Housing in Coronado has been an ongoing issue for the past year when state–mandated affordable housing allocations for the city jumped from 50 to 912 units, with an additional 15% buffer added to bring the total to 1,049 homes.
Jesse Brown, the city’s principal planner for Community Development, and Hitta Mosesman of Harris & Associates, the city’s consultant, addressed residents in a special Oct. 12 meeting on where the new housing may occur in Coronado.
To accommodate the new housing units, the city created a housing plan, otherwise known as the housing element.
City not required to build the homes
It’s important to note that the housing element does not require the city to build the housing units. However, the city must ensure sufficient land is available to accommodate the assigned units so that developers can come in to build on the designated areas, Mosesman said.
A community’s housing element is required to be updated every eight years, with this period running from 2021-2029.
And although Coronado has space to accommodate some of the 912 units, the city needed to rezone additional sites for the rest.
Details on housing element
The city sought input from the community as officials informed residents on which specific sites were identified for new homes.
The city broke down the 912 units into categories for different income brackets that were needed to fill to follow state mandates. They include:
Having at least 312 units for the extremely low/very low-income range for a family of four making less than $68,900 a year.
Having 169 units for the low-income range of households making $68,901 to $110,250.
Having 159 units for the median-income range of $110,251 to $140,150.
Having 272 units for the above-moderate range of a family of four making more than $140,150 a year.
These numbers do not include the 15% buffer.
Potential housing sites
There are 10 sites that are slated to accommodate the additional units. They are:
Christ Church, a city owned property on 517 Orange Ave., El Dorado Square, Crown Shops, the Smart & Final center, the 2nd Street parking lot, Bayside Apartments, the Coronado Police Department, the former elementary school on 6th Street and finally, Navy Housing on 3682 Tulagi Road.
Although there was a general consensus that the city did well in putting together the report and coming to the community with this plan before submitting it to the city council, there were many residents who were unhappy with the lack of notice of the meeting.
And, they noted Coronado already seems to struggle with lack of space and parking without an additional 912 potential families moving in.
“Parking in Coronado is really bad, all the time…this certainly isn’t going to solve that. It’s going to make it more difficult. Does the city have any plan for finding some strategic parking areas? Because this is going to grow more cars in Coronado,” a resident brought up during the question and answer portion of the meeting.
Brown said that the city had not specifically looked into considering a parking issue that would potentially occur with new families moving in and how to approach that.
North Island in Coronado’s jurisdiction
Another resident raised questions about North Island.
“How is the area of the city related to the housing requirement? It used to be that North Island was part of San Diego and then at some point, I’m not sure when, North Island became part of Coronado,” resident Kevin Reilly said.
North Island makes up a significant portion of Coronado, and with it comes thousands of military and civilians who work on the island.
“SANDAG used jobs as one of the factors to determine how many units are assigned to each jurisdiction, and how many military jobs,” Brown said.
He noted North Island and the Silver Strand, which is home to the Silver Strand Training Complex, both count as part of Coronado’s jurisdiction.
That means that the jobs North Island and the Silver Strand bring in, the city of Coronado must allocate space for those workers, whether or not they work within the actual boundaries of the city.
“In the past, the Navy has hit us with a large population and they haven’t particularly been housed very well locally. And the state has forced down our throats these 900 units because of the Navy,” Coronado resident Tina Christiansen said.
City staff will submit a report to city council on Oct. 17 during the regular city council meeting.
