Rancher Ellen Brokaw said she questioned the number of farmworkers - 1,291 - listed in the draft element as living in Santa Paula: “I today talked to one of the farm labor contractors in town” who said that last year he employed 525 who “all lived in Santa Paula... he is just one of several contractors” based in the city. The number is probably based on the 2000 Census, said Brokaw, and is “a third or a fourth of the reality of the number who live in our community.”Andrew Castaneda said his lower-income neighborhood seemingly lacks housing programs. “What I do see are greedy landlords that stack people up in rooms,” and he questioned the density and the resulting strain on the infrastructure.“It is very clear that Santa Paula has more than its fair share of low income housing,” created by affordable housing developers that Larry Sagely said often do not pay property taxes.“I think pretty much everyone here resents having to do this through state mandate,” noted John Wisda, who said that the city is offered a choice “whether or not rebuild existing blight or bring in developers with high density, big-box type of developments” that create the “barrio effect.” Wisda urged that the city consider a landlord tax to help fund code enforcement efforts, and “If the landlord doesn’t like it,” he has the opportunity to sell the property.Santa Paula has always been bedroom community for farm workers, said Jess Victoria, and agriculture would remain a constant. He suggested that those “who don’t want to look over the fence and see ag” move out of the city: “If you don’t like Santa Paula the bus still runs out of town.”Santa Paula has the “best weather of any community, wonderful vistas, charm,” but Fred Robinson said that there is “serious decline and decay in our infrastructure” that must be addressed, as well as other quality of life issues.
City Council/Planning Commission meeting to address Housing Element
March 19, 2008
Santa Paula City Council
The Planning Commission and City Council will be holding a joint meeting tonight to tackle the Housing Element, an issue that has been the focus of two community meetings that have featured heated comments about the direction the city’s housing should take.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe Planning Commission and City Council will be holding a joint meeting tonight to tackle the Housing Element, an issue that has been the focus of two community meetings that have featured heated comments about the direction the city’s housing should take. The March 19 joint meeting will be held at the Community Center starting at 6:30 p.m., and will be televised lived on Time Warner Cable Channel 10. The session will also be repeated on Channel 10.Participants in the March 4 workshop learned that Santa Paula Housing Element - which the state mandates is updated every five years - is crafted to maintain and improve existing housing, plan for growth needs for all economic segments of the community including those with special needs, and to remove constraints to housing improvement and development. Fair housing is also an issue, as is affordable housing.According to the Housing Element’s consultant John Douglas, a study showed that Santa Paula has the lowest income level of any city in the county, 30 percent less than the county average. Since 2000, about 60 percent of all new homes in Santa Paula have been higher density condominiums and apartments, compared to 30 percent countywide.Douglas noted that 57 percent of new units built in the city since 2000 have been affordable to lower-income households, compared to the fair share need of 30 percent. With mandated statewide housing allotments, Santa Paula’s share of the county’s new housing need is 2,241 units, of which 843 are geared for lower-income households.Douglas also explained proposed policies and actions, including the city and state inclusionary housing requirements - 15 percent for low- or 10 percent for very-low income households, annexation of General Plan expansion areas, and homeownership down payment assistance and Section 8 rental assistance, among others. Rental housing and owner occupied rehabilitation programs as well as mobile home park preservation were also addressed.Douglas noted that after the Council adopts the Draft Housing Element it must be sanctioned by the state before final Council approval.
