Affordable Rental Rate Sparks Disagreement

A scaled-back residential development has won praise from neighbors, but some city officials say rents will be allowed to climb too high in the project’s affordable housing units.

Fifty-three single-family homes are planned for the Oceancrest development, on the northwest corner of Palm Avenue and Seapoint Street. The project had been approved for 252 townhomes, but the changing real estate market persuaded developers that they should build single-family homes instead, city planners said.

The development plans were approved by the City Council this week.

The larger project required that 106 of the townhomes have rents within affordable housing guidelines. The new, 53-home development will create 18 affordable housing units at another location.

City planners asked council members to change the affordable housing formula so that the maximum rents permitted would range from $650 to $1,226 a month. But the Planning Commission already had approved a formula that would allow monthly rents to reach a maximum of $1,200 to $1,600. Initial rents are expected to be lower.

“Affordable housing is not $1,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment,” Councilman Dave Garofalo said.

Garofalo and council members Shirley S. Dettloff and Dave Sullivan voted against the higher affordable housing rates.

Before joining the majority in the 4-3 vote, Councilman Tom Harman said it was too late in the process to change the deal that developers thought they had already made with the city.

Before construction can begin, the development must win approval from the California Coastal Commission.