Opinion: Eastern valley generous with affordable housing
January 31, 2006 3:17 PM
I would like to respond to Santa Barbara city Housing Authority
Commissioner Catherine Woodford's Friday letter to the editor. She
accuses eastern Goleta Valley residents of "selfish planning." The
facts, though, paint quite a different picture. Ms. Woodford rightly praises Santa Barbara city and its residents for their inventory of 3,000 units of affordable housing.However,
when it comes to affordable housing on a per capita basis, the eastern
Goleta Valley (Noleta) surpasses its neighbor to the east by double.The
eastern Goleta Valley has a population of 32,000 residents with over
2,000 affordable housing units -- 1,500 rent-controlled mobile homes
and a combined 557 subsidized rentals and inclusionary houses. This
compares with Santa Barbara's 3,000 affordable units for its 100,000
population. The residents of the eastern Goleta Valley are providing
one affordable unit for every 16 people. This is the highest per capita
contribution to affordable housing anywhere on the South Coast
including the city of Santa Barbara, which provides one affordable unit
for every 33 people.Ms. Woodford mentions potential housing
sites in the eastern Goleta Valley and insinuates insensitivity by its
citizens to work force housing. Again, she lacks facts. County
government is asking the eastern Goleta Valley to suggest sites for
rezoning to high-density housing to satisfy the state housing mandate.What
Ms. Woodford does not realize is there is no provision by the state to
produce affordable work force housing on these sites. Sacramento says
developers may sell the homes at market.Consequently, residents
in the valley would have to accept the impacts from densification while
gaining no social benefit or corresponding increase in infrastructure
to ease the effects of growth.In addition, most potential
housing sites in the eastern Goleta Valley currently are zoned for
agriculture and are supporting working farms. We could use the produce
from this land to sustain some of our population in the event of a
natural disaster.Do we want to lose productive urban agriculture
so developers can plow the land for houses? Most would consider this to
be poor crop rotation.The residents of the eastern Goleta Valley
support a housing market that encompasses all income levels and are
working on an update of their community plan to accomplish this goal.Ann Crosby is with the Coalitionfor Sensible Planning.Ann Crosby
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