Developer’s fee offer short of Encinitas demands

North County Times – Escondido,CA,USA
ENCINITAS —- A developer is offering to pay Encinitas
$408000 to satisfy a low-cost housing requirement, but city staffers said
Tuesday the fee should be …

ENCINITAS —- A developer is offering to pay Encinitas $408,000 to satisfy a low-cost housing requirement, but city staffers said Tuesday the fee should be more than twice that much.

City laws require Pacific Coast Communities, a Carmel Valley-based developer, to include three homes for low-income households as part of a proposed 34-home subdivision on Quail Gardens Drive.

The company’s president, Steven Baldwin, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

In a letter to the Encinitas Planning Department, Baldwin wrote that land for low-cost housing “is really hard to find or is too expensive.”

In the letter, a copy of which is attached to a City Council agenda report, Baldwin offered to pay an in-lieu fee of $408,000.

The report is heading to the Encinitas City Council tonight. In it, planners are recommending the developer pay fees ranging from $657,000 to $925,000.

The fee would compensate for a city requirement that any subdivision of 10 or more homes reserve 10 percent of the dwellings for “very low-income” families.

To qualify for the “very low-income” category of subsidized housing, a family of five may earn no more than half of the median income in the county, which in 2006 was $74,500, according to the federal government.

The homes must be made available as rentals for 55 years to families who qualify for government housing assistance.

The city would use the developer’s fees to buy or rent homes elsewhere in Encinitas for low-income residents, although planners warn that the cost of building new homes would exceed income from the fees.

The Planning Commission has yet to consider the so-called Quail Meadows project, planner Kerry Kusiak said Tuesday. He said he expected the panel to act on the subdivision proposal sometime before this summer.

In meetings with the planners, the developer had requested consolidating the low-cost dwellings into a single building, but city zoning laws would not permit that, Kusiak said.

Most developers in Encinitas meet the so-called “inclusionary housing” requirements by building low-cost dwellings as part of their projects, planner Dave DeCordova said.

The City Council has no policy or structure for assessing fees paid in lieu of providing low-cost housing.

“This may provide the impetus to move forward with a citywide fee,” he said.

Because the city’s ordinance allows developers to pay fees instead of providing housing, developers themselves can propose what that fee should be, DeCordova said.

Baldwin’s letter does not explain how the developer arrived at the proposed payment of $408,000. He requests paying fees of $12,000 for each of 34 planned homes once building permits for the homes are issued.

Very low-income families should pay no more than 30 percent of their income for housing, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

That means “affordable” rent for a very low-income family of five is estimated at $931.

The City Council meets at 6 tonight at 505 S. Vulcan Ave.