A developer who wants to create a residential complex for local educators in Ventura has added apartments and made them more affordable after receiving mixed feedback from Palo Alto leaders over the past year.
The new Half Dome Capital proposal contains 55 apartments, 11 more than the design city leaders evaluated last year during public hearings.
The proposed development for 3265 El Camino Real would be over 80 feet tall, 15 feet taller than the previous one, with a wider ground floor and seven more parking slots.
Though the City Council and Planning and Transportation Commission support the project’s goals, several members have stated concerns that it won’t be affordable for teachers.
Mayor Greer Stone, a Carlmont costly School teacher, said the projected rents are too costly for most teachers.
The Half Dome plan is 100% affordable housing under city standards. However, the initial proposal allocated 80% of units to persons earning up to 120% of area median income, a “moderate” category that several believed local educators would not qualify for.
The rest were for “low” income households, which make 50% to 80% of local median income.
Rent levels concerned council members and planning commissioners. At the time, Half Dome principal Jason Matlof estimated higher-income studio rates at $3,600 and one-bedroom rents at $4,100. Stone said this may be too expensive to help local instructors.
“They’ve earned the right to live in the community that they teach in if they so choose,” Stone told the council. “I’m worried most teachers won’t be able to afford these rents.”
Several Planning and Transportation Commission commissioners urged the developer to seek lower rent changes.
For that reason, Commission Chair Bryna Chang and Commissioner Doria Summa opposed the project in April, but the commission majority approved it 5-2.
Chang added, “My concern overall is that this is being called affordable housing and is technically affordable housing according to our law but in practice, given the area median income and PAUSD teacher salary schedule, these units are not really affordable to them.”
The redesigned scheme lowers the income criteria for its proposed flats to accommodate these concerns. Instead of limiting low- and moderate-income rents to 80% and 120% of the county’s area median income, the developer has consented to 70% and 110%.
The developer wants to raise height and density to offset the rent subsidies. Formerly a five-story development is now six.
“We need more units if the community wants deeper rent discounts. It must scale with size, Matlof said in an interview. “I’m happy to meet the community goal, but it costs.”
The City Council appears willing to pay it. The teacher’s proposal would be on a city-designated corridor for residential development and taller structures.
The defunct Travelodge motel at 3265 El Camino Real is governed by the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, a recently authorized document that led to many zoning modifications to encourage construction.
The council has also established a “housing focus zone” on El Camino Real between Page Mill Road and Matadero Avenue, allowing eight-story buildings.
With the revised focus area zoning standards, Acclaim Companies’ application to build 368 apartments at the former Fish Market site at 3150 El Camino Real, across from the teacher housing site, is likely to be approved.
The teacher housing project is following a more traditional method than Acclaim, which uses a streamlined process to receive permission without local board and commission reviews.
It uses “planned home zoning” to allow the council and local commissions to reject or modify the proposal.
Palo Alto Educator Association and California School Employees Association members will receive preference for the project.
The new proposal allocates 75% to “moderate” income households and 25% to “low” income households. The project currently charges low-income households $2,047.50 for studios and $2,360 for one-bedroom apartments after decreasing the ceiling by 10% in each group.
Matlof estimates moderate-income studio rates at $3,337.50 and one-bedroom apartments at $3,834.88.
He noted that these rentals match local teachers’ salaries, most of whom qualify for deed-restricted flats. He said most potential tenants’ rent would not surpass 30% of their earnings, using Palo Alto Unified School District salary schedule statistics.
“We’re aggressively reducing rents and making them more affordable to meet Planning and Transportation Commission members’ requests or biases,” he said. The project team also thinks the larger development fits the city’s shifting vision for the area.
In the project description, Trachtenberg Architects principal Isaiah Stackhouse called the revised proposal “a quality infill development on an empty and underutilized site, which is located on a major arterial street.
“It would also contribute much needed new housing to the city’s stock,” Stackhouse wrote.
