La Canada Told Housing Figure Stands

In a move that may affect redevelopment plans in La Canada Flintridge, the Southern California Assn. of Governments has notified the city that it will need to build 104 low-income housing units in the next 5 years.

The notification came Monday as a new debate began brewing over redevelopment. It likely will be an issue at next week’s City Council hearing on whether the city should drop redevelopment.

The City Council postponed a decision on beginning a redevelopment project last spring because of concerns that the city could be forced to spend redevelopment tax revenue on low-income housing.

Those who favor redevelopment now contend the city will need the tax revenue to meet the housing requirement. Opponents of redevelopment have downplayed the connection to the SCAG requirement, saying that the regional planning agency holds no influence over the use of redevelopment funds.

The debate was touched off last week when City Councilman Ed Phelps told the council he wanted to look at possibly abandoning redevelopment plans.

“We don’t need a framework and an agency to implement something we don’t need, something that doesn’t exist,” Phelps said. “I’m saying, ‘Wait a minute, folks. Our city isn’t blighted anymore, and we may not need redevelopment.’ ”

But John Belcher, a member of the Citizens Redevelopment Advisory Committee, which last week urged the council to move ahead with redevelopment, said that abandoning the plan would be a mistake, especially in light of SCAG’s housing assessment.

Belcher, an attorney who advises cities on redevelopment issues, said it’s common for cities, even wealthy ones such as Beverly Hills, to declare themselves blighted. He said the designation allows them to keep a greater portion of the property taxes paid by local businesses that would otherwise go to the state and county.

By implementing a redevelopment project, La Canada Flintridge would receive as much as $70 million over the life of the project. The city would use the bulk of the money to improve its Foothill Boulevard commercial district. Part of the money could go to the city’s school system and to programs to improve housing for low-income residents.

“The bottom line is that now that SCAG told us we have to do this, we have to do this,” Belcher said. “We have to do this whether we redevelop or not. But redevelopment would be one way to do this.”

SCAG is a six-county regional planning agency authorized by the state to project the housing needs of Southern California communities. The agency details how many units of low, middle and upper-income housing each area will need.

State housing law stipulates that cities must then formulate plans to meet those needs, either through public- or private-sector projects.

La Canada Flintridge officials had asked SCAG to reconsider the 104-unit low-income housing figure in light of the city’s lack of sewage capacity and scarcity of land, circumstances which they say make the building of low-income housing unfeasible.

“The city wanted a revision of their assessment to reflect a desire to shift from the low- to upper- income housing categories,” said Joe Carreras, a SCAG senior planner.

Carreras said the agency told the city that SCAG is required by law to determine housing needs without regard for a city’s ability to meet that need. He said the city will have to appeal to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which determines whether cities are in compliance with housing statutes.

“They swept us under the rug, they wanted to ignore us,” City Manager Don Otterman said. “Land prices are so high, there’s no available sewer, but they have said ‘that doesn’t matter, that’s not part of our formula.’ ”