Despite concerns over a lack of affordable housing in Santa Maria, city planners are moving ahead in converting the last land zoned for mobile homes into a residential area for nearly 300 single-family residences.
The project, known as Heritage at Westgate Ranch, would be located west of Blosser Road, north of Battles Road, south of La Brea Avenue, and east of A Street. Developer Martin Farrell Homes originally planned 375 modular homes on the site—a project called Mattei’s Landing—in 2006. The revised plan calls for a gated community of 296 site-built homes and a private park to be constructed on 53 acres.
Jon Martin of Martin Farrell Homes blamed the housing market drop and the perceived inferior quality
of modular homes—as generated by local focus groups—for the change.
“It wasn’t any less expensive to build manufactured homes,” Martin said. “Therefore, the notion of more affordability with a manufactured home just didn’t play out in the real world. It’s just not true.”
In the original plan, Martin said, land would have been leased, not owned—a compelling option when housing prices were higher, but in a down market, it no longer made sense to buyers.
The rezoning comes amid concerns from public officials over a lack of affordable housing in Santa Barbara County. Due to the housing market collapse, the state recently lowered its affordable housing mandates for the county from 6,000 units for the period from 2003 to 2008 to 1,017 units for the current five-year period.
The Planning Commission recommended the Westgate Ranch change on Sept. 1. The vote went 4-1, with Chairman Rodger Brown and commissioners Michael Moats, Richard Quandt, and Tom Lopez voting in favor, and Commissioner Adrian Andrade dissenting.
At the meeting, planners said altering the only remaining area in the city zoned for a mobile home park would present a “loss of diversity” in housing types.
According to Andrade, the city’s general plan
requires housing for all income levels and, he said, the commission has the responsibility to “be vigilant” in following that policy.
“We have a number of mobile home parks within the city limits and just outside the city limits,” Andrade said. “They really provide a great service. They handle a number of people, the costs are less, and as our population grows older, there are areas for our senior citizens to reside.”
Andrade said a mobile home park would have alleviated at least one major problem in the city—overcrowding in homes. He pointed to nearby Westgate Courtyards—a subsidized apartment complex with a waiting list—and a neighborhood near the planned development where construction halted, as proof of the need for more affordable housing.
Developer Martin called the new plan an “enhanced version” of the original project. The purpose of the zoning change, he said, is to allow for site-built homes, not to build larger, more expensive ones.
“I’m not proposing a change in diversity of housing,” Martin said. “I’m simply wanting to use one method of construction versus another method of construction. The price point and the offering is essentially the same.”
With homes ranging from $225,000 to $300,000, the site-built homes would be only slightly more expensive than modular units, which would have cost about $200,000, Martin said.
“We’re going to build the same kind of housing, targeted toward the same buyer profile as we were before,” he said. “We’re just trying to make the product more compelling to [buyers] and have them feel like they’re getting more for their money than the old plan.”
Andrade said he never saw evidence site-built homes would be cheaper to build, and called the odds of the
city adding more land zoned for mobile homes in the future “very slim.”
If approved by the City Council, Martin said construction on the multi-year development could begin as soon as late 2011, depending on the strength of the housing market.
“We’ve gone into what some people might call a
‘second dip’ on housing here, where it was looking strong and now it’s looking weaker again,” he said. “My expectation is by the end of the year it’s going to start looking strong again.”
Targeted toward young families, Heritage will offer five floor plans ranging from 900 to 2,500 square-feet. Homeowners will also have the option of choosing pre-planned add-ons.
The project will require amendments to zoning segments of the city’s Blosser-Southwest Specific Plan, which the City Council adopted in 1994. The council was scheduled to vote on the zoning change during the first of two required hearings on Sept. 21, but action on a conditional use permit for the development won’t take place until the Oct. 20 Planning Commission meeting.
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas can be contacted at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 23-30, 2010.