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Crescent City and Del Norte County will need enough land available to accommodate a total of 575 units in order to meet the community’s housing needs over the next eight years.

The county will need to accommodate a projected 386 units outside Crescent City limits, according to the county’s 6th Cycle Housing Element draft. Of that total, more than 40 percent of those units will need to accommodate low-income individuals and families.

This represents an increase of about 153 units from projections outlined in Del Norte County’s previous housing element, written in 2014. But it’s an increase that’s being felt statewide, according to Ryan Lester, an associate planner with Sacramento-based Mintier Harnish.

“Every jurisdiction in the state has seen an increase in line with this so it’s not out of the ordinary,” Lester told county supervisors Tuesday, adding that the land can be vacant or underutilized. “And luckily, while other jurisdictions may really be struggling to provide that capacity, the county has plenty of capacity.”

Lester and his colleague, Brent Gibbons, have been working with the Del Norte County Community Development Department and Arcata-based PlanWest Partners to develop the county’s 6th Cycle Housing Element. This document provides an assessment of the community’s current and future housing needs projected until 2030. It also identifies opportunities and barriers to housing development and establishes goals, policies and programs to address them.

According to Lester, the draft 6th Cycle Housing Element presented to the Board of Supervisors was developed following two community workshops, stakeholder interviews and a hearing before the Del Norte County Planning Commission. The county has kept the community updated through a website, housingdelnorte.com, newsletters, social media outreach and stakeholder interviews as well, he said.

A revised version of the Housing Element based on input from the Board of Supervisors, planning commissioners and public will be available on the project website before it’s submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for review.

After HCD representatives comment, the updated Housing Element will go back before the planning commissioners and county supervisors for further comment and adoption, Lester said.

The Housing Element also includes an inventory of sites in Del Norte County that could accommodate up to or beyond 15 units per acre — the “default density standard” set forth in state law for a county the size of Del Norte.

“That land may be developed for much lower than that — you’re just allowing for it,” Lester told supervisors. “The reality of development will still dictate what happens there.”

To Community Development Director Heidi Kunstal, the projected increase in housing units needed through 2030 could also be a result of the county choosing to update its Housing Element every eight years rather than every five years.

Kunstal said the county chose to have update its Housing Element based on updates to the county’s Regional Transportation Plan, which is adopted by the Del Norte Local Transportation Commission.

One component of the 6th Cycle Housing Element will be looking at ways to streamline the permitting process to remove some of the discretionary layers, Kunstal said.

“You may have to go to the Planning Commission now to get approval to do something housing-related,” she said. “In a specific zoning district, this (update) may allow you to go through an over-the-counter process and not have to go through a discretionary process.”

According to Lester, whose presentation included an example of comments from the public and the county planning commission, one barrier to affordable housing in the county may be the number of vacation rentals.

According to the public review draft of the 2022-2030 housing element, which uses data from the American Community Survey, there are 1,254 vacant units in Del Norte County as of 2019. Of that number, 419 are classified as occasional use, which includes seasonal, vacation and recreational type uses.

Other concerns planning commissioners raised included the timing of water and sewer connection fees. According to Lester, they were concerned that the requirement that those fees be paid upfront in the development process could be a barrier to housing, though Lester pointed out that the city collects those fees.

On Tuesday, District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey asked Lester to reiterate that just because the Housing Element states the county would need to provide land for 386 housing units, doesn’t mean that land would be developed.

“After one public meeting, now I’m getting bombarded with the Mary Peacock site, that’s Site 9” Starkey said, referring to 21.75 acres of vacant land near Arlington Drive and W. Washington Boulevard. “That we are going to put apartment complexes on there for 1,200 people and we’re importing people in from Los Angeles to live there. I just wanted to really make sure that we’re clear what the purpose of this is and that is to identify potential land to meet our needs, which you are saying is 386 units within next eight years.”

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard also brought up state law in 2019 concerning accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, which are also known as mother-in-law units or granny flats and asked how they fit into the Housing Element.

Lester said while the Housing Element is able to use accessory dwelling units to meet the community’s regional housing needs allocation, the county’s ordinance needs to be updated based on new state law.

That update is something Lester and Gibbons are working on.

“Several changes have come about since 2019,” Gibbons said. “ADUs are now allowed on multi-family properties — there’s a whole host of new exceptions.”

Kunstal said though the county’s ADU ordinance isn’t up to date, staff follows state laws when the public asks about them.

“When a local ordinance has been replaced by state law, that’s what we’re going to follow,” Kunstal told the Outpost on Wednesday. “There are multiple pieces of legislation related to ADUs and as soon as we go through the process to amend (the ordinance) it was already changed.”

According to Kunstal, the Housing Element and the report that outlines the county’s proposed policies will be available at housingdelnorte.com for comment for 10 days before it’s sent to HCD, which initiates a 90-day review process.

Del Norte’s 6th Cycle Housing Element is expected to be certified by Sept. 15, she said.

Documents:

• Housing Element Public Review Draft

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