St3533 january 17 layout 1 by Signal Tribune

ST3533 - January 17_Layout 1 1/17/14 3:15 PM Page 12

12 SIGNAL TRIBUNE

Housing

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cials and community stakeholders. Under state mandates, the City is required to institute policies and planning in order to ensure there would be enough housing available for residents of all income levels in the years to come. The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), which is allocated through the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) and determined by the State, requires that the City accommodate a total of 7,048 housing units from last year through 2021 to align with projected regional housing needs. Amy Bodek, director of the Long Beach Community Development Services Department, assured the Council that city staff has expanded several existing housing programs and is adding new ones to meet the State’s requirements and goals. She said the State already issued a letter on Dec. 27, stating that the City’s Housing Element as drafted is in compliance with state law. “We believe we have been very responsive and have pushed the envelope quite a bit from where we were as a city from the old housing element to the new housing element,” Bodek said. New programs that were added to the Housing Element include a “right of first refusal” program for displaced lowincome residents, expanding the zoning code to include areas the City would allow emergency shelters by right and planning transit-oriented development, particularly along the Blue Line corridor on Long Beach Boulevard. City staff has also proposed studying the possibility of a rent escrow account program (REAP), which is implemented in Los Angeles and allows residents living in “substandard units” to pay their rent to the City where it’s held in an account until code violations are fixed by the landlord. The REAP proposal was brought forward during community discussion by affordable-housing advocates Housing Long Beach and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles. However, Bodek said it’s not clear if the program is needed in Long Beach, noting that only 24 rental units out of the 10,000 units the City deals with annually in code-enforcement issues have been deemed “substandard.” At the request of 9th District Councilmember Steven Neal, the Council approved a friendly amendment to have city staff come back with a full analysis of a REAP in addition to other programs

throughout the state that deal with habitability issues for rental units by December. A rental-habitability program would be up for Council approval no later than the end of 2015, Bodek said. One request from affordable-housing advocates that was not approved by the Council was for the City to allocate 20 percent of new property tax funding– that the City now receives after the State demolished redevelopment agencies (RDAs)– toward affordable housing. Prior to the dissolution of redevelopment, cities were able to set aside property-tax increment funding to provide developers with incentives to build affordable-housing projects. However, City Manager Pat West clarified that, because RDA no longer exists, propertytax revenue can no longer go toward affordable housing because it is now a part of the City’s revenue source for the General Fund, which pays for critical city services. Setting aside such money for affordable housing would create a budget deficit, he said. “There are no funds that are boomeranging back to the city,” West said. “Redevelopment is dead. It’s gone.” Councilmember Neal proposed setting aside 10 percent of property-tax funds for affordable housing, however he later rescinded his proposal after receiving clarification from city staff. Bodek noted that the City currently has $16.8 million in its housing fund for affordable housing in addition to $16 million that the Council, acting as the RDA successor agency, committed when approving a repayment schedule last year. She said the City also has a repayment of debt of more than $24 million owed to the housing fund. Additionally, the City is expected to receive $85 million for affordable housing on an annual basis through federal programs, such as Section 8 vouchers for homeless families and community development block grant funds. Councilmembers agreed to further discuss the city’s affordable-housing funds during the budget process. The Council didn’t approve an inclusionary housing or zoning ordinance, which would have required that a percentage of all development in the city be set aside for affordable housing. The ordinance, which has been heavily pushed by affordablehousing groups, was opposed by various business entities, including the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Long Beach Associates. ß

NEWS

JANUARY 17, 2014

Smoke

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San Gabriel Valley areas and the Pomona/Walnut Valley area. Smoke may also impact downwind areas including southeast and south-central Los Angeles County and the south and southwest coastal areas of Los Angeles County, but air quality is expected to remain “unhealthy” in these areas.

