55 PERCENT SOLUTION:

The City of Goleta received a letter from the State of
California that developers hope will put the kibosh on the city’s
strict building constraints. The new city’s interim policies and
its draft general plan demand that 30 to 55 percent of newly built
condos – depending on the site – be designated as affordable to
people with low incomes. Critics complained the true intent of this
policy was not to encourage affordability but to stymie new housing
developments. Stopping short of forbidding the city from requiring
such a high percentage of below-market units, the state’s critique
demanded that the city create convincing developer incentives,
unambiguous building guidelines, and automatic approval procedures
to assure that the housing will actually be built.