After initially voting in January to reject an affordable housing mandate from the state, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1, with 4th District Supervisor Joni Gray dissenting, to reverse the decision during its Feb. 24 meeting.
The board also selected two parcels in Orcutt—Key Site 3 along East Clark Avenue and Key Site 30 north of Hummel Drive—to be rezoned to accommodate 372 low-income residential units.
The board rezoned the parcels to comply with regulations set by the California Housing and Community Development Department, which directed the county in 2007 to find or make room for more than 6,000 low-income residential units.
Originally, Supervisors Gray, Doreen Farr (3rd District), and Janet Wolf (2nd District) voted against rezoning any of the parcels. Risking a possible lawsuit and suspension, the board directed county staff members to inform the state that the county had fulfilled its affordable housing requirements.
Within 24 hours of the vote, however, Wolf sent letters to the county and her fellow supervisors asking that the board reconsider the vote.
“The county is going to be facing some incredibly difficult budget issues,” Wolf said, explaining why she asked to have the issue reconsidered, “and I kept hearing from multiple staff members that [consequences of the original vote] were going to cause even more problems for us in the future.”
Wolf added that she sympathizes with the complaints of many Orcutt residents who fear the rezoning could threaten the area’s open space. But ultimately, she said, the board didn’t want to risk suspension and possible litigation during such an economically vulnerable time for the county.
This article appears in Mar 5-12, 2009.
