The Menifee City Council heard about changes to the general plan land use and housing plan required by the state of California by Saturday, April 1, during the Wednesday, March 15, meeting. The plan shows the number of very low to moderate income homes finished or being built in the city.
Since the state reported there was a housing shortage for many families making under $104,000 a year who couldn’t afford to buy a home at today’s prices and the increasing homeless population, the Legislature mandated every city and county had to build a certain number of affordable housing units by 2029.
The mandated affordable housing units brought consternation with many cities across the state as it forced cities to amend General Plan zoning and land uses to make room for the affordable homes, sometimes in higher income neighborhoods, much to the dislike of residents living nearby. Menifee was under the Regional Housing Need Allocation or RHNA and required to build 6,608 affordable homes.
To date, Doug Darnell, principal city planner, making the report on the RHNA portion of the report said the city has built 1,193 of the 6,608 units the state requires, leaving 5,416 to be made available by 2029 – homes for those making under $104,000 a year. The average yearly income of all families in Riverside County is estimated to be a little over $87,000.
In Menifee, 1,179 of those were built for the Above Moderate income families while only 10 in the other lower level income families have been built to date,
But, Darnell said the city was “off to a good start” with 905 of those units approved for construction in the next year which is considered the 6th cycle by RHNA.
In addition, he reported the city has completed the housing unit rezone program to accommodate the required RHNA, many low income family and senior homes have been repaired, the multifamily home design standards has been updated and permit ready additional dwelling unit plans have been launched.
Mayor Bill Zimmerman, before Darnell gave his report, made somewhat of a wry comment to the RHNA housing and land use requirements, by saying it is due to the state April 1. During the discussion on the housing report he said the city likes to have its own local control over planning and zoning, “but it is frustrating we have to have a certain number of this or that and we lose that local control, and that’s why I made the jest about April 1, because I just think this is the wrong way going about, or accomplishing what the intended goal is, and that’s to have more affordable housing for people.”
Councilmember Lesa Sobek and Mayor Pro Tem Robert Karwin said they were concerned about meeting the RHNA goals by 2029 and the possibility of having fines lodged by the state against the city. The cities and counties were warned they might be fined $10,000 per day if they did not comply with the housing mandates.
The council took the report under advisement with more discussion planned on the report in April.
The council on the request of Sobek heard what advantages the city could see if they joined Sister City International that helps coordinate cities in America with other similar cities worldwide. Temecula adopted a sister city in Japan along with a number of other cities in Southwestern Riverside County who have sister cities in other countries. The membership in the SCI would cost the city $1,030.
Karwin saw having a sister city might not be a good fit with Menifee at this time, while Sobek saw it would have good educational advantages for the younger people living in the city. Councilmember Dean Deines said he was concerned with the cost of any travel by city council members to the sister city that might be construed as a personal vacation. Councilmember Ricky Estrada saw spending on a sister city shouldn’t be done.
“We should focus on Menifee, not foreign cities,” Estrada said.
Zimmerman said he liked the opportunity but it should be revisited at a future date.
The request was held for a later time.
Philip Southard, public information and legislative relations officer of Menifee, said he was pleased to announce the launch of Menifee TV, a public, educational and governmental access Channel that will deliver local programming, public meetings and service announcements from the city of Menifee both closed captioning in English and Spanish. He said Menifee TV will also link to Riverside County’s PEG channel.
Menifee TV can be viewed on Spectrum Channel 1301, Frontier Channel 25 and via livestream online at http://www.cityofmenifee.us/menifeetv. Some Spectrum viewers, however, may have to wait for up to 90 days to see Menifee TV. The city is also in discussions with Mediacom to provide their local subscribers with Menifee TV in the near future.
Earlier Jackie Aponte, active in MilVet, Santa’s Workshop and the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life was named the Outstanding Citizen of the Month by Karwin and the city council.
Joyful Noise Coffee shop, 26924 Cherry Hills Blvd. in Sun City was given Menifee’s Business Spotlight for March along with a city-created commercial.
Tony Ault can be reached by email at tault@reedermedia.com.
