During a recent San Fernando City Council meeting, council members, residents and city staff discussed a proposed ordinance that would establish a “mixed-use overlay zone” to allow the potential development of new housing units for commercial properties.
The mixed-use ordinance is part of the first phase of the City of San Fernando’s Housing Element plan to allocate sites for 1,795 additional housing units citywide by 2029 in response to a state mandate to meet existing and projected future housing needs. The discussion at the Dec. 2 council meeting continued a series of public hearings on the proposed zoning amendment, which wouldn’t alter the current underlying zoning of properties in the designated areas.
“I think probably the most important thing is that the overlay is not changing the zoning [in commercial districts] – meaning it’s not taking anything away,” explained Erika Ramirez, director of Community Development for the City of San Fernando. She said the proposed ordinance would help the city meet its obligation to “plan and allow for” the development of the targeted number of added housing units by 2029 but isn’t required to build them.
“It’s adding options to those properties … so they still can maintain their commercial use [and have] the option to have residential or mixed-use developments on those parcels,” she added.
The overlay ordinance – which would apply to 112 parcels across nearly 38 acres citywide – would not reduce existing parking requirements or increase current height allowances, and the proposed density would be 24 to 35 units per acre, noted Ramirez during the council meeting.
In addition, the price points for any new housing units would be a combined 26% for extremely low to very low income earners; 31% for low to moderate incomes; and 43% for moderate income earners and above.
Council members, residents and business owners shared questions and concerns regarding the proposed ordinance. Councilmember Victoria Garcia requested further analysis of the potential impact of added water usage on the city, especially because the city recently stopped importing water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD).
“Can our water supply sustain 1,700 more units?” she asked. Garcia also requested more information be provided in the next hearing about the impact of further growth on the local police department.
“Our community is really struggling right now with not having … the level of deployable officers that we want for our community now,” she said.
The next step in the proposal process for the mixed-used overlay will be a follow-up hearing tentatively scheduled for Jan. 21, according to San Fernando City Manager Nick Kimball. During that hearing, Kimball said they expect to address requested information regarding environmental concerns and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) analysis, and the potential impacts of the mixed-use ordinance on the city’s infrastructure and municipal services.