Annual Progress Report Shows Dana Point Remains Short of Meeting Housing Needs

BY BREEANA GREENBERG

As cities across California prepare reports on the effectiveness of their housing programs and progress toward meeting their housing goals ahead of the state’s April 1 deadline, Dana Point’s progress report shows that the city remains short of meeting its allocated share of regional housing needs.

One year into the current planning cycle, the City of Dana Point remains 214 units short of its very-low- and low-income housing needs and 228 units short of its moderate- and above-moderate housing needs, according to the city’s annual housing progress report.

The current planning period runs from 2021-2029, giving the city roughly six more years to work toward meeting its housing needs.

Dana Point Principal Planner Belinda Deines emphasized that the city is “focused on maintaining a variety of programs that facilitate housing development at all income levels.”

“We are committed to streamlining processes and eliminating barriers for residential construction,” Deines said in an email. “Our challenge is reallocating staff time and resources to accommodate updating the City’s Municipal Code in compliance with several complex changes in State law every year.”

Cities must annually submit progress reports to the state’s Housing and Community Development Department (HCD) by April, showing their progress toward housing goals outlined in each city’s Housing Element.

The goals in the annual report include the city’s progress toward meeting its needs for very-low-, low-, moderate-, and above-moderate-income housing units, as well as the status of housing programs that the city has implemented.

Based on HCD’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), the Southern California Association of Governments allocates a number of housing units that each county and city must plan for during a housing cycle. For the current planning cycle, Dana Point was assigned 530 units.

Of those 530 units, 231 of them, or 43%, must be designated very-low- and bring a big truck that manually sucks out the sewage and allows us to take it to a new location to prevent any sort of backup, or in the worst-case scenario, a spill,” SMWD Public Information Manager Nicole Stanfield said.

“As they were doing that, they reviewed all the plans to see where they should take that flow, using this truck to suck it out and take it somewhere else,” Stanfield continued. “They decided to put it in a nearby manhole and unfortunately, the crew found out that the sewer they were discharging into was not connected to the rest of the sewer system.”

With the pipeline not connected to the sewer system, the sewage ended up spilling into the nearby outfall.

“So, the pipeline was constructed several years ago, and it was never connected to the rest of the system,” Stanfield said. “This is unfortunately part of learning a new system.” low-income housing, 101 must be moderate-income housing, and 198 must be above-moderate-income housing.

The City of San Juan Capistrano transferred its water and sewer utility to SMWD in November 2021. Though the water district has worked to map the city’s sewer system, “we haven’t got every inch of it yet, and unfortunately, this was one that we hadn’t had a chance to see,” Stanfield explained.

Stanfield added that as soon as the water district was aware of a spill occurring, SMWD reported it immediately.

Stanfield added that in the aftermath of the spill, the water district has noted that that manhole “goes nowhere,” and it will evaluate whether it makes sense to connect the pipeline to the sewer system.

Though cities must show in their Housing Element that they can accommodate projected housing demands over the eight-year planning period, they are not required to ever build any of those units. However, through the Housing Element, cities must include programs that facilitate development.

In 2022, 35 units were issued building permits by the City of Dana Point, with a total of 49 units receiving permits in the current planning cycle.

During her presentation on March 21, Deines explained that “the only affordable housing units built so far have been ADUs (accessory dwelling units).”

Deines also noted that the city anticipates minor updates to its emergency shelter parking requirements, the construction of manufactured homes, supportive housing and low-barrier navigation shelters, as well as revisions to the ADU, density bonus and group homes ordinances to comply with changes to state law.

In the annual progress report, the city also committed to working with the Orange County Housing Authority and coordinating with Orange County United Way’s WelcomeHomeOC program to aid families using housing vouchers.

In 2022, 20 OC Housing Authority tenants used housing choice vouchers in Dana Point, with an additional five vouchers issued to Dana Point residents last year.

Additionally, 22 Dana Point hotel employees received rental subsidies last year. According to the annual progress report, the city will “consider expansion of (the) program to apply toward development of new hotels.”

Dana Point is working with the Orange County Council of Governments (OCCOG) to develop the Density Bonus Ordinance, which aims to encourage future housing projects to provide affordable housing. According to a staff report, the city received no requests for density bonuses in 2022.

The city is also working on updating its accessory dwelling unit ordinance to reflect new state law. It will collaborate with the OCCOG to create an ADU tool kit.

The tool kit will include “community outreach templates, website materials and planning counter templates,” according to the staff report.

Dana Point received 15 applications for ADUs in 2022 and issued three building permits and 11 certificates of occupancy.