Cities Need to Plan for More Affordable Housing, says former Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole

 Rick Cole, former mayor of Pasadena, has become a strong advocate for affordable housing and works closely with MHCH and POP! (Pasadenans Organizing for Progress). He wrote this column for the Pasadena Star News in which he explains why we need to plan for more affordable housing when we revise the city's Housing Element and General Plan. 

PUBLISHED: October 25, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. | UPDATED: October 25, 2020 at 7:00 a.m.

Every city in California faces a huge challenge next year: revising land use rules to ensure we build more housing.

That means your city is headed for a consequential, contentious and costly struggle — and you should be paying attention right now!

State law has long required every city to have a General Plan to guide development. The Housing Element of that plan must be updated to meet targets for building new housing which are set every “cycle.”  The last cycle covered 2014-2021. Up next is 2021-29.  Next October is the deadline for every city to revise its current Housing Element to comply with the new housing targets. A year may seem like ample time, but for government, it’s not.

Given the severe housing shortage, the state has allocated a target of 1.34 million new homes and apartments to be built in Southern California by 2029. To apportion that number among 191 cities, the Southern California Association of Governments voted on a formula that makes sense — but is politically controversial.

The new formula reverses our long-standing pattern of sprawl — building new housing tracts out on the region’s fringe.  That’s a colossally expensive way to accommodate growth. It paves over environmentally sensitive areas, requires expanding our pharaonic-sized freeway network and necessitates building elaborate suburban infrastructure from scratch. It exacerbates racial segregation, steals family time from commuting workers and drains resources from inner-city neighborhoods.

The problem with the new formula is that it requires building more housing near where the jobs are, which is also near where you and I live.

Local elected officials know that can be unpopular, so many are rushing to appeal their city’s allocation. That’s not surprising. The new targets will be tough to hit. Appealing them allows politicians to pander to vocal constituencies. But some of the rhetoric of resistance crassly exploits community concerns. Opposition to new housing intensifies racial and political polarization and imposes unacceptable economic and social pain on the young, the poor, seniors, families, renters and essential workers.

The answer is active local democracy.  Not the stupid kind we are currently bombarded with — divisive soundbites that inflame passions and misleading ballot initiatives that try to trick you into believing “yes” means “no.”  Real democracy requires convening people of differing backgrounds and perspectives to solve our housing challenge together.

Clearly Southern California needs more housing. Just look at the shameful surge in homelessness spreading across the Southland. Ask any young person looking to rent their first apartment as they start their careers. Imagine being a middle-class family struggling to buy a home in a safe and welcoming neighborhood.

Instead of saying “no” to more housing, cities should think creatively about how to add housing in ways that make communities better, not worse.  Concerned about more traffic?  OK, how can we put new housing near transit and make streets more walkable and bikeable?  Worried about ugly, out-of-scale development nearby? Then let’s devise design standards to assure new development compliments the best of the past.  Fearful of running out of water or not having enough parks?  So let’s figure out how to adapt our communities to serve both existing and future residents.

That’s real planning, real democracy. It takes time for people to work on shared solutions, especially given how COVID-19 restricts face-to-face dialogue.

What’s your city doing about this challenge?  Think about how we might tackle this problem together. Let’s use our common sense for the common good.  This is an opportunity to get it right and ensure a brighter future for all.

Rick Cole is former mayor of Pasadena and former city manager of Azusa. He welcomes feedback at venturacole@yahoo.com.