Item 4 - Public Oral Presentation Afforadable Housing Poway City Council Meeting
Public Oral Presentation
March 28, 1995
My name is Walter L. Metcalf and I live at 13115 Valewood Rd., Poway CA 92064
I am here before you today representing 442 concerned citizens. We would like to
request that an item be added to your agenda according to the proper procedures at
the next possible council meeting. Because of the large number of people that I
represent, I would request a few minutes of additional tune to lay the ground work
for our request.
Before presenting our petition and a proposed resolution, I would like to provide a
little background. This petition involves one of your favorite topics - affordable
housing. You have repeatedly told us that it is too late to do anything about the
current 5 designated sites. Therefore, I am not here tonight to address these sites.
But is also clear that these five sites are just the first. We believe this for the
following masons:
1. Numerous documents imply that there are guidelines and requirements for
affordable housing based upon various criteria. To date, we have not been
successful in getting the absolute numbers from your staff. But we believe
that someone must know the answers.
2. In the Judgment in the Smith v. All Persons case, the five existing
proposed sites must be built, Mr. Rosen must be hired to do a needs
assessment and a "gap Analysis" and "Mr. Rosen may recommend the
appropriate mix of family/non family and the appropriate economic mix for
all new projects".
3. A newspaper article in the Union-Tribune dated March 28, 1995 states
that "In a move that may upset the entire process, the Legal Aid Society's
Richard Steiner said yesterday that his organization planned to file an appeal
this week in a court judgment that shaped the city's low-income housing
plan. Legal Aid attorneys and their low-income clients hope to extend the
housing plan to 35 years and establish a process to regularly evaluate the
city's progress in providing low-cost shelter."
It is clear that there will be more affordable housing sites necessary to meet the
future needs in Poway. The previous selection criteria for selecting sites was
supposed to provide sites that would not impact any one area. For instance:
1. October 22, 1991 - City Council reviews site selection criteria
recommended by the Redevelopment and Housing Advisory Committee. The
City Council requests revision to include language that sites should be
selected so as to not overly impact any one area.
2. Memorandum from Staff to Redevelopment and Housing Advisory
Committee dated November 18, 1991 listed several guidelines including: #2
The sites selected from those found to be suitable according to the listed
criteria should be distributed so as not to overly impact any one area; and #3
The sites selected from those found to be suitable according to the listed
criteria should be distributed so as not to overly impact local street systems
and schools.
3. AB 1290 Redevelopment and Housing Implementation Plan for the
Paguay Redevelopment Project Area indicates on pages 38-39 that special
consideration was given in the Comprehensive Affordable Housing Strategy
to "ensuring that affordable housing not be concentrated in a single portion of
Poway."
I believe that the Redevelopment and Housing Advisory Committee and the staff
have failed miserably in these stated goals. Please consider the following.
1. At last nights Redevelopment and Housing Advisory Committee public
hearing, Mr. Rosen indicated in his presentation that the current apartments
located in Poway will meet the low and moderate income affordable housing
guidelines. Almost ALL of these apartments are located in Southwest
Poway.
2. ALL proposed very low income family housing units have been
designated for Southwest Poway.
3. All very low income senior housing units have been designated for
Southwest Poway with one exception. And this exception is only because a
developer was already planning to put a unit in the north on the border of
Rancho Bemardo.
There is some difficulty in defining just what is Southwest Poway. However a
rough geographical distribution can be defmed by Twin Peaks Road dividing the
North from the South and Midland dividing the East from the West. This leaves
actually much less than one fourth of the land mass in what I have termed
Southwest Poway for this presentation.
Since the Redevelopment and Housing Advisory Committee has been unable or
unwilling to follow the stated goals, a petition was started which reads as follows:
"We believe that the placement of affordable housing has not been distributed
equitably within Poway. We request that all additional affordable housing be
located in North and East Poway and prohibited from Southwest Poway until such
time as there is a balanced and equitable geographic dislribution."
Therefore, on behalf of 442 concemed citizens, I would request that the committee
place the following resolution on their agenda, carefully consider it and then
approve it in an expeditious manner:
RESOLUTION:
"It is hereby resolved that no further affordable housing project be
allowed to be placed into Southwest Poway (defined as the area South of
Twin Peaks Road and East of Midland Drive) until such time as there
are an equal to or greater number of very low income family units and
an equal to or greater number of very low income senior units located in
other portions of Poway."
The people represented in this petition believe that the actions of the City of Poway
have not been fair in this matter. You have a chance to rectify this - at least for the
future sites. This issue has awakened a sleeping political giant. I have been told
that over 80% of the voters live in South Poway. A handful of people were able to
sign up the 442 people on the petition in about 8 hours and fifteen minutes of one
day.
Please use this opportunity to show the residents of Poway that you represent all of
them. Do the fair thing - do the right thing. Vote yes on this resolution.
Thank you for your time and attention.