Finances and housing were two of the big-ticket items that recently came before the Guadalupe City Council in both public and closed-session meetings.
At the council’s May 13 meeting, City Manager Andrew Carter presented the council with a grim city budget forecast that predicts a $185,000 general fund deficit for the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
The council held a closed-session meeting on May 19 to discuss the “threat to public services or facilities” posed by the deficit. Carter said he expects the council to discuss potential revenue solutions at its next meeting.
“Our true issue is that we don’t really have a tax revenue,” Carter said, adding that most other cities on the Central Coast rely on tourism and hotel and sales taxes to boost their coffers.
“Most people say the solution is for government to operate without the frills, but the city of Guadalupe is no-frills,” he said. “It already operates to the bones.”
Also on May 13, the nonprofit Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) presented plans for a low-income, multi-family apartment complex it wants to build on land near 11th Street and Simas Road.
Carter said organizations like CEDC present their concepts during public hearings “to see if the council would at least consider” them.
According to city documents, CEDC is proposing a rezone of approximately 3.12 acres on 11th Street from R-1 to R-2 zoning, which would increase the allowed housing density from five units per acre to 12 units per acre. The land is currently home to a storage yard and a foreclosed upon home.
Carter said, based on comments made by the council at the hearing, a majority of members seem to be supportive of the project.
“Of course, it’s not binding,” he said, adding that the next step for CEDC is to submit a formal application.
He said there’s a demand for more low-income housing in the area.
“We certainly are the most demographically challenged community in Santa Barbara County—and San Luis Obispo County for that matter,” he said. “If you talk to places like Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation and People’s Self-Help Housing in San Luis Obispo, they’ll tell you they have a waiting list of people trying to get in [to their projects].”
A media representative for CEDC couldn’t be reached as of press time.
This article appears in May 22-29, 2014.