Lompoc is in the middle of the General Plan Housing Element Update. This update is to set the vision of what Lompoc’s housing should look like over the next 8 years. It is THE vision document.
What makes this more complicated is that the state is mandating a minimum number of houses being planned and for Lompoc that is several thousand units, with a good portion of that being low-income.
Recently Lompoc city officials made a pitch to a regional government agency to allow us to put badly needed new houses on the west side. One of the reasons they turned us down was that our city could meet the state-mandated housing needs (RHNA). They came to this conclusion by looking at our, soon to be approved, general plan housing element.
This report shows we can meet the numbers through infill and increases in density.
In the last cycle, Lompoc’s total RHNA requirements were 527 units of which approximately 200 had to be low or very low-income units. We never met that goal. For this cycle, we have to create a mind-boggling 2,248 units with over 500 of them in the lower income brackets.
If you believe the Housing Element update, there are over 900 units already scheduled to be developed in the next few years. But recent city changes have allowed developers to pay a fee versus building low-income, so we still have to come up with the 500 low-income units.
To further stretch the credibility of this plan, here are a few of infill items being planned to meet these state requirements:
- Replace over a dozen existing parking lots with 217 units. It was not long ago you could not build anything without lots of parking, now we are going to fill them in.
- Put 48 units on the La Honda School property.
- Put 34 units on Elk’s property. Wonder if the Elks want that.
- Replace about 28 Single family homes with 249 Units. Increasing density by 10 x is always good for the quality of life.
Also, to increase our housing density we will eliminate:
- The Half Century Club
- The Grange Hall
- The Car Wash and PJs
- At least one Church and multiple business locations.
The Housing Element as planned is a fool’s dream full of false promises. Isn’t it time that we stand up and say no and tell the state that this is ridiculous? That we will not approve a plan that destroys our way of life to meet arbitrary, nonsensical housing requirements. It is time to stand up and say the emperor has no clothes.
If you agree contact your city council representative and let them know your feelings.
https://envisionlompoc.com/
