Ventura County Civic Alliance — May 15, 2023 Livable Communities Newsletter

Where is the Housing Affordability?

By A Disillusioned Alliance Member

Over the past few years, you have likely noticed a trend out of the State Legislature in Sacramento to pass laws with the goal of building more housing throughout California. The oft repeated reason is that housing is too expensive and is contributing to the homeless issues across the State, leading to poor quality of life in cities, increased crime, and blight. However, there are a few issues that should be considered when evaluating the volumes of housing legislation that has been added to State law over the past three to five years.

None of the bills that were signed into law require that any of the housing that will be “built”, “expedited”, or “encouraged” has to meet affordability standards. What does that mean? The housing that will be generated as a result of this litany of laws will be market rate. The market rate varies across Ventura County, but what it all has in common is that none of it could be considered affordable. How does this help the situation? It appears that the legislators in Sacramento, many of whom were previous local elected officials, have whole heartedly embraced the goal to encourage as much new housing as possible, because if there is more housing, affordability will increase across the board, or more simply stated, all property values will go down.

In order to achieve this goal of more housing, the legislators have stripped away local control from cities related to zoning, permitting, fees that can be charged for the staff time to evaluate a plan, and more. Many of us moved to particular communities because we liked the feel, the aesthetic, etc. If the legislature continues on this path, it will be impossible to tell which community you’re in, they’ll all look the same. A recently passed law allows housing to be built in a commercial shopping center. Not a rezone of the shopping center, housing can just be built in the shopping center, next to a big box store.

A commercial building sits empty in Sacramento, CA. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP from Patch.com

These laws, and there’s no sign of them slowing down, will substantially change the character of communities over time. Not a long time either; think five to ten years. SB 9, passed about two sessions ago, allows for single family lot splits which means that a current parcel of land with one single family home lot in your neighborhood, can be split into two parcels, each with an Accessory Dwelling Unit (i.e. granny flat in the backyard) and a Junior Accessory Dwelling Unit (i.e. a garage conversion).  One single family home in a neighborhood could become the future home of six families. There are no requirements that parking be provided or that the existing infrastructure be upgraded to meet the increased demand. In fact, cities are actually not allowed to evaluate the existing infrastructure in relation to approvals for these projects.

With the trend in legislation and the impact on neighborhoods, will we still have Livable Communities, or just congestion?

At left, density without urbanism in China. Photo source, Dhiru Thadani. At right, stumpies in Del Mar, CA . Photo sourse, Dan Solomam

The CNU group discussed conflicts over urbanism and density, with goal of promoting density’s benefits while maintaining long held principles such as walkability, diversity, and visual enjoyment. Boston architect and urban designer Michael Dennis summarized the feeling of many at the meeting this way: “Some tall buildings are necessary for density. Tall buildings are not necessarily bad—though most are.”

Density can bring large numbers of people together and can make public transit possible. Density can help shops, restaurants, and offices thrive. It can make people want to walk rather than drive. However, when it’s badly arranged, it creates only the smallest range of income groups and household types, and instead of giving residents multiple options, it constricts daily experiences.

The type of urbanism envisioned in this meeting offers pedestrian-friendly streets, friendly public spaces, and strong neighborhoods. “Density is made humane by urbanism,” said CNU President Mallory Baches.

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Public SquareBLICSQUARE

A CNU Journal

Why vacant offices are post-pandemic opportunities

Cities and states offer incentives for developers to convert offices to living spaces, which could have a profound impact on downtowns, employment districts, and office parks.

Reported by ROBERT STEUTEVILLE    MAR. 16, 2023

Summarized by Stacy Roscoe

Office to Residential may be more difficult than it sounds.

Daily occupancy in the world’s office buildings ranges from about 20 percent to 70 percent compared to pre-pandemic averages of approximately 80 percent.

This is a real problem for downtowns, office parks, and town centers. Beyond the lost revenues for building owners, empty buildings impact the tax base, and destroy worker support for restaurants, retail, and entertainment venues.

Architect and urban designer Laurence Qamar has offered another way to look at the seismic shift. “Office buildings could transform into renovated housing as a solution to housing shortages. Households and business activity could increasingly mix as office workers work from home and in neighborhood-based shared workplaces. Central business districts, industrial districts, and outlying neighborhoods may become much less segregated and dispersed, much as they were prior to the 1890-1920s industrial revolution when neighborhood-based businesses were as prevalent as downtown offices.”

Photo from ArchDaily

The concepts are exciting but there are serious issues that have become more widely recognized. Converting empty office space to housing—especially in modern buildings with large floor plates—will be very difficult and costly. Qamar states that “Colleagues with greater knowledge of office building construction informed me that the building types and their mechanical systems might not be easily retrofitted for residential.”

We have enormous quantities of unused office space at the same time many metropolitan regions have a housing shortage. Overcoming the conversion difficulty is the key. This realization has caused several cities to generate creative solutions to incentivize office to residential conversions.

Portland’s program eliminates development fees for developers who make these conversions. In California, lawmakers have funded a statewide developer incentive program for office-to-residential conversions. In Des Moines, Iowa there are there is a focus on empty parking lots for the placement of new housing.

As Covid 19 is brought under control, it is time to deal with one of its long-lasting impacts. Qamar told the meeting attendees “that we should follow this trend more as new urbanists.” Reimagining downtown central business districts and mono-functional office parks as more mixed-use, 24-hour places would be a great step for cities and suburbs.”

This is a powerful vision, but it will take foresight and creative approaches to make it a reality.

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