A step toward affordable housing
Mathis Winkler
NEWPORT BEACH -- Wanted: Affordable housing developer to build at
least 100 apartments for low-income seniors. Have $2 million to help out
if need be.
That’s a so-called “request for proposals” City Council members are
expected to approve at their meeting tonight.
“We’re trying to let the world know that we have money to subsidize a
project,” said Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who chair’s the city’s affordable
housing task force.
But while he agreed with his colleagues that the move would hopefully
bring the city a step closer to getting much-needed affordable homes for
its senior population, a lack of adequate land might turn out to be the
real problem.
“It isn’t for a lack of trying,” Ridgeway said. “Somebody’s going to
have to find a site.”
He added that not many were available, apart from a few places around
Hoag Hospital and some along West Coast Highway in West Newport Beach.
While Newport Beach doesn’t actually have to build affordable housing
units, state law requires the city to have programs in place that
encourage such developments.
The housing element in the city’s general plan requires developers to
set aside a certain percentage of apartments for affordable housing.
The $2 million that is up for grabs came from the One Ford Road
project, where the developer opted to hand over a check rather than build
affordable apartments.
The Irvine Co. also still has an obligation to build 172
affordable-housing units in return for constructing more than 850
market-rate homes in areas such as the Upper Castaways, Harbor Cove and a
stretch of land east of MacArthur Boulevard.
City and company officials have been working on a project for Bayview
Landing at the corner of East Coast Highway and Jamboree Road.
While Ridgeway said he had hoped to see that complex completed within
two years, negotiations were moving “very, very slow.”
One of the main issues that’s still being debated is the mix of
apartments for people with low income and those with moderate income.
Company officials want to build more moderate income units, which bring
in more rent, Ridgeway said, adding that task force members were not in
agreement with that.
Rich Elbaum, a company spokesman, said he wasn’t aware of any
disagreements as a result of the ongoing discussions with city officials.
He added that he didn’t know the specifics of the negotiations.
As far as the request for proposals is concerned, city officials have
set June 1 as the deadline for submissions from developers. But even if
someone comes back with a workable idea, it would still take years before
seniors could move into their new homes, Ridgeway said.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.