REQUEST FOR CITY COUNCIL ACTION
DATE: 03/01/2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Planning & Development Department
SUBJECT:
Title
Zone Text Amendment 2023-0001 to Title 17 of the Corona Municipal Code to add Chapter 17.31 to establish regulations for an Affordable Housing Overlay Zone.
End
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This staff report asks the City Council to consider the approval of Zone Text Amendment 2023-0001 (ZTA2023-0001), which would add Chapter 17.31 to Title 17 of the Corona Municipal Code to establish regulations for an Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) zone. The AHO zone is being proposed to satisfy the City’s planning requirement of low- and moderate-income housing units required by the General Plan Housing Element. The AHO zone is an overlay zone and does not eliminate the underlying zoning on a property but does provide the flexibility to develop high density residential as a stand-alone project or as a mixed-use development that also consists of commercial. The AHO zone does required that at least 20 percent of the total residential units be set-aside for low-income housing units.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Recommended action
That the City Council:
a. Find that no additional environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is necessary because there are no changes to the project as analyzed in the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for the Corona Housing Element Rezoning Program.
b. Introduce by title only and waive full reading for consideration of Ordinance No. 3360, first reading of an ordinance adding Chapter 17.31 (Affordable Housing Overlay Zone) to Title 17 (Zoning) of the Corona Municipal Code to establish regulations for an Affordable Housing Overlay Zone (ZTA2023-001).
Body
BACKGROUND & HISTORY:
The City’s General Plan Housing Element contains goals and polices and housing programs to address the identified housing needs in the City. The City is required to make accommodations that would support the planning and development of housing and more importantly the availability of housing sites for persons with special needs and low and moderate-income households. Housing Program 7 of the Housing Element describes the City’s rezoning program, which requires the City to provide adequate sites that can be zoned to accommodate the development of housing to support low and moderate income households.
The City’s availability of vacant, undeveloped properties has decreased over the years due to development. It is also especially challenging to find properties suitable for higher density residential, which is crucial in planning enough sites to accommodate low- and moderate-income housing units. Sites suitable for low-income units must have a zoning and General Plan designation that allows a higher density of at least 30 dwelling units to the acre. The City’s rezoning program is intended to zone properties that would provide housing opportunities for high density residential that would support the development of low- and moderate-income housing units.
ANALYSIS:
The AHO zone is intended to facilitate and provide incentives for the development of multifamily housing for low- and moderate-income households that enable the City to meet its housing goals and ensure that affordable housing developments will be compatible with surrounding land uses by establishing appropriate development standards.
Affordable Housing Requirement
The AHO zone is an overlay zone that is intended to support the development of new residential units on properties that may not have been zoned to allow residential. The AHO zone does require that at least 20% of the total number of new residential units be set aside as affordable for low-income households.
Residential development would be allowed in a mixed-use development that contains a combination of multifamily family housing units and non-residential uses. Additionally, stand-alone multifamily residential development would also be allowed; meaning the site could be developed with 100% residential uses according to the provisions of the AHO zone.
The affordable housing units are required to be constructed concurrently with other housing units within a project, or prior to the construction of market rate units. If the housing project is constructed in phases, a proportionate number of affordable housing units shall be constructed within each phase concurrently with, or prior to, the construction of market rate units.
Development Standards and Design Guidelines
The City prepared as a separate document High Density Residential and Mixed Use Objective Development Standards and Design Guidelines that are to be applied to residential developments located in the AHO zone. Chapter 17.31 refers to these development standards and design guidelines, which are specifically intended to support the development of high density residential so that the required residential density for projects can be achieved.
The development standards and design guidelines ensure the review of projects remain objective based on the standards adopted by the City.
Approval Process
Residential projects located in the AHO zone are allowed by-right and are not subject to discretionary review. Since the City was not able to identify enough adequate sites within its sites inventory to accommodate the regional housing need for low-income housing units (Corona was allocated a Regional Housing Need of 2,792 low-income housing units), the City is required to rezone properties to meet an adequate inventory of sites. As part of Housing Program 7 (Rezoning Program) of the Housing Element and pursuant to Government Code Section 65583.2(h), the AHO zone will include by-right development for multifamily development that allows at least 20 percent of the units to be set aside for low-income households. Further, residential projects located in the AHO zone are required to adhere to the City’s objective development standards and design guidelines that were created for High Density Residential and Mixed-Use Developments.
Residential projects containing four or more units are required to follow the City’s Development Plan Review (DPR) process before building plans and grading plans are submitted to the Planning and Development Department. The City’s DPR process is a non-discretionary, pre-submittal process that gives staff the ability to review the project against the City’s ordinances. The process also provides applicants with the requirements that will be verified at the time of plan review for a permit. The purpose of the DPR process is to better facilitate the review of the plan check for building and grading permits.
Residential developments requiring a parcel map or tentative tract map are subject to discretionary review pursuant to Title 16 of the Corona Municipal Code. However, the review is limited to the subdivision being processed.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
ZTA2023-0001 is a city-initiated application. No application fee was paid to process this request.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS:
The City prepared a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Corona Housing Element Rezoning Program in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to evaluate potential environmental impacts associated with the implementation of the City of Corona General Plan Housing Element Rezoning Program Update Project. This document is prepared in conformance with CEQA (California PRC Section 21000, et seq.) and the CEQA Guidelines (California Code of Regulations [CCR], Title 14, Section 15000, et seq.). The Supplemental EIR adequately addresses impacts from minor changes to the Corona General Plan Technical Update 2020 Final EIR certified on June 3, 2020, by the City Council. As required by CEQA, the Supplemental EIR only contains information necessary to analyze the project modifications, changed circumstances, or new information that triggered the need for additional environmental review. The Supplemental EIR only contains the information necessary to make the previous EIR adequate for the project as revised. The Supplemental EIR indicated that the Housing Element Rezoning Program will not result in impacts not already identified in the Corona General Plan Technical Update 2020 Final EIR.
PLANNING AND HOUSING COMMISSION ACTION:
At its meeting of January 23, 2023, the Planning and Housing Commission considered the subject matter and took the following action:
Motion was made, seconded (Alexander/Sherman) and carried unanimously, that the Planning and Housing Commission recommend approval of ZTA2023-0001 to the City Council, based on the findings contained in the staff report and find that no additional environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is necessary because there are no changes to the project as analyzed in the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for the Corona Housing Element Rezoning Program. The minutes of the Planning and Housing Commission meeting are included as Exhibit 3.
PREPARED BY: JOANNE COLETTA, PLANNING & DEVEOPMENT DIRECTOR
Attachments:
1. Exhibit 1 - Ordinance No. 3360
2. Exhibit 2 - Planning and Housing Commission Staff Report
3. Exhibit 3 - Minutes of the Planning and Housing Commission meeting of January 23, 2023