tRatio of income to home prices sees major drop

A roundtable of affordable housing advocates met with county Senior Planner Colin Maycock to review the goals and policies of the housing component of the county Comprehensive Plan.

A Dec. 31 deadline is in effect for updating this component, following the legal settlement of a challenge by John Campbell, Orcas Island architect and board member of Homes for Islanders. The end-of-the-year deadline, which, according to Prosecuting Attorney Randy Gaylord, must be ratified by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board as well, brings to an end Campbell’s lawsuit against the county.

Campbell contested an earlier approval of the first phase of expansion of the Friday Harbor urban growth area as a means of forcing the county to produce the updates. Counties like San Juan that plan under the state Growth Management Act (GMA) must periodically update portions of their comprehensive plans. The required update of the land-use and housing elements, as well as the county critical areas ordinance, is already overdue.

Maycock is tasked with revising the county’s Housing Needs Assessment to assist in the review of the Housing element of the comp plan.

The Executive Summary of the Housing Needs Assessment’s most recent draft states, “The primary elements of the housing needs equation are: population projections, building land and affordability.”

Projections of 2005 still hold, Maycock said: the population of the county is estimated to reach about 24,000 by 2030, and will require approximately 11,287 dwelling units. 2005 housing figures show that there were about 10,650 dwelling units; so for the next 22 years, “the County would need to provide sites for a further 378 units or approximately 17 units per year.”

Building land availability “appears… to meet the potential long-term demand for housing. Such a statement must be qualified with a consideration of the provision of housing affordable to members of the community earning something in the vicinity of the area median income, or, as is commonly the case for those working in the county, something considerably lower,” the assessment summary read.

The Affordability of Housing section of the summary states, “As recently as 2000, a person or family earning close to the area median income could afford to buy a house in the County. Since then … it has become almost utterly impossible for wage and salary earners in the county to afford to purchase a home here.”

In 2000, the median county income was $53,900, and the median home price was $250,000. in 2004, those figures were $60,100 and $337,000. In 2007, the median income was $61,600, while the median home price was $563,300.

Karin Agosta of the county Planning commission, Bill Agosta of the Housing Bank Commission, Sandy Bishop, Executive Director of the Lopez Community Land Trust, Nancy DeVaux of the county Home Trust, Carrie Lacher of the Friday Harbor Town Council, Angie Lausch, county Affordable Housing Coordinator, Patty Miller of the Eastsound Planning Review Committee and Barbara Thomas of the county Planning Commission met with Maycock at the new Lopez Community Land Trust (LCLT) office in the “Common Ground” complex, the LCLT’s latest building project.

Lausch suggested a coalition be created to formulate an Affordable Housing Action Plan with concrete policies and provisions for permanent funding. Miller said that goals in such a plan need to be tangible and measurable.

Bishop agreed and suggested that the group review the 10-year-old plan and decide which points in the current issue should remain, and “come up with a succinct plan that goes to the essence of what San Juan County needs to do.”

The group then analyzed section 5.2 of the Comp Plan, “the housing element,” point by point to clarify the policies for achieving the stated goal: “To make adequate provision for a variety of housing choices in terms of type, cost, size, design, and suitability for various households including families, the elderly, the disabled, and housing for very low-, low-, and moderate-income ranges while recognizing the unique physical, social, and economic environment of the islands.”

Karin Agosta mentioned that because implementation of the comprehensive plan comes through the county’s development codes, it’s important that the goals, policies and philosophies are clearly enunciated in the Comp Plan. “This [document] sets the principles to be enforced by the Uniform Development Code (UDC),” said Agosta.

Revisions agreed upon in the discussion will be incorporated by Maycock as he re-drafts the document.

Much of the discussion emphasized that the permanent nature of affordable housing considerations needed to be clearly spelled out.

Bill Agosta said, “The issue is, should affordability be tied to property when it’s sold? If we’re using public money for affordable housing we shouldn’t make it easy to let housing rise to market values.”

The group was in agreement that community land trusts should retain ownership of land and divide capital gains, as they currently do through existing county land trusts.

Lausch cautioned that as far as rental housing is concerned, “economic restrictions should not last longer than the economic life of the property, because it prevents property owners from re-developing their land.”

Thomas said that the county invests in properties whether by allowing density bonuses, using rural lands or spending county funds, and argued, “Whenever an organization gives something away, they should get something back in terms of permanent affordability.”

However, Miller argued that there should be some incentive given for restricting land use for the long term.