A series of required zoning changes kicked off a wide-ranging discussion about housing needs in San Juan Capistrano on Tuesday, April 4.
The City Council unanimously approved rezoning changes to incorporate an update to the city’s Housing Element and General Plan—which serves as the municipal blueprint—as legally required by the state every eight years.
The rezoning variously permits the possibility of more housing at Oso Ranch behind Fairmont Schools and The Shea Center, San Juan Plaza south of Trader Joe’s, and in the Costco Plaza. The land-use amendments do not automatically guarantee new housing will be built at the sites or require cities to develop housing themselves.
No housing developments are currently planned at any of the three sites. Any proposed developments would have to go through the city’s review process, which would include hearings before city government boards.
The California state government regularly requires every municipality to demonstrate they have the capacity to accommodate enough housing as needed and time goes on. San Juan’s updated Housing Element, approved by the state in 2022, provides theoretical capacity for 1,266 housing units spread throughout town.
The Regional Housing Needs Assessment, or RHNA for short, also specifies that housing units must accommodate various income levels, including for very-low-income, low-income, and moderate-income. Very-low-income is considered less than 50% of Orange County’s annual median income of $119,000, while low-income is within 51% to 80% of that figure.
“I’m a big fan of the RHNA process for one reason, and that is, it gives us numbers and leaves the cities the authority to tell us how to do it,” Mayor Howard Hart said. “There are a lot of things coming from the state that aren’t allowing us cities that ability. They’re telling us not only what to do, but how to do it.”
“RHNA is not one of those,” Hart continued. “Because we have very competent city staff, and we were able to get our RHNA numbers approved by the state, we’re not now forced to do this builder’s remedy, which not only tells us what we have to do but takes away our ability to (do so).”
Councilmember John Campbell said he supported mechanisms that facilitate more housing.
“It’s important to support very-low-income and moderate, low-income homes for families,” Campbell said. “One thing I want to point out is the fact that there’s this element, but it doesn’t mean there’s 450 or 300 homes that are being proposed that will all be very-low-income homes. These are thriving communities being built with a lot of different financial strata.”
Laura Stokes, the senior planner for the city, said the local Costco is “not intended to be touched at all” when explaining the rezoning measures during Tuesday’s meeting.
“The proposal is for the southern three parcels within the Costco Plaza to be modified to specific plan/precise plan,” Stokes said.
Oso Ranch is a vacant 44-acre, privately owned site that has trails going through it. The property owner of the San Juan Plaza has expressed interest over the past few years in redevelopment, incorporating mixed use, Stokes said.
City Manager Ben Siegel said there can be “significant penalties” if cities do not abide by the state’s mandated updates.
“The state can sue cities,” Siegel said. “The state can withhold housing dollars. There are multiple and severe penalties.”
Huntington Beach is battling with the state and could face penalties for not currently having a state-certified housing plan in place. Huntington Beach City Councilmembers voted, 4-3, against approving a plan.
Residents spoke about their reactions to the rezoning and general perspectives on housing needs during Tuesday’s meeting. Elaine Gomez said she was concerned about the Costco Plaza rezoning.
“My first concern is that the proposal indicates up to 60 units per acre or, as listed on page three of said proposal, 142 units were to be built,” Gomez said. “This is an average of three people per unit, which averages approximately 100 children or more for the 142-(unit) complex. These children will be subjected to the traffic in the already crowded Costco parking lot. Will there be a safe place for these children to play?”
Miriam Zuñiga, a lead facilitator for the Community Leader Coalition—a local group that advocates for the Capistrano Villas and Hispanic community—said she supported the rezoning and more affordable housing in the city.
“These accommodations will benefit many of San Juan’s hard-working families,” Zuñiga said.
San Juan city staff and officials have been working on the Housing Element and General Plan updates for the past two years, which councilmembers mentioned on Tuesday. The updates and sites have been discussed during prior City Council meetings and public workshops.
“We looked everywhere, every piece of property, to distribute housing throughout our community in the most fair and equitable way, from the north end of town to the south end of town,” Councilmember John Taylor said. “This potential zoning is not, at this point, even dreamed up. We don’t even know what they’ll be. They have to go through the planning process.”
“There’s development standards and parking standards and landscaping and play areas for kids and parking and all sorts of things that might be dealt with in the future,” Taylor added. “At this point in time, we’re really just kind of creating a canvas. There’s some possibility out there that these areas could be housing, from very-low-income up to moderate-income.”
Mayor Pro Tem Sergio Farias said a future City Council will be “back at this in a couple more years” and could consider other sites for the next update.
“You’re seeing our state take action, because, in fact, there’s an article recently regarding Orange County cities. I think about half of them don’t have an approved Housing Element. We do,” Farias said. “I thank our staff for getting us there and this council. We looked at different areas in the city.”
San Juan has shown what affordable housing can look like with The Groves, a new affordable housing complex for senior citizens built near JSerra Catholic High School, Farias said.
“I think it’s one of the better-looking buildings in the city,” Farias said. “I look forward to meeting future residents at our City Hall site.”
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