Campbell advises Planning Commission: reject County's housing plans

John Campbell, affordable housing advocate and board member of the “sweat-equity” Homes for Islanders organization, has told the Planning Commission that the Housing Needs Assessment and Housing Element Plan before them tomorrow, Feb. 20 “Fails to make adequate provision for affordable housing for the people of San Juan County.”

In a letter to the Planning Commission,  Campbell wrote:

No needs assessment is complete without an assessment of EXISTING needs. In my neighborhood, 50% of all housing stock is trailers, school busses and assorted unpermitted dwellings, all without water, sewer or electricity. Census data reports 461 units lacking basic facilities and the reality is probably much greater. A previous assessment (2003 S.J. Co. Housing Survey by Nina Rook) documented households paying excessive rent and leaving the County. The current assessment, relying exclusively upon statistical data without any local outreach, overlooks much.
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HOUSING ELEMENT

This is the plan to deal with the Need described in the Assessment. Here, San Juan County either develops an effective response to the clearly perceived shortage of workforce housing or, in a blaze of rhetoric, statistics and inscrutable intentions, does  nothing. The Plan before you is to do nothing.

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One of a county’s responsibilities under Growth Management (GM) is to assign population to the UGA’s.  That has not been done.  A part of it, “Change to Appendix I Population Projections”, is on this agenda allocating 50% of San Juan Island population growth to Friday Harbor. This is 10 years overdue and deserves approval. In that same document, 50% of Orcas island growth is allocated to Eastsound but the numbers are out of date. The 2025 population growth of Eastsound should be (7091 – 5073=) 1009, not 849. The Planning commission is urged to recommend that Appendix I amendments update Eastsound UGA as well as Friday Harbor

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[S]ubstantially all of the population allocated to the Orcas UGA (Eastsound) is low income needing assistance or subsidy. It would further reveal that the only foreseeable providers of such housing require sites of at least one acre to achieve the most elementary economies of scale. Finally it would reveal that the vast majority of Eastsound development capacity is either scattered single family lots or expensive shoreline or commercial sites. In other words, the available land to even begin to meet the need is far short of what is needed. Clearly, the County is deliberately avoiding the light of reality.

Sufficient appropriately zoned land is hardly the entire solution to the identified housing crisis but it is at least a factor within the county’s grasp.

Page 4, Addressing Housing Need Resulting from Population Growth, tells us that 126 affordable housing units/ year will be needed (68+28+30 = 126). In this situation, it would be useful to compare this need with present production by the CLT’s and HFI.  Based on the data in the Needs Assessment, Appendix I, this is approximately:

OPAL CLT…………………..         6

SJCHT…………………………       4

Lopez CLT………………………..  3

HFI………………………………. 8

Total…………..   21 units/year or 21/126 =  16% of need

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The question is whether the policies and programs will create 3267 affordable units in the next 17 years. A substantial number is not an answer. It is a blaze of rhetoric, statistics and a generation of working families are sold down the river. Whether it will stand the scrutiny of the Growth Board only time will tell. The Housing Goal is notoriously toothless. Make no mistake, however, the proposed Housing Element is OPTION I, Do Nothing, and a failure of Public Policy.

The issue today, however, is whether it will stand your scrutiny. Does the Plan in fact, in your eyes, “make adequate provision for existing and projected (housing) needs of all economic segments of the community.”? County staff, apparently lacking whatever is required to bring forth such a plan (or under direction not to) would have us believe that “adequate provision” really means providing the possibility that persons unknown could do so.. Had the analysis been carried out in accordance with the WAC’s, this error would have been avoided.

What is a Planning Commission to do? The Planning Commission may wish to hesitate at the suggested Finding on pg. 5 of the Staff Report and find instead that:

The proposed Plan Fails to make adequate provision for affordable housing for the people of San Juan County;

And further, recommend that the Dept of Community Development and Planning take the Plan back to complete the planning process in accordance with WAC 365-195-310 (2) and

Develop an effective response to the shortage of affordable workforce housing in San Juan County.

The Planning Commission Planning Commission meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. at Islander’s Bank Annex, downstairs, 225 Blair Ave, Friday Harbor, San Juan Island.

As well as the Hearings on The Proposed Update of the San Juan County Comprehensive Plan Housing Element and Appendix 5 Continued Public Hearing and Deliberations To Consider The Amendment of the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Element and Appendix 1 to Allow for 50% of the Island’s Future Population Growth to Occur in the Friday Harbor UGA, the agenda includes consideration of several Timber Open Space Applications.