Agoura Hills To Update Housing Plan

AGOURA HILLS, CA — The City of Agoura is updating the housing portion of its general plan for the first time in eight years, which will require the city to deal with a nearly threefold increase in projected demand for housing since the last update.

California has long faced a housing crisis, which has been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Houses are far more expensive in California than the national average and are difficult to come across. The number of people experiencing homelessness in California has also dramatically increased throughout the pandemic.

The housing plan is part of the city's general plan, the city's blueprint for development that includes six other elements: land use, transportation, conservation, noise, open space and safety.

Every eight years, the California Department of Housing and Community Development — along with regional bodies — determines how many housing units will be necessary in each city to accommodate projected demand, according to the City of Agoura Hills.

The result of that calculation — which is based on employment data, population projections and more — is called the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. It also projects how much each housing unit should cost using four different affordability levels: very low, low, moderate and above moderate.

The update to the city's housing plan is meant to show the state that the city is prepared to meet its housing needs, with a plan to do so.

This year, Agoura Hills is projected to need nearly three times the amount of housing as it thought in the last update of the housing plan. The projections also forecast that the city will need a far higher proportion of housing in the very low and low price points.

Allison Cook, assistant planning director for Agoura Hills, said the statewide housing crisis is the reason this year's housing plan will need to prepare for a major increase in demand, particularly in the very low and low categories.

The housing update won't directly result in any building projects, but rather assure there is sufficient land and proper zoning to make the appropriate building projects possible.

To accommodate the need, the city will incentivize the creation of affordable units within market-rate housing projects to help integrate more affordable housing into the city, Cook said. Incentives will include bypassing large parts of the city approval process for building projects that meet certain standards. The city will also allow higher density building. The tradeoff is that developers must ensure 20 percent of their units are affordable housing options.

"In order to really meet the RHNA requirement, we have to ensure there's sufficient very low and low units. We've never been able to build them in the city. They're extremely hard to obtain because a private developer doesn't really want to do that because they have less profits. ... So we really had to create a different kind of program to have a better chance."

Additionally, the city has identified 20 potential new sites for housing. The city will also rezone existing housing sites to allow for building projects with multifamily units such as apartments and townhomes.

That was a challenging task, Cook said. Many of the sites were controversial with constituents. The City Council decided at Wednesday's council meeting to move forward with 20 proposed sites after taking off two sites that received public pushback.

The city conducted a public hearing for the housing plan at Wednesday's City Council meeting. The city received more than 12 public comments about the housing plan. Many of the public comments dealt with specific proposed zones.

One person expressed concern that affordable housing will decrease property values in the area, which is a fear that has been debunked by many studies.

"It's not been easy, and we've had to make some tough choices," Cook said. "I sympathize with those people who are concerned that it's going to change the way the city looks. I sympathize with those who need the housing. It's a challenging project, and we really want to do the best for everybody, and we're trying to thread the needle — it's a very fine needle — about how we meet the state requirements and still retain what people in the city appreciate about living here."

Cook got the sense the public is worried the city is going to change overnight as a result of the housing plan. She said that while the plan might allow for bigger housing projects, the integration of affordable housing will make the change less dramatic: Rather than simply adding clusters of massive apartment buildings, a level or two will be added to existing buildings or townhouses throughout the city.

Council members also expressed concern that the incentives won't be enough, and the affordable housing needs will not be sufficiently met.

"Adopting this housing element that we're preparing now may not change the way the city looks very much. It only depends on if the owners of the property we're identifying actually want to build," Cook said. She added: "If [building projects] happen, you'll see a lot more apartments and townhomes in the city."

California state lawmakers are also grappling with the housing crisis. A major bill that would allow for multifamily unit building projects in single-family zoned areas across the state has already passed the state Assembly and Senate. The goal would be to reduce house prices and increase the accessibility of homeownership, CalMatters reported. Such projects would not need significant local approval to be cleared.

The bill will go before the Senate for a concurrence vote and eventually to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.

Housing has also become a significant talking point in the upcoming gubernatorial recall election, as many candidates have criticized Newsom for his attempts to deal with the housing crisis and rising homeless populations statewide.

The council will continue drafting the plan to eventually go before the California Department of Housing and Community Development for review.