In another unanimous 4-0 vote, the City Council put to bed a thorny issue that has plagued the city for the past several years—the General Plan Housing Element.
“We are actually ahead of the game and on time,” said Planning Director Joyce Parker-Bozylinski.
State law requires California cities to periodically submit guiding policies for future development to allow the potential for housing for all income types, including low- and very-low income. Incorporated as a city in 1991, Malibu did not submit a housing element to the state until 2011, despite being required to do so. That refusal became problematic when faulty population projections by a state group in 2011 calculated that Malibu would potentially need 442 units of affordable housing, which forced the city to rezone several parcels of land to comply with the 2008-2013 housing cycle.
For the current vote, for the 2013-2021 housing cycle, Malibu is required to zone for just two units of low-income housing, due to its estimated population of 12,645, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.