Hotly debated second units at center of housing dilemmaBy Sylvie Belmond/Staff Writer

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The city may be going down two opposite tracks as it attempts to update its housing element in the General Plan, which has to be updated every five years.

One of the components of the plan is for the city to zone in a way that makes it possible for property owners to provide low- and moderate-income housing.

However, this could be a sticky situation given that the city has been cracking down on code enforcement violations, affecting the properties able to meet this requirement.

Second units are at the center of the dilemma.

The housing element document is a statement of the city’s current and future housing needs, expected to meet all income levels in the area.

The city’s responsibility is to facilitate the provision of housing through regulatory action only.

“They don’t have to subsidize it,” said Jeffrey Goldman, principal planner for Parsons, an infrastructure and technology group that has been working on the plan with the city. “They only have to make it possible in theory.”

The city has to create a plan that allows for 14 new houses, of which six should be for low-income families, as compared to many other cities, which have to provide them in the hundreds.

But the catch for Malibu is the city already exceeded the 14-unit share of the region’s construction need by 2000; however, none were affordable for lower-income residents.

Ideally, these new homes should have included two units for very low-income families earning anywhere between the high teens to high $20,000 range, based on family size, two for low-income families and two for moderate income.

But the pitfall of this low-income housing requirement is that property in Malibu is very costly and hard to find, making it practically impossible to create even only six affordable homes.

This is why second units may be a saving grace in this case.

“We think some of it can be met through legal second units,” said Barry Hogan, planning director for the City of Malibu.

Though Malibu has had difficulties with this type of housing in the past because of grand-fathering and zoning problems, second units may become a life-saver for the city as it attempts to keep a good face with the state’s housing authorities.

But the city is not getting credit for some of these affordable second units, because many of them were created without permits, so they don’t legally exist.

Thus code enforcement issues re-emerge and the city may have to re-evaluate standards for second units.

While the debate about second units has been going on for a while, Anne Hoffman, spokesperson for Homeowners for Reform, said that renting second units in Malibu is not illegal.

In actuality, she said, only one permit is required to remodel, even if a parcel has more than one structure on it.

Meanwhile, the process of approving the housing element plan encountered a roadblock at the Planning Commission on Nov. 20 because the documents in front of the commission had blank spaces and discrepancies.

While Goldman was looking at one version, pitching the plan, the commission was looking at another version with missing parts.

After much debate, the commision decided against approving the housing element plan as presented for lack of clarity.

“You’re asking us to vote on something you have that we’ve never seen,” said Commissioner Andrew Stern, referring to its lack of completeness.

If the housing element were not adopted on time, technically, Malibu’s General Plan would be out of compliance and there could be legal repercussions, said Goldman.

The city could be at a disadvantage when trying to obtain grants and such, explained Goldman.

But if Malibu were late, it would not be unique.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if fewer than half of the cities of California have not adopted a housing element plan in time,” said Goldman.