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Home My WebLink AboutCORRESPONDENCE - 85AOrozco, Norma From: Steve La Motte <slamotte@biasc.org> Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2020 2:35 PM To: eComment Subject: BIAOC Comments - Item 85A June 2, 2020 City Council Agenda Attachments: BIAOC Letter Santa Ana HOO 85B 5.5.20.pdf; BIAOC Comments Item 85A 6.2.2020.pdf City Clerk, Please submit the attached comments regarding Item 85A on tonight's City Council Agenda. We understand this is a discussion item, and look forward to direction from the City Council. I have also attached our letter from the May 5th 2020 City Council meeting, on Item 8513, as reference. Thank you, Steve LaMotte BIAOC Building Industry Association of Southern California, Inc ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER May 5, 2020 Mayor Miguel Pulido Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Item #85B —Housing Opportunity Ordinance Dear Mayor and City Council Members: On behalf of our membership, I write to express our concern with expanding the Housing Opportunity Ordinance — otherwise known as Inclusionary Zoning (IZ). Further, we do support any effort to lessen the fee burden, and find ways of incentivizing housing in the City of Santa Ana. The Building Industry Association of Southern California, Orange County Chapter (BIA/OC) is a non-profit trade association of over 1,100 member companies employing over 100,000 people in the home building industry. Housing remains a critical issue in California with the situation growing more serious with each passing day. Studies show that the State needs over 180,000 new units each year and at best we are producing 80,000. This has caused a cascading spike in home prices across the region. This crisis is now exacerbated due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic and the recent orders to shelter in place. With this ever-growing deficit, we need to have an honest conversation about Inclusionary Zoning Policies. In total, such policies restrain housing production, increase ownership costs and further complicate attainability for the majority of the region. In a study by Benjamin Powell, Ph.D. and Edward Stringham, Ph.D., titled, Housing Supply and Affordability: Do Affordable Housing Mandates Work?, the authors discovered that in the 45 cities where data was available, new housing production drastically decreased by an average of 3 1 % within one year of adopting inclusionary housing policies. Additionally, the study suggests that inclusionary housing polices can increase new housing costs by $22,000 to $44,000, with higher priced markets increasing by $100,000.' Supporting these conclusions is a recent report from the Legislative Analyst's Office titled Perspectives on Helping Low -Income Californians Afford Housing. In this report, it states that "attempting to address the state's affordability challenges primarily through expansion of government programs likely would be impractical." Further, that "extending housing assistance to low-income Californians who currently do not receive it — either though subsidies for Powell, Benjamin, Ph.D. and Stringham, Edward, Ph.D. Housing Supply and Affordability: Do Affordable Housing Mandates Work? Reason Public Policy Institute. April 2004, All PRESIDENT SUNTI KUMJIM MBK RENTAL LIVING VICE PRESIDENT ERIC NELSON TRUMARK HOMES TREASURER BROOKE DOI SHEA HOMES SECRETARY NICOLE MURRAY TAYLOR MORRISON IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT RICK WOOD TRI POINTE HOMES TRADE CONTRACTOR V.P. ALAN BOUDREAU BOUDREAU PIPELINE CORPORATION ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT MARK HIMMELSTEIN NEWMEYER & DILLION, LLP MEMBER -AT -LARGE PETER VANEK INTEGRAL COMMUNITIES MEMBER -AT -LARGE SEAN MATSLER COX CASTLE & NICHOLSON, LLP EXECUTIVE OFFICER STEVE LA MOTTE affordable units or housing vouchers — would require an annual funding commitment in the low tens of billio of dollars. As such it finds that "many housing programs — vouchers, rent control, and inclusionary housing attempt to make housing more affordable without increasing the overall supply of housing. This approach d< very little to address the underlying cause of California's high housing costs: a housing shortag_e." Foundations of the policy aside, this discussion item comes at a time when many cities are reducing or delay: fees and speeding up processing times, as housing development is a critical piece of the economic pie, and is imperative to our economic recovery. We would encourage the Council to consider similar policy ideas that would reduce the burden of this regulation within the City. In conclusion, we strongly encourage the City Council to oppose any suggestions of expanding this policy. Furthermore, once Council direction is given, we ask that the Building Industry have adequate time to study final proposal before the scheduled hearing date. Moreover, we encourage a review of the six recommendati found in the Housing Future Initiatives, a policy that the Santa Ana City Council supported and passed in resolution form in 2016. This document, created by the BIVOC as an alternative to Inclusionary Zoning, of solid starting points for policy creation that are in -line with the values of Santa Ana. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration Respectfully, Steven C. LaMotte CEO BIAOC Building Industry Association of Southern California, Inc ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER June 2, 2020 Mayor Miguel Pulido Santa Ana City Council 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 Re: Agenda Item #85A. Discuss and consider directing the City Manager to develop options that would encourage housing construction Dear Mayor and Council: On behalf of our membership, I write to express our support for any policy changes that would encourage housing construction in the City of Santa Ana — Specifically, we ask for a two year pause on the Housing Opportunity Ordinance (HOO), otherwise known as Inclusionary Zoning (IZ). The Building Industry Association of Southern California, Orange County Chapter (BIA/OC) is a non-profit trade association of over 1,100 member companies employing over 100,000 people affiliated with the home building industry. At the May 5`h, 2020 Council Meeting, the BIAOC submitted comment on item 85B, a discussion on the Housing Opportunity Ordinance, otherwise known as Inclusionary Zoning (IZ). Our comments focused on the negative impacts IZ has on the production of housing, specifically the fact that it adds significant cost to the creation of a home and how it can drastically reduce housing supply. That letter is attached for reference. With that, it is with great optimism we see that several members of City Council agenized a discussion focused on options to spur housing construction. Per our prior comments, we ask that the City Council look to amend the HOO as a way to help achieve this goal. More specifically, we encourage the City Council to propose a minimum of a two-year pause to the HOO for all projects in the pipeline and for those that apply to the city during this suggested time frame. We look forward to the discussion this evening and hope the Council can come to some form of an agreement to help encourage housing development within the City of Santa Ana. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. Respectfully, PRESIDENT SUNTI KUMJIM MBK RENTAL LIVING VICE PRESIDENT ERIC NELSON TRUMARK HOMES TREASURER BROOKE 001 SHEA HOMES SECRETARY NICOLE MURRAY TAYLOR MORRISON IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT RICK WOOD TRI POINTE HOMES TRADE CONTRACTOR V.P. ALAN BOUDREAU BOUDREAU PIPELINE CORPORATION ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT MARK HIMMELSTEIN NEWMEYER & DILLION, LLP MEMBER -AT -LARGE PETER VANEK INTEGRAL COMMUNITIES MEMBER -AT -LARGE SEAN MATSLER COX CASTLE & NICHOLSON, LLP EXECUTIVE OFFICER STEVE LA MOTTE