Some residents had feared the 30-acre property next to Trancas Canyon Road would face high-density development. The Malibu City Council also expressed frustration with a state agency’s overestimation of the number of low-income housing units required for the city’s Housing Element Update.
By Knowles Adkisson / The Malibu Times
Malibu residents worried that Trancas Field would one day feature apartment complexes could breathe easier Monday after the Malibu City Council voted to remove the 30-acre property west of Trancas Canyon Road from a list of properties to be rezoned to meet low-income housing requirements. The council instead added a two-acre parcel on the La Paz site, which has been promised to the city by the property owners, to the rezoning list.
State law requires cities to submit a housing element for its general plan and update it once every six years for certification by the state. The purpose of the housing element is to plan for expected growth and accommodate low-income residents. Malibu has never submitted a housing element, but is currently in the process of doing so to head off the possibility that the state could cite Malibu for noncompliance and turn over the city’s planning department powers to a state judge.
Several council members Monday night leveled frustration at Hassan Ikhrata, the head of the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), for his agency’s overestimation of the amount of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or new housing, needed in Malibu. For the 1998-2005 planning period, SCAG had estimated Malibu needed 14 units of moderate- and low-income housing. However, for the 2008-2014 planning period, that number jumped to 441 units, including 188 units of low- and very-low income housing. In e-mails sent to the city, SCAG officials indicated that employees of Pepperdine University, which sits outside the city limits, were included in its population estimate.
Ikhrata acknowledged at the meeting that the housing numbers appeared to be wrong.
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Rosenthal asked Ikhrata, “Do you feel you guys screwed up?”
“We could have done better, sure,” Ikhrata replied.
But Ikhrata said the city had the opportunity to appeal the figure in 2008, but did not do so. At this point, Ikhrata said SCAG does not have the legal power to change the numbers for this planning period.
The city’s only options to appeal the number are to challenge it in court, or lobby the state Legislature to change the law. However, Ikhrata said no city has ever successfully challenged its housing needs number in court, while changing the law through legislation would be a costly, time-consuming process.
Joyce Parker-Bozylinski, the city’s planning director, said the best option available to the city is to proceed with the housing element update. Parker-Bozylinski said the city needed to finish its current update by the end of 2012 to allow time for state approval. Otherwise, Malibu will be stuck with the 441-unit number for the next housing needs assessment cycle, from 2014-22.
Ikhrata agreed with Parker-Bozylinski, and assured the council SCAG would not overestimate in the next cycle.
“I can tell you right now, your new allocation will be significantly lower than 441 units,” Ikhrata said.
The city is looking at eight potential sites for rezoning to accommodate the 188 low- and very low-income units, which the state requires to be zoned at 20 units per acre.
Councilmember Lou La Monte said rezoning the properties based on inaccurate information made no sense.
“Basically, we’ve got a number between us that’s completely wrong, based on wrong information,” La Monte said. “And now we have to find a way to make it look like we’re actually meeting that number and that will make everybody happy?
City Attorney Christi Hogin advised the council to press forward with the update process.
“What’s being offered is a very significant advantage,” Hogin said of Ikhrata’s promise that Malibu’s housing numbers would be reduced in the next cycle. Hogin suggested properties could be downzoned again once the housing element was certified by the state.
“Some of the programs that may seem out of sync with the community’s character would not necessarily ever have to come to fruition,” Hogin said.
The council eventually voted 4-0 to direct staff to proceed with the Environmental Impact Report currently underway to study sites for possible rezoning, replacing Trancas Field with the two-acre site at the La Paz property.