General Plan update report shows Simi falling short of housing needs goals
More than half of units built in '07 were for abovemoderateincome families
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

The city of Simi Valley met about half of its goal last year in terms of providing new housing units in the community, according to a recently submitted Simi Valley General Plan annual progress report.

Out of the 349 dwelling units completed in 2007, 131 were for moderate-income families, 183 were for abovemoderateincome families and 35 were for lowincome families. No housing was completed for families in the very low-income range.

Rob Bruce, deputy director of housing and special projects with the city of Simi Valley, said that while the city only completed 53 percent of what they had hoped to build, Simi is still doing very well compared to other cities.

"It's a very challenging thing to do, but we've always been able to nearly accomplish our goals," Bruce said. "In the near future it will be even more challenging given the current economy."

In 2006, the Southern California Association of Governments published a statemandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment establishing benchmarks in building new housing in Ventura County.

The RHNA allocation for Simi Valley is to have 3,383 new housing units by June 2014.

Based on RHNA numbers, Simi Valley is required by the state to set self-imposed goals of what the city anticipates can be reasonably built in coming years.

Using new development data from prior years, the city set a goal of 656 new units for 2007.

"The city ends up with a target," Bruce said. "We have to plan for a certain number of units to be built. But nobody can control the private sector and the economy. Right now, developers aren't interested in building new housing."

Bruce said the state acknowledges the economy's impact on new housing development and that there's no consequence to not meeting their goals.

"There are only consequences for not planning to meet the goal," he said.

Every five years, the city of Simi Valley updates its development goals in the housing element of the General Plan.

The document demonstrates all the ways the city plans to bring affordable housing to the community, Bruce said.

The last review of the housing element was originally due in 2006, but the deadline was extended to June 30, 2008 to allow Simi to coordinate it with the current comprehensive update of the General Plan- which was initiated by the city in January 2007.

With Simi Valley nearing complete buildout in accordance with the General Plan, Bruce said, the city will soon have to consider reusing land in older neighborhoods, industrial sites and commercial centers to build additional housing.

"That's a big part of the exercise," Bruce said. "Without being creative with re-use, we may never be able to build another unit after a certain amount of time. As the community continues to grow, there needs to be affordable housing available."

In 2007, homes priced below $120,000 were considered affordable for very-low-income households.

Homes priced between $120,000 and $220,000 were in the low-income category, and those priced between $220,000 and $375,000 were in the moderate-income category. Any homes priced above $375,000 were in the abovemoderateincome category.

Nearly 14 percent- 89 units- of the city's 2007 housing goal was in the verylowincome and lowincome categories.

Of those subcategories, 55 were goaled for very-low-income households but none were built, according to the progress report.

"The opportunities just didn't present themselves this year," Bruce said. "Verylowincome housing is the most difficult to obtain. We need to find a developer that's working on a product that makes sense for the city to go in there and subsidize.

"We've had them in previous years and we'll have them again. We just didn't have them this time," he said.