By Town Crier Staff Report
Representatives from the Los Altos and Mountain View City Councils will update the public on the General Plan housing element and affordable housing 2-4 p.m., Saturday.
The program, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Los Altos-Mountain View Area, will take place at the Mountain View Public Library, Community Room, 585 Franklin St. City staff representatives from Los Altos and Mountain View will be on hand to inform and answer questions.
The meeting will feature panelists Rosemary Stacek of the Mountain View City Council and Lou Becker from the Los Altos City Council. The following questions will be posed: What is the General Plan and the Housing Element? Who is responsible for it? Describe your town’s efforts to achieve affordable housing.
What are the obstacles to getting affordable housing built? What help is available to cities to achieve affordable housing? What might your town do differently in the future? What effect does affordable housing have on your city? What are the housing characteristics of your city? What is the state’s affordable housing requirement for your city in the new decade?
General plans, by law, deal with land-use regulations and are the major tools by which communities shape their future. The law requires that cities develop a plan for meeting their housing needs for all income levels, including for very low- and low-income residents.
As local communities prepare for the 2002 General Plan, issues such as rent control, mobile-home development and the limitation of job growth must be considered.
The state of California has mandated that each city address its housing needs every 10 years as part of the Housing Element in the General Plan. The next report to the state is due next year.
The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is directed by the state to calculate the fair share of housing needed for very-low, low, moderate and above-moderate income levels for each of the cities and counties in the nine-county Bay Area.
The state provides some federal funds to communities through the Federal Community Development Block Grant.
Mountain View, Los Altos Hills and Los Altos each have different characteristics and different ways of meeting their challenges of affordable housing.
Mountain View, which has homes on quarter-acre lots as well as a multitude of apartment buildings, focuses on new apartments, condominiums, trailer parks and efficiency studios, Tondorf said.
Los Altos Hills which has large, expensive homes on minimum one-acre lots, addresses its affordable housing requirements through second units in existing homes; adapted pool houses or stables; and quarters for maids, gardeners and chauffeurs.
Los Altos, which combines large homes on quarter-acre lots with apartments in the downtown area, addresses its affordable housing requirements through apartments and some second units.
According to League member Peggy Tondorf, many of those who work as teachers, firemen, police officers and retail employees are finding it financially impossible to live in the communities where they work.
Tondorf noted a newly hired, starting teacher in one of the local school districts earns $37,400, which doesn’t come close to affording area rents.
“That’s why problems arise from not paying attention to affordable housing,” Tondorf said. A question-and-answer session will follow the discussion.
For more information, call the League office at 941-4846.
