Affordable Housing

COSTA MESA — Forced to choose between handing to the county the responsibilities for the city's affordable housing or creating a city-run housing agency, the City Council on Tuesday elected to keep the responsibility in-house. The Costa Mesa Housing Authority will now oversee $9 million in affordable-housing accounts. The accounts used to belong to the city's redevelopment agency (RDA) until it was dissolved by Sacramento legislation, which cities challenged but the state Supreme Court upheld in December.

The easy thing to do is to look at last Tuesday's teacher protest before the school board meeting as an isolated incident. But that would be a mistake. In fact, a recent series of important events has led to a local crisis in education. Workplace disruptions such as this are almost always the result of bad management. That observation comes from having more than 20 years of experience managing people. Bad management is usually the result of poor communication, whether it is not enough communication or whether the words and actions don't match.

Agreeing to lift constraints on affordable housing development, Newport Beach officials have received tentative approval of the city's housing blueprint. Regulators from the state Department of Housing and Community Development said last month that the city's moves would bring it into compliance with state law. If the City Council adopts the plan next month, affordable housing developments near John Wayne Airport would be automatically approved if they meet certain requirements.

NEWPORT BEACH — When the federal government doles out grants to help low- and moderate-income individuals, it has to make an exception for a city like Newport Beach. The majority of households here earn more than $80,000, and there are few pockets with people of even average means. So when the City Council approved its annual Community Development Block Grant funding this week, more than half the funds were able to pay for decorative sidewalks, street furniture, landscaping and other street improvements.

Noaki Schwartz NEWPORT BEACH -- The city has fallen behind on the number of affordable houses it is required to build, and officials are trying to do something about it. "As it stands now, we have an affordable housing requirement, and we're trying to decide how to deal with that," said Mayor John Noyes. The state requires that about 20% of the total units built in the city be affordable, but the city has fallen beneath that due to recent losses of many inexpensive units as affordable housing agreements with landlords have expired.

Would you support a citywide program that requires developers to provide affordable housing? No, I would not support such a program. The middle-class home buyer pays the price of programs such as this in higher housing prices. It is ironic that some demand that we increase the price of housing with a $19,000-per-unit, low-cost-housing tax — all in the name of affordability. ERIC BEVER Costa Mesa city councilman Did not respond. LINDA DIXON Costa Mesa city councilwoman Did not respond.

Calling for civil fines and penalties against motel owners, some Costa Mesa City Council members Tuesday criticized a dozen properties they deemed as ongoing nuisances. Councilman Steve Mensinger, citing a city investigation, said many of Costa Mesa's motel residents live in cluttered, dirty rooms that violate city codes, and police are often called to the properties to settle crimes. Mensinger and Mayor Eric Bever asked city CEO Tom Hatch to issue fines and other civil penalties to bring the hotels up to code.

If the City Council approves a disbanded city agency's list of debt Tuesday, the act could secure millions for Costa Mesa before state lawmakers funnel that money to Sacramento. The council is slated to approve the Redevelopment Agency's $27 million worth of debt, with the city's original loan to the agency taking up the biggest chunk at $19.5 million. The RDA also has more than $4.8 million in nonhousing project bonds, $1.3 million in housing project loans and assistance, and $525,000 in Davis Field work in the pipeline.

City officials are shaking up the Newport Beach Aviation Committee and other citizens groups with long-standing community members. Beginning at its regular meeting Tuesday, City Council members will begin replacing appointees, some of whom have served for more than 10 years. The Aviation and Special Events Advisory committees and other such groups advise the council on specialized issues. Officials apparently established some of them without specifying terms for members, or made terms indefinite.

In an effort to balance the state budget, the California Supreme Court voted at the end of December to eliminate redevelopment agencies across the state effective Jan. 31. It further struck down a separate law that would have allowed agencies to stay afloat if they paid more than $1 billion to the state. The decision has understandably caused a reverberation of panic from proponents desperate to find an amicable way to salvage redevelopment in some form and stave off the chaos that will surface as a result of dismantling the agencies.

COSTA MESA — Forced to choose between handing to the county the responsibilities for the city's affordable housing or creating a city-run housing agency, the City Council on Tuesday elected to keep the responsibility in-house. The Costa Mesa Housing Authority will now oversee $9 million in affordable-housing accounts. The accounts used to belong to the city's redevelopment agency (RDA) until it was dissolved by Sacramento legislation, which cities challenged but the state Supreme Court upheld in December.

Agreeing to lift constraints on affordable housing development, Newport Beach officials have received tentative approval of the city's housing blueprint. Regulators from the state Department of Housing and Community Development said last month that the city's moves would bring it into compliance with state law. If the City Council adopts the plan next month, affordable housing developments near John Wayne Airport would be automatically approved if they meet certain requirements.

IRVINE — The City Council last week unanimously approved this year's proposed plan for how to spend $1.3 million in federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG). Most of the grant money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will go toward affordable housing projects, and the council even reallocated grants from the school district. Although HUD has set a May 12 deadline for the city to submit its plan for how it will spend the money, the federal agency has not yet told the city how much money Irvine will receive in block grants.

NEWPORT BEACH — When the federal government doles out grants to help low- and moderate-income individuals, it has to make an exception for a city like Newport Beach. The majority of households here earn more than $80,000, and there are few pockets with people of even average means. So when the City Council approved its annual Community Development Block Grant funding this week, more than half the funds were able to pay for decorative sidewalks, street furniture, landscaping and other street improvements.

NEWPORT BEACH — Seldom do the words "affordable housing" and "Newport Beach" appear in the same sentence. Despite state laws intended to encourage more affordable housing, it's likely to stay that way as the City Council discusses ways to reuse the current City Hall site. Planners presented preliminary ideas for senior apartments there — a way to meet state affordable housing requirements — but some council members and residents have opposed affordable housing for seniors.

COSTA MESA — While City Council hopeful Sue Lester might have been labeled as a one-issue candidate, she said there are many reasons why she's qualified to help run the city. That one issue was medical marijuana. Lester, 43, owns a dispensary in the city and the fight to keep it and others open first drew her to council meetings. "Once I got to the meetings, and I started listening to everything that was going on, I continued to go because I wanted to know more about the city that I had a business in and I wanted to live in," Lester said.