Thirty years is too long to wait

Joseph C. Napoli

The inland El Morro Village property owners are seeking extensions of

their leases. In return, they propose to “immediately” create 50 new,

affordable apartments and ultimately provide 272 workforce/affordable

residences that Laguna Beach would control but not have to pay for.

Full page ads describing the proposal have appeared recently in

local newspapers. What the ads do not tell us is that:

1. The owners are seeking 30-year extensions to their leases,

which, if granted, would mean that at their termination they will

have denied the public its rightful use of this land for more than

half a century.

2. There is no way that 50 new, affordable apartments can be

immediately created as the ad suggests. It will take at least three

years to perform the environment impact studies and get agreement

from the state, the city of Laguna Beach, and the El Morro property

owners on how to proceed. To this add a minimum of two years to build

the apartments and it becomes clear it will take at least five years

before the apartments can be added to Laguna Beach’s stock of

affordable housing units -- and this estimate makes no provision for

delays that will be created by the inevitable lawsuits the project

will spawn.

3. The 272 units of affordable housing Laguna Beach will receive

under the proposal consists of the 50 apartments to be built and the

222 existing housing units that make up the inland portion of El

Morro Village. Purportedly, all of these units will be provided free

of charge to the city. However, there’s a catch. The 222 existing

units will be turned over free of charge only at the end of their

leases. If one of these units comes on the market before the end of

its lease and the city wishes to acquire it, then the city will have

to pay market value. The only concession made to the city is the

right of first refusal.

4. It is highly likely that the housing units in inland El Morro

Village will become high-priced rentals long before they become

affordable housing for Laguna’s workforce. It stands to reason that

many owners in El Morro Village will turn to renting their units to

cover the increased rents they will be paying under their new 30 year

leases.

The proposal by the inland El Morro Village property owners can

best be described as a win-lose situation. The property owners win;

the city of Laguna Beach loses. The property owners get 30 year

exclusive concessions to provide high-priced rental units in Crystal

Cove State Park. The city of Laguna Beach gets only the possibility

of 50 affordable apartments by the year 2009.

Anything could derail the project -- from the inability to get an

acceptable Environmental Impact Report to being unable to finance the

project. As for the additional 222 housing units that will become

available to satisfy affordable/workforce housing, that’s great -- if

you happen to be joining Laguna Beach’s workforce in the year 2034!

* JOSEPH C. NAPOLI is a Laguna Beach resident.