A draft plan that would meet state mandates for housing by allocating a larger share of new units to the South Coast, especially Santa Barbara, was approved Thursday by the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments.

Under the proposed Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) allocations, Santa Barbara would get 4,388 residential units out of 11,600 the state says Santa Barbara County must plan for between now and 2014.

The city of Goleta would be earmarked for 1,641 units, Carpinteria for 305 units and the unincorporated areas of the South Coast for 291 units.

Santa Maria city, which accepted a lion's share - 4,837 units - when the RHNA allocations were last calculated in 2002, would get 3,199 units this time around. Lompoc city would get 516 units, Buellton 279 and Solvang 170.

Of the units allocated to each area, about 40 percent on average would need to be affordably priced for very low- and low-income buyers or renters under state mandates.

The California Department of Housing and

Community Development is requiring that 11,600 units be planned for countywide through the year 2014, even though some of that housing might not be built by then.

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The allocations approved Thursday by the SBCAG board, on a 9-3 vote, now will undergo review and hearings by each of the affected cities and county government. Final allocations probably won't be adopted by the board until this fall.

South Coast communities ended up with a larger share of units because there was more emphasis on putting new homes where jobs currently exist. Under the original scenario, projections for new jobs and population growth were the predominant factors in the equation for calculating where units should be planned.

The new approach drew strong objections Thursday from Santa Barbara City Councilman Roger Horton, that city's alternate representative on the SBCAG board.

“We concur with the concept of shifting responsibility to plan for housing to cities, and that the South County should take its share,” he said. “However, we do remain very concerned about the magnitude of the shift, and question the fairness of the allocations as proposed, especially with respect to the city of Santa Barbara.”

Santa Maria Mayor Larry Lavagnino responded that his city absorbed an inordinate number of RHNA units in 2002, and more than twice as many as the 2,333 units assigned then to Santa Barbara.

“The actual imbalance is people living in Santa Maria and working in Santa Barbara,” he asserted. “I think there is fairness in the allocations here today.”

The dissenting votes were cast by Horton and county Supervisors Salud Carbajal and Janet Wolf.

All of the proposed allocations are well within the numbers of new units allowed by existing general plans for each community, except Santa Barbara, officials said.

Chuck Schultz can be reached at 925-2691, Ext. 2241, or cschultz@santamariatimes.com.

April 18, 2008