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Los Angeles Times
03-04-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Tustin votes to refund developer $290K in affordable housing opt-out fees
Across the street from Columbus Tustin Park's baseball diamond, construction crews hammered away at unfinished townhomes at the Jessup in Tustin. The new 40-unit housing development is close to being completed with all townhomes already sold out. But with the Jessup almost fully built, Intracorp, its developer, wanted to revisit its contract on Tuesday in seeking a refund of roughly $290,000 affordable housing in-lieu fees already paid to Tustin. According to staff report, Intracorp agreed to build two affordable housing units on-site while paying the Voluntary Workforce Housing Incentive Program in-lieu fees as a public benefit in exchange for the city rezoning the property as residential. 'The goal of the City Council and staff is to try to accelerate development,' Councilman Ray Schnell said in support. 'By removing impediments, fines and fees, that sends a clear message to builders, general contractors, [and] developers that we're looking for ways to accelerate the pace of building and not be punitive.' Intracorp originally sought the refund in September, but the City Council deadlocked on the move. 'What has changed since the council rejected this?' Councilman Lee Fink asked. 'I don't think anything has.' A year ago, Tustin waived affordable housing in-lieu fees for three years in its Old Town and Red Hill Avenue specific plan areas. The Jessup stands outside of those areas, but after the policy change, Intracorp petitioned for a refund. A city staff report argued that granting the refund met a strategic plan goal of 'economic and neighborhood development' by establishing 'parity' with the in-lieu fee waivers elsewhere in Tustin. 'I feel confident that an approval today of this item demonstrates that the city is fair, that we are equitable, that if there is a policy we're going to apply it to you,' said Tustin Councilman Ryan Gallagher. 'That would also [send] a message to the business community that Tustin is open for business.' Gallagher criticized affordable housing in-lieu fees approved in 2018 as part of the city's Voluntary Workforce Housing Incentive Program. He claimed the policy hasn't led to a single unit being permitted and built in Old Town since that time. 'This council wants to build market rate and affordable housing, but we need to stop wasting our time and energy on programs that don't work,' Gallagher said. But Fink sounded the alarm about the Jessup's refund being a potential gift of public funds. 'This isn't in the downtown core, this isn't Red Hill,' he said. 'This was already baked in when the when that change was made. Housing is built. I would think we need to look long and hard at the liability for that.' Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of the Kennedy Commission, called the refund 'concerning' after the council meeting. 'It greatly impacts Tustin's ability to create new affordable housing,' he said. 'We don't know what authority the City Council has to retroactively undo community benefits that are supposed to address affordable housing.' The Jessup, which sold most of its townhomes for more than $1 million, built two townhomes at the very-low income level. At the council meeting, Schnell claimed the move amounted to roughly $2 million in revenue the developer would have made if they had been sold at market rate. Councilman John Nielsen claimed the Jessup suffered what amounted to 'double taxation' by building the two affordable townhomes and paying nearly $290,000 in affordable housing opt-out fees. 'That's a bit draconian,' he said. Nielsen dismissed Fink's concerns about the refund being a gift of public funds and moved to approve it. The City Council voted 4-1 to give Intracorp the money back, with Fink voting against it. 'This doesn't help us build,' Fink said. 'This just takes away a pool of money that we can use for affordable projects.'
Los Angeles Times
13-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Live/work housing at Costa Mesa's former RVCA hub cleared by commissioners
When the City Council floated a plan to build live/work housing on the former site of the RVCA headquarters in Costa Mesa last June, officials offered some salient tips for making the project pass local muster. The proposal suggests transforming a 2.3-acre parcel zoned for light industrial use into a 38-unit complex of four-story structures with ground-floor work space and garages underneath two floors of living and sleeping quarters, all topped with partially shaded rooftop decks. Such work is allowed at the site — located at 960 W. 16th St., on the border between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach — thanks to the Mesa West Bluffs Urban Plan, a 277-acre overlay area that grants deviations from the city's development standards in exchange for needed housing projects. But council members at the June 18 plan screening suggested Newport Beach developer Intracorp do its best to ensure the site incorporates both living and working uses, invites pedestrians into welcoming spaces and offers open, shaded spaces for residents to relax. They expressed skepticism about the size of the work spaces being proposed at the time — roughly 250 square feet, or just over 10% of a unit's total area. 'When we start shrinking it to the size of a closet, I struggle to think this is anything other than a way of squeezing more density on the site,' Councilwoman Andrea Marr said at the meeting. Intracorp vice president of development Rick Puffer took notes and returned to City Hall Monday, where he presented an amended plan to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission. 'We have embraced and utilized each of the comments we received from the City Council. It was very positive and fruitful,' he said. 'And one of the questions they were asking was how quickly could we move this project forward.' Under the revised scheme, individual work spaces would comprise either 304 or 307 square feet, a size that would still allow the project to retain roughly 2.7 parking spaces per unit plus guest parking, for a total of 104 stalls, as opposed to the 133 suggested in the Urban Plan. Buildings would be separated from one another by 6 feet, instead of the 10-foot buffer specified in the overlay. However, in accordance with council's recommendations, business uses and entrances would be more articulated and face outward toward pedestrians walking along 16th Street or on a private internal cul-de-sac, in the center of which a California sycamore would be planted. 'This site plan has been designed to promote the pedestrian connection and to create increased live/work space,' Puffer said. Commissioners Monday questioned whether the work areas would actually be used for in-home businesses or simply more living space. They learned that, among similar live/work projects in the area, about 75% of units boast business uses. Despite hesitations about a lack of open space and, inversely, a sufficient number of parking spaces, commissioners supported the idea of providing more ownership opportunities in Costa Mesa, between apartment rentals and single-family lots. 'Costa Mesa is so out of whack with renter versus ownership compared to the rest of the county. So I'm thrilled when there's an ownership project that comes along and not another high-density apartment complex,' said Commissioner Jon Zich. Newly appointed Rob Dickson — who previously served as a planning commissioner from 2011 to 2017, including when a 10-year-old Mesa West Bluffs Urban Plan was updated in 2016 — said commissioners who approved the overlay 'caught a tremendous amount of hell' from residents at the time. But since the pandemic, he acknowledged, work habits and residential uses have made live/work scenarios more desirable for prospective homeowners. 'Some people don't like them, but some people love them, and this is what the code calls for,' Dickson said. 'This is the mechanism for both creating housing opportunities and creating increased residential vitality in our industrial area, which was the purpose of these overlay plans in the first place.' The seven commissioners unanimously approved Intracorp's planning application.
