Countywide : Housing Guidebook Will Be Presented

A guidebook to help local government agencies streamline the bureaucratic procedures and regulations that slow or halt the development of affordable housing projects will be presented today to the Board of Supervisors.

The 52-page “Foundation for Our Future” guidebook, the product of a year’s labor by the Countywide Housing Task Force, encourages local agencies to examine and streamline their own policies and outlines state regulations that often slow housing development.

“The idea behind this is to cut through a lot of the red tape that these projects often find themselves entangled in when they try to build projects,” said Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, co-chairman of the task force. “There are many of these barriers that tend to retard development of affordable housing or drive up the costs after they are built.”

In addition to mapping the way through the thicket of regulations, the guidebook makes recommendations to state and local government officials, community leaders and builders on ways to foster the expansion of affordable housing throughout the county.

The guidebook encourages creative land-use designs--such as mixed-use development, higher resident densities and second residential units on existing sites--and denounces the often negative stereotype tied to housing projects.

“There is a need to cultivate a broader understanding . . . of the economic impacts that result from community opposition to housing projects,” the guidebook’s summary states, adding that promoting past examples of housing successes would combat the “not in my back yard” attitude.

The Countywide Housing Task Force is composed of county and state housing officials, private and nonprofit housing developers, architects, engineers and lenders. The group was co-chaired by Stanton and Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly.

Among the guidebook’s other recommendations and observations:

* County officials should continue to make single-room occupancy and other special-needs housing projects a priority. Those officials should also continue providing technical and financial assistance to cities and nonprofit housing projects.

* Local jurisdictions and special districts should consider the cumulative impact of development fees on housing projects and look for areas where those costs can be reduced. Those agencies should also collaborate, pooling resources and sharing obligations, to allow more aggressive pursuit of housing project financing.

* Local agencies should seek to understand better the complicated regulations of the California Environmental Quality Act and assist nonprofit housing sponsors to become familiar also with CEQA’s content. With that aim in mind, the task force has scheduled a series of workshops for the fall.

* Existing housing projects should be rehabilitated with better technical assistance, on-site management for apartment buildings and the use of alternative materials and construction methods.

* State lawmakers should reconsider regulations that discourage development of affordable housing with impractical time and design requirements. Daly said such regulations include overly strict parking requirements and zoning and density rules that “just aren’t realistic.”

More than 1,000 copies of the free booklet have been distributed to area officials and business leaders, Daly said. Another 500 copies are now being printed, project chief Melinda Stewart said. To receive a copy of the booklet or for more information about the task force’s continuing efforts, call Stewart at (714) 834-4414.