Justice Coalition. And we as a coalition support these amendments and hope you adopt them. Thank you. Listen, I can fit in sixth district. I just want to say, you know, I respect all the seniors. There again, you know, a little irritated there. But with respect to the King's Pool, there was a shadow coming from Belmont Shore during the COVID, bring in people to swim at Kings Pool that never swam there before. In my 30 plus years as full time at Silverado, Fairfield YMCA Kings Pool, the YMCA was used to be on Seventh Street. I never swam at Belmont Shore, so let's just get back to reality. The reality of today as Miss Patrician. Ma'am, I don't know how to say your last name. Try. I'm trying to be respectful. I did read the 80 pages of the 861 page report that you guys have available on your on your your your site. With respect to this, I think that, you know, we had a very spirited land use element debate for quite some time. And the the years have come up and we're going to have some state mandates come in with regards to affordable housing. And as you said, it's 2500 units expected to come with this development. I personally, you know, I don't really try to speak with regards to districts I don't live in, but with regards to overall the city and the housing mandates that are going to come from state down. You know, I do have to speak to the fact that it seems that a lot of the development for affordable housing is connected towards the blue line and the transit hub, the court corridors. And so it's important that when moments like this come about, that we support the establishment of affordable housing units and other districts besides six, eight and nine. So I'm all in favor of this ordinance. I just want to be mindful that we have a realistic relationship with the development of affordable housing units in the area. So if there's 2500, maybe there, you know, we can get like, I don't know, like 15%, you know, I don't know what mandates that locally you guys are allowed to do. But it would be nice because I don't want a tidal wave of pressure to be put on property, small property owners in the third district, which would then propel them to move further west, maybe into the fourth district, which would then propel another housing crisis of some sorts that would then get picked up by the other districts and company. So thank you. Think you have, Councilman Allen. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. The mayor was long overdue for an upgrade. And I agree with you, Abraham. This is a critical tool. I want to thank the staff for their work on this and for further revising the ordinance to incorporate additional changes. I strongly support this ordinance and was pleased to see that it mirrors our inclusionary housing and know not loss policies more closely. It ensures that we continue to have affordable housing options. And that our coastal zones remain accessible to everyone. So thank you very much. And Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to say first, congratulations to the community advocates who spoke out very clearly over the course of the past year, but more specifically at the beginning of this year, and talked about the needs to improve our Mello act and make sure it aligns, like Councilwoman Allen said, with our inclusionary housing policy . Well acknowledged city staff, I think they got the scalpel now. Scalpel out. They said, we're going to listen to you. We're going to make this work. And what what's presented from us? I received a very strong letter of support from the community. And I think that's a testament to the good work that our development services team does. And so overall, this is a great ordinance, and I look forward to voting for it tonight. Thank you. Customers in the house. Mayor also would like to congratulate all the community advocates that have pushed this through. I think that is it's very well done. Thank you, staff, for all the hard work that you've been doing working with the community. Also would like to thank the previous council that did a lot of work on this even before I got on board. But I'm really excited to support this item tonight. Thank you. Thank you. We have to have any public comment on this. Then we just did it correctly. Okay, so we have a motion in a second. Please cast your votes. Motion carries eight zero. Thank you. We do have. So we're now completed with the three hearings. We're going to the regular agenda. I want to note that we do have a good group of folks here for the substantial remodel items. So I do want to hear that item. I know it's towards the end of the agenda. We should hear that early. However, if we don't mind, there are some folks here for the ADA item. So I'm going to just move item 24 right now. I know some of those folks won't be able to speak. And then after 24, we're going right into item 30.