In any area impacted by smoke: • Individuals should avoid any vigorous outdoor or indoor exertion. • People with respiratory or heart disease, the elderly, and children should remain indoors. • Keep windows and doors closed or seek alternate shelter. Run an air conditioner, if available. Do not use a swamp cooler or whole-house fan, to prevent bringing additional smoke inside. • To avoid worsening the health effects of wildfire smoke, don’t use indoor or outdoor wood-burning appliances, including fireplaces. • For anyone not able to avoid a smoky area, a special N95 or P100 respirator mask worn properly may help protect against the fine particles in smoke. Paper or surgical masks do not protect the wearer from smoke. To learn more on how to properly wear a special respirator mask and help protect from wildfire smoke, visit arb.ca.gov/videos/impacts_of_smoke.htm . To subscribe to air-quality alerts, advisories and forecasts by email, visit AirAlerts.org .

Source: AQMD

Fireworks

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sane” fireworks is permitted in several surrounding cities, including Carson, Compton, Bellflower, Paramount, Lakewood and Hawaiian Gardens. Austin also pointed out that firework sales in cities that allow them are a big revenue generator during 4th of July for local nonprofits, charities, churches and youth-sports organizations. “The question isn’t whether fireworks are dangerous or risky, I think that’s pretty much known, I think that’s the case, but the question is whether or not the City of Long Beach should recognize ‘safe and sane’ fireworks as other cities that surround us do,” Austin said. Police Chief Jim McDonnell admitted to “frustration on the part of the officers having to run from call to call for fireworks calls,” however he added that allowing “safe and sane” fireworks would still create “much

FOLBA

Pet of the Week:

Trina

Three-year-old Trina was found wandering the streets of Long Beach, bearing a microchip to nowhere. Apparently, her owners could not have cared less about renewing the information on the chip, which is highly important as insurance for lost pets. Do you want to fill in the blanks? Meet Trina on the shelter side of Companion Animal Village at 7700 East Spring St., (562) 570-PETS and see to it that she never roams again. Ask for ID#ID512001.

more of a workload issue” for annoyance and disturbance calls. Sixth District Councilmember Dee Andrews said allowing fireworks in Long Beach would “send our kids in the wrong direction,” adding “I know we can raise money in a much better way for these nonprofit organizations than to open up fireworks in our city.” Mayor Foster said most municipalities that allow fireworks are contract cities while large cities, such as Los Angeles, that have their own public-safety agencies continue to ban fireworks. He said permitting fireworks flies in the face of Long Beach’s recent efforts to promote safe and healthy choices in communities. “You can’t even play dodge ball in school anymore because of the effect on children,” Foster said. John Kelly, vice president of national fireworks retailer TNT Fireworks, however, said in the past five years some cities have been bringing back fireworks. In Orange County, for instance, voters overturned bans in Westminster in 2010 and in Fullerton in 2012. “We know there are challenges in education, administration and public safety when it comes to a fireworks discussion,” Kelly said. “There are existing ordinances in Southern California that can and do address those concerns.” Long Beach City Attorney Charles Parkin pointed out that an advisory ballot measure is “non-binding,” meaning the Council still has a right to vote down any proposed ordinance or scrap the proposal even if

voters pass the measure. Even so, 9th District Councilmember Steven Neal said he appreciates the dialogue and that the advisory question would be a good way to get a sense of whether residents would even want the Council to consider repealing the City’s fireworks ban. Third District Councilmember Gary DeLong said he is not entirely against Austin’s proposal but would like to see a full analysis of how much fireworks sellers would be taxed by the City in order to recoup costs for any increase in city services. Fifth District Councilmember Gerrie Schipske said she would like to see more discussion about the issue, but she warned that the fireworks industry is “big business,” adding that a previous councilmember went to jail for accepting bribes. “Long Beach has had some bad history with fireworks,” she said. In Signal Hill, fireworks have been prohibited for nearly 29 years, according to Signal Hill Deputy City Manager Charlie Honeycutt in a phone interview with the Signal Tribune. He said it was most likely a “prudent” action by the City Council to ban fireworks given the risk for fires because of the city’s barren, dry landscape at the time. Honeycutt said that, even though Signal Hill has grown in development and population, the Council is not considering lifting the City’s ban. Still, he said, if Long Beach were to legalize fireworks, Signal Hill would most likely be impacted. ß

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