City Should Reduce New Up-zoning to Meet, Not Exceed, 13,209 State-Mandated Housing Units

By Jane Reifer on October 31, 2024 • ( 1 Comment )

The proposed Housing Incentive Overlay Zone (HIOZ) would dramatically reshape our city, adding 32,000 units and 96,000 more residents, close to doubling our housing and population. This rapid growth would strain city infrastructure, erase our distinctive low-rise character, and clash with historic neighborhoods. We’ll be indistinguishable from other cities, and the intensity of streamlining will attract speculative investors, causing the very thing this program claims to avoid – skyrocketing housing prices. Worse still, this plan undermines the traditional public process, bypassing community input and oversight.

Friends for a Livable Fullerton (FFLF), a group dedicated to preserving Fullerton’s uniqueness and livability, believes that Fullerton’s noteworthy historic character can be preserved while addressing the affordable housing needs these increases aim to solve. The city’s unique features include scenic corridors, trees, riparian areas, tribal resources, and quality of life issues like adequate infrastructure.

It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of this program. The housing numbers wildly exceed the:
• Our mandated housing targets
• Our expected citywide and General Plan “focus area” buildout limits.
• HIOZ itself, as there are additional zoning code changes and more access to density bonuses
• HIOZ’s “Statement of Overriding Considerations” adds a new impact (noise) that was previously determined not to be significant
• City ability to provide public services such as public parks, which will now be located within new housing developments

It’s also hard to overstate the inadequacy of the analyses. Answers to many comments were non-responsive. Although the public consistently asked for historic resource reports, none was done. Critical analysis of historic resources, traffic, noise, toxins, health risks, infrastructure, city services, and biological impacts will be done behind closed doors when developers expect by-right project approvals.

Planning Commissioners felt pressured to approve the proposals without complete information and were even asked to allow City staff to add wording, sight unseen, before the council vote.

FFLF proposes a reasonable alternative that addresses community concerns and ensures responsible growth by:
• Reduce the staggering number of housing units Increase the affordable units needed for project approval from 10% to 15%
• Partner with nonprofits to build or preserve true affordable housing
• Use transparent, plain language with basic comparisons
• Conduct critical analyses in advance of HIOZ approval
• Retain reasonable public input
• Preserve de facto historic corridors
• Restore higher densities to areas already designated in the General Plan
• Institute maximum heights and densities; preserve reasonable setbacks