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2025-01-23 Planning Commission MinutesMINUTES OF THE EL SEGUNDO PLANNING COMMISSION Regularly Scheduled Meeting January 23, 2025 Chair Hoeschler called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Chair Hoeschler Present: Vice Chair Maggay Present: Commissioner Inga Present: Commissioner Christian Also present: Michael Allen, AICP, Community Development Director Also present: Eduardo Schonborn, AICP, Planning Manager Also present: Joaquin Vazquez, City Attorney Also present: Paul Samaras, AICP, Principal Planner Also present: Jazmin Farias, Assistant Planner Also present: Jillian Glickman, Consultant from RSG Inc. Also present: Jim Simon, Consultant from RSG Inc. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chair Hoeschler led the pledge. PUBLIC/WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS None. A. CONSENT 1. Approval of Planning Commission Meeting Minutes: • December 12, 2024 • January 9, 2025 MOTION: Approve the minutes. Moved by Commissioner Inga, second by Commissioner Christian. Motion carried, 4-0, by the following vote: Ayes: Hoeschler, Maggay, Inga, and Christian 1 B. NEW PUBLIC HEARINGS None. C. NEW BUSINESS 2. Affordable Housing Strategic Plan Study Session Community Development Director Michael Allen introduced Jim Simon and Jillian Glickman from RSG consultants who are providing on -call housing consulting services to the city. Michael informed the Commission that RSG is collaborating with staff to support affordable housing in alignment with the goals outlined in the Council -adopted 2022 Affordable Housing Strategic Plan. Jim and Jillian proceeded to lead the study session in which they presented potential funding opportunities identified to date to help subsidize the costs of affordable housing development and presented considerations for the development of an affordable housing local preference policy to further support the City's housing objectives. • Vice Chair Maggay inquired if the city is required to obtain additional revenue. Jim advised that the city is not required to do so but it is necessary if the city wants to partake in SCAG and HCD programs they are qualified for. Michael added that the ripple effect of positive benefits that can come out of a continuous stream result in a lot of other things we can do to reach HCD requirements. • Commissioners asked staff to clarify what displacement risk is. Jillian explained that when new development comes in price of housing rises which limits the ability for tenants within a certain unit to mobilize and move to a different unit because rent is rising which causes tenants to move outside the city for rent that is comparable to what they were paying before. • Commissioner Christian inquired why El Segundo is considered to have a low estimated renter displacement risk. Jim stated that based on the research there is a proportionately mush smaller portion of the city's population that would be impacted by displacement due to the demographics of the community. Michael added that based on the data that was pulled essentially in El Segundo it is possible for renters in the city to find other expensive housing in the same price range and this could always change based on the development cycle that is being used. Commissioner Christian added that the formula seems complicated because it is only being focused on renter displacement due to new development because the city is constrained on how much new development is out there. • Jim explained that the urban displacement project data comes from social economic data, real estate market data and development trends and activities. They take this data and identify areas that are more susceptible to displacement and less susceptible to displacement. He added that he will provide a summary of that data and share it with staff so that it can be 2 passed down to the Commissioners. • Chair Hoeschler inquired if RSG recommends for the city to take on the role of managing affordable housing units or if it is best to select a management company for that role. Jim stated that for a city of this size and the amount of units it would have he does not believe taking on that role would be a good use of the city's resources. • Chair Hoeschler inquired how people find out if they are eligible or a candidate for affordable housing. Jim advised that if you bring on an affordable housing developer for a 100% affordable housing development, they will out that out there and they will have events like fairs to invite people to submit applications. He added that when the city engages with other affordable housing developers those are the types of things that are embedded into any affordable housing agreement which spells out what that marketing plan is going to be and how it is going to be fair; often they recommend the use of a lottery system. • Commissioner Christian inquired if there is a system that gives priority to certain kinds of workers like teachers, police, fire fighters, city employees as those are the type of groups of people he thinks of first that he would like to see live here. Vice Chair Maggay chimed in and added that he would like to have tiers of employment depending on what they do for the city and location of employment as he prefers to have people that live and work in the city to reduce vehicle miles traveled. He would like to see tiers of their employment and their housing and what they do as a job. Jim advised that they have worked with cities that are redeveloping their property and because the land is theirs, they have some special ability to target teachers for example. He assured the commissioners that there are some opportunities to do that. • Commissioner Christian inquired if there is technology that can help administer the managing of these applications and a way to push out notifications so that a new department does not have to be created. Jim said that there is but he thinks the bigger issue is that when someone applies for that list how much information is going to be requested upfront and how often will that information be maintained as it can fluctuate. The burden is updating the information and it really depends on the amount of units being administered. It comes down to how much the city wants to spend on administration to justify that work. Vice Chair Hoeschler invited the public to share comments regarding the study session. Further communication came from the public. • Resident John Pickhaver stated that he was present on behalf of Sea Change who cares a lot about affordable housing. He shared that when he was looking for information regarding rent cost based on his current situation the next closest one was $700 more than what he pays now. He referenced page 8 of the staff report which included a community survey that included a question that asked what areas the community would like 3 to see new housing in. He pointed out that the staff report leaves out the highest selected answer which was housing East of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH). Although there was only one option for East of PCH awhile the other four options were