Story by Rafa Estolano-Sridharan
Staff Writer
Photo by Mac Shropshire
Staff Photographer
The city council decided to push a vote on an affordable housing in-lieu fee until an unspecified date next February on Wednesday, Dec. 4. The decision was made amid concerns that the vote had been rushed and that South Pasadena residents were not being properly represented — Mayor Evelyn Zneimer was absent from the meeting and two newly elected city council members have not yet taken their seats.
The fee would be paid by developers that do not build the required amount of affordable housing units in housing developments. At least 15 percent of units in a project comprising 10 or more units are required to be affordable for extremely low to moderate income families. Money raised from the fee would be used by the city to construct affordable housing units not built by developers. The city recently entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement to develop affordable housing units at 1503 and 1507 El Centro St. City staff say the fee would incentivize developers to build more affordable units.
The consideration of the fee was met with skepticism and concern from South Pasadena residents who thought the vote was being rushed through without proper community involvement.
Resident Lula Cummings felt that there had not been enough communication about the fee and that there were a lot of unanswered questions. She felt that there needed to be more clarification about the way the fee would be implemented and how it would ensure the construction of affordable housing.
Residents were also worried that the fee would allow developers to get away without constructing affordable housing and ultimately make South Pasadena more expensive.
Multiple residents further expressed concerns that they were not fully represented at the council and requested the city council to delay their decision. They wanted the decision to be made after the newly elected city council members take their seats on the council. Additionally, Zneimer was not present at the meeting.
Council member Jon Primuth agreed and motioned to delay the vote until an unspecified date in February.
Primuth hopes that the delayed vote will create more trust in the community.
“We have very significant members of the community that feel like they’ve not been part of the process or they don’t feel like they can trust a lot of the process,” Primuth said. “We’re trying to slow things down to increase trust … allow participation from new council members. I think that’s a very important process of where we are right now.”
The council also discussed possible options for community outreach regarding the fee. The council passed the motion, agreeing to come back to the issue in February.
