Carlsbad considers sites for affordable housing

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Pocket
WhatsApp

CARLSBAD โ€” The City of Carlsbad has begun winnowing sites that might support lower-income affordable housing development, with an eye especially toward repurposing industrial properties and streamlining accessory dwelling unit construction.

This inventorying of sites forms a principal component of the cityโ€™s process, underway since January, of updating its General Plan to satisfy state-mandated affordable housing goals.

Through its cyclical Regional Housing Needs Assessment (โ€œRHNAโ€), the state government assigns every city housing production targets in four household income categories โ€” very-low, low, moderate and above-moderate.

The current cycle covers 2013 to 2021 and ends next April. The General Plan update currently underway, which will cover 2021 to 2029, must accommodate the increased demand for lower-income units.

Carlsbad, like every other North County city, has in the past relatively easily met its above-moderate income targets but hasnโ€™t remotely met targets in lower-income categories. While the reasons for this are complex and debated, the private and public sectors both play a role.

โ€œ[Statewide] the development capacity is lower than the demand. When you can make a higher profit off a higher income unit, the limited resources we have in construction tend to go there,โ€ Rick Rust, a consultant, told the cityโ€™s ad hoc Housing Element Advisory Committee at its June 22 meeting. โ€œThat typically [means] putting a larger house onto a smaller property,โ€ rather than the denser construction โ€” multifamily, condos, townhomes โ€” often required to make projects financially viable at lower rents. โ€œThe city cannot make development happen โ€ฆ [or] force a property owner to change what theyโ€™re doing on their property.โ€

On the other hand, the city government โ€œdefinitely has a hand in affordability through its regulations,โ€ he said.

So, for its part, the city must identify properties, sufficient both in number and zoning, with realistic potential for a private or nonprofit developer to build affordable housing thereโ€”even if the city canโ€™t ultimately guarantee such development.

Projects already underway somewhere in the cityโ€™s approval pipeline would satisfy about a quarter of Carlsbadโ€™s lower-income targets. To find room for the remainder, Rust and city planning staff preliminarily assessed the residential development potential of more than 600 parcels citywide.

These fell into five categoriesโ€”industrial properties, accessory dwelling units (ADUs, aka โ€œgranny flatsโ€), vacant land, โ€œunderutilizedโ€ properties (i.e. properties that could, under the current General Plan, support greater density than whatโ€™s presently there), and commercial or other properties that could be repurposed for residential or mixed uses.

The first two optionsโ€”industrial properties and ADUsโ€”hold the most potential.

Rust and city staff reckon that 47 acres currently zoned for light industrial use, near McClellan-Palomar Airport, could support the construction of nearly 1,200 lower-income units through 2029. That forecast represents fully 56 percent of the cityโ€™s lower-income development targets.

Realizing this potential would require โ€œupzoningโ€ those properties to allow relatively high multifamily residential densities โ€” at least 26 dwelling units per acre. For comparison, the average density citywide is about 7 units per acre, according to The Coast Newsโ€™ analysis of parcel data from the county assessor.

Perhaps not all industrial sites will ultimately prove suitable, since โ€œindustrial areas often donโ€™t have all the supporting things that residential needs,โ€ such as proximity to schools and shopping, Rust said. Still, of the available options, โ€œthese areas do provide the biggest significant โ€ฆ potential for multifamily housing.โ€

Rust and city planners estimate that, at historical rates of production, new ADUs through 2029 could yield 200 lower-income units โ€” about 10 percent of the cityโ€™s targets in those categories.

โ€œThe state feels this is going to be a big winner for overall housing production,โ€ Rust said. โ€œADUs also help to make your primary residence more affordable because youโ€™re able to share the cost of it with [rent paying tenants].โ€

Carl Streicher, a Carlsbad resident and advisory committee member, believes the city is ripe for accelerate ADU production, assuming property owners could get adequate financing.

โ€œRight now, thereโ€™s confusion for people and itโ€™s expensive to do a cash-out refinance, compared to just rate and term refinance,โ€ he said. โ€œIf there were a simple process to pulling the equity out, where people could invest their current equity into those ADUs, youโ€™d see a massive spike.โ€

Rust said the city might also develop โ€œplug and playโ€ ADU designs, preapproved by the city council. These would save property owners interested in building ADUs the time and money otherwise required to get a custom project through the cityโ€™s development approval process.

The County of San Diego, among other jurisdictions, has already implemented standard ADU plans.

City staff declined to furnish a list of the parcels under consideration, though readers can find PDF maps available at www.carlsbadca.gov/services/depts/planning/housing/committee.asp.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Pocket
WhatsApp

Never miss any important news. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Related News