all West of PCH in the survey he thinks it would be interesting to break that down and if staff were to parcel out spots East of PCH would that continue to rank higher than those. He is not sure why this information was left out but is aware that the scope is limited and is asking that whatever power the Commission has to make a recommendation to just engage the community more on this issue and see if they can expand the scope because there is a lot of work going into this right now and it is all being pushed to one side of the city which seems impossible to hit. Lastly, he reiterated that he was present at the meeting to remind the Commissioners that there are residents who wish to see housing East of PCH and wants to encourage them to see if the scope can be enlarged to look at all the options. Vice Chair Hoeschler invited the public to share comments regarding the study session. Further communication came from the public. Further communication came from the Commission. • Chair Hoeschler inquired if the housing type property they recommend for affordable housing almost always a rental unit versus a for sale unit. Jim stated that they would not say recommending because his business partner feels the same way as they know we need to create community wealth and ownership is a key element to that. He added that unfortunately there are a few subsidies for ownership affordable housing as it is extremely difficult to do, and it is specifically difficult to that at the lowest income levels as you would need HOA's to take care of common area maintenance and that might be all they can afford to pay. • Chair Hoeschler inquired if the developers that create these types of projects are typically very much in the affordable housing space or can a regular market rate developer become an expert at this with proper guidance. Jim shared that up until three years ago it was much more the domain of affordable housing developers and when market rate construction started to slow down as market rate projects became more infeasible, he has seen many market rate affordable apartment developers want to participate. He has advised them that they need to find a partner, a property manager, and an investor. • Vice Chair Maggay inquired what the typical minimum number of units to apply if they do 15%. Jim shared that the minimum project size for affordable housing development you typically see is in the range of 50 to 100 units. • Vice Chair Maggay inquired if RSG has examples of reoccurring revenue generating programs and if the $5 million dollars the city has be able to be the starting point for that. Jim stated that for the most part they have a few options such as a trust fund which would require some sort of tax 4 mechanism or some other voluntary ongoing contribution of people's general funds. Another option would be a tax increase, he added that some states started exploring that on a regional basis. A third option is what they call a commercial linkage or an inclusionary housing in lieu fee; however, both options require for development to keep happening to generate those dollars. Another option would be sort of a community benefit approach where you do a development agreement, and you negotiate a community benefit. • Vice Chair Maggay stated that 15% is a good number and he would like the units to target preferred renters. • Commissioner Christian stated that he would like to see a longer time limit or a way to continue to cycle through. Jim stated that it is something that can be embedded in a development agreement and the administrative burden is placed on them. Michael added that that is all part of the development agreement negotiations. He provided the example of Culver City which has 12 to 15 staff members including part-timers that administer, audit, monitor, and they also engage in development agreement where the burden is on the developer. • Chair Hoeschler inquired how these units are subsidized and what encourages a developer to give up some market rate units in order to do affordable units. Jim stated that the study session has mostly covered 100% of affordable projects but if we are talking about projects that are a mix of that there is state law that says they can do that, and it is called density bonus; the motivation is more units gets more income. • Chair Hoeschler stated that it is hard to understand how to increase density in this town when you are landlocked and that he understands East of PCH is not zoned for residential but finds it hard to have this conversation without talking about East of PCH and wonders why the staff report did not address that community input. Michael stated that he was not here when that survey occurred so he cannot speak of the methodology or validity or invalidity of the survey. He added that he is not agnostic towards the fact that there are several opinions on where housing should be built and clarified that the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan does not address where to build housing rather it is a guide for us to develop policy so that when housing is built regardless of where it is at there is a policy in place to facilitate the production of affordable housing. One of the goals identified was a focus area program and when developing the strategic plan or at least finalizing the document we could only do so where housing is currently permitted today. He can only imagine that naturally that conversation will happen, and it needs to happen at a time when land use is being updated and housing is a land use. Michael also reminded the Commissioners that a land use element update is coming down the pipeline and that would be the adequate time to address where to build housing as that project would have public hearings, study sessions and workshops for the public to provide feedback in person. • Commissioner Inga provided consensus regarding the 15% threshold. 5 MOTION: Receive and file study session. D. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. E. REPORTS — COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR OR DESIGNEE • Michael provided an update regarding the Land Use Element update and shared that the selection of the consulting team will occur in the second City Council meeting in February. • Planning Manager Eduardo Schonborn reminded the Commissioners to complete the 700 form and informed them that the fines for not completing them will be going to them individually and no longer the city. F. REPORTS — PLANNING COMMISSIONERS • Chair Hoeschler shared that he will be stepping down from the Planning Commission as his wife and him will be moving to San Luis Obispo and stated that this would be his last meeting. • Commissioners and staff thanked Chair Hoeschler for his service, congratulated him, and wished him well. G. REPORTS — CITY ATTORNEY City Attorney Joaquin Vazquez thanked Chair Hoeschler for his service and wished him well. ADJOURNMENT — the meeting adjourned at 7:22 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for February 13, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. Michael Allen, Community Development Director Jay Hoeschler, Planning Commission Chair C: