Following the environmental impact report meeting last year, the local housing development plan has moved forward and was discussed by our city’s planning commission. I made a point to come in person to see how the city was handling the approval process.

I had to miss part of the meeting, but the city makes the complete meeting available on YouTube which I think is great for transparency. We had received a letter in the mail about the meeting, but the communication left a lot to be desired. It was only sent out in english which seems problematic in a neighborhood that is half hispanic or latino. I know the lack of Spanish written communication was brought up with the city at the previous meeting so it’s unfortunate that they haven’t addressed that. Secondly, the letter referenced external documents via long URLs in a written document. As a web developer it pains me to think that we are still forcing people to write out 100 character URLs by hand. There should be a short URl which includes all of the relevant links in printed communication and possibly a QR code to make it easier to access on mobile.

Planning commission process

The commission meeting took place in city hall. We’ve passed by the building many times downtown but it was a new experience coming inside. The room for the meeting was clearly specially designed for these processes. The council members sat around a semicircle shaped desk and podiums for presentations and community comments. The seats in the room were set up like a auditorium with a sloping floor and rows that curved around the panel. But the room felt smaller than I expected, I’m sure most meetings don’t get many attendees, but a hot button issue would easily fill the room.

The atmosphere was split. The council members and the representatives of the developer seemed comfortable and ready for business. The community members seemed on-edge and concerned about how things would go. I also noticed a couple high school aged attendees with papers for an apparent civics class assignment.

The meeting worked through it’s agenda items slowly, I overheard some attendees talking about how long past meetings had gone. It was one commissioner’s first meeting as a member. A lot of time was spent hearing community feedback on the Eddie Jones project near the airport. Comments were limited to 3 minutes each and they seemed well organized. I think 20 people had signed up to speak. Most had written comments printed out and referenced sending them in. Some people showed charts on a projector. That project seemed a lot larger than our neighborhood’s, with a large warehouse planned that would bring lots of truck traffic and noise.

Pacifica Elementary Rezoning

Fewer community members were there to discuss the pacifica elementary development.

One man who runs an after school program nearby discussed his long history living nearby. The area has had it’s issues with crime in the past, he had a friend who was shot on the property. He advocated that the city should provide community resources and low income housing. Talked about how the property was the community park, separate from the parks that are nearby but more accessible to other neighborhoods. Many people brought up traffic concerns.

Commission actions

The commission thanked the community for their input, but seemed pleased with the proposed project.

Commissioner Malik Blamed the school district Recognized the need for infrastructure maintenance

Commissioner Balma Considers this affordable “workforce” housing Concerns about subletting to multiple residents

Chair Rosales “Quality project”

Vice Chair Morrissey Motion to recommend approval of zoning change Commissioner Balma seconded with a comment about the quality of the development plan compared to others. Passed unanimous 6-0.

Reaction

Following the meeting, there were a few neighborhood residents hanging out in the hall. Many were upset about the way the council moved forward and were trying to organize before the issue was brought to the city council in December.

My own reaction is mixed. I do wish that the city would invest in the community rather than ofloading the property to a developer. However I don’t see the city making that kind of investment anytime soon. I tend to agree that housing is sorely needed so I’m open to adding more homes, but I do have concerns. In particular, the number of units could have a big impact on traffic in a geographically bottlenecked neighborhood which could be problematic both for daily activity and in an emergency.

I think the proposal seems reasonable and they’ve done more effort than I would have expected at community engagement and the quality seems respectable. I did notice that the chosen design of living quarters over a garage is less accessible for people with mobility issues living alone. They said they meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act by having a ground floor bedroom on the largest units but those would only work for someone living with others.