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By Elijah McKee
Photo: CC by NC via Bing
February 15, 2022 (La Mesa) — This past September, the State of California passed a pivotal housing law called Senate Bill 9. Now, like many localities around the state, the City of La Mesa is charged with considering how to best implement the legislation with local ordinances — such as the one that passed the City Council last Tuesday night.
S.B. 9 lays the foundation for subdividing single-unit lots into two-unit lots, such as duplexes or Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), in an effort to address the statewide housing shortage. The bill became official law as of January 1, 2022 and La Mesa’s ordinance will become effective on March 8, 2022.
“S.B. 9 is going to allow increased density and intensity on single-family residential lots,” explained Kerry Kusiak, La Mesa Director of Community Development, to the City Council and public attending the virtual meeting.
“The ordinance is a way to help provide citizens information about what S.B. 9 is,” he continued, “as well as including some provisions to put some controls on it, to ensure that the intensity of development adjacent to existing residential residences is limited.”
Kusiak also noted that S.B. 9 developments can count toward La Mesa’s minimum mandates for providing housing, which are set by the state’s Housing Element law and the Regional Housing Needs Allocation. This minimum is currently at 3,800 units between 2021 and 2029, spanning a spectrum of affordability.
The draft ordinance, viewable here, primarily deals with which urban lots can be split, how to split them, what can be built on them and where to build, as well as other issues such as parking.
“The City of La Mesa doesn’t have a lot of say in this,” clarified Councilmember Laura Lothian. “It sounds to me, what we’re trying to do is tighten the impact of it, but our hands are tied. We can’t sit there and reject it.”
An example of such an increase in local control can be read under Section 3, letter E of the ordinance.
There, it states that two-unit residential development is prohibited if it would require demolishing or altering rent controlled housing, or if it would require demolishing or altering “housing that has been occupied by a tenant in the last three years.”
In addition, designated historic sites, plus already subdivided lots, will be protected under the ordinance. People already involved in splitting up any adjacent land parcel will also be prohibited from further subdividing.
While the ordinance does contain checks and balances like these, there is not a vast amount of wiggle room for local governments. They are required to “ministerially consider” the law in some form, according to Kusiak.
The impending changes have some La Mesans concerned about how their homes and neighborhoods may be affected.
“There’s been a grave underestimation of the influence of outside investors,” voiced an anonymous resident on Tuesday about S.B 9, “and poor consideration given to the negative impact to California individual homeowners and residents.”
Residents’ concerns ranged from the power that developers and corporations have in this field, to the potential problems for easement holders such as altered utilities and driveways and the timeline of implementing the ordinance.
“La Mesa voters really need more time to properly research this bill,” said one resident.
However, with the City being required to act by the state legislation, the motion was made to vote on the local ordinance. It carried by a vote of four to one, with Mayor Mark Arapostathis, who gave no comment on the matter during the meeting, casting the sole “no” vote.
It’s clear that East County, let alone California, needs more housing. Yet actually achieving that may take compromises, as well as reactive measures like this ordinance, so that lawmakers and residents alike can support lasting change that works for as many people as possible.
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