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<br />January 14, 2019 <br /> <br />Commissioner Mark McLoughlin <br />Chair, Planning Commission <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana, CA, 92701 <br /> <br />Re: Support for proposed development 2525 North Main Street <br /> <br />Dear Chairman McLoughlin and Honorable Commissioners: <br /> <br />We first wrote to you in August 2018 to offer support for the much-needed apartment homes <br />proposed for 2525 North Main Street. Our support has not wavered in the past six months, and <br />all of our reasons for support remain; the most urgent is the chronic housing shortage in <br />Orange County and throughout California, which drives up rents and home prices. The ever- <br />increasing cost of housing has led to crisis levels of homelessness and an exodus of the state’s <br />young college-educated workforce to states with lower housing costs. <br /> <br />We are writing to you again with renewed enthusiasm because housing delayed is housing <br />denied. The only solution to the housing shortage is to build more homes. The proposed <br />development at 2525 N. Main St. offers the opportunity to add nearly 500 new homes to <br />Santa Ana’s housing inventory and make a dent in Orange County’s housing shortage. At the <br />same time, the greatest barrier to building more homes and meeting the state’s housing <br />needs is NIMBY opposition. This fact has been documented by, the California Legislative <br />Analyst’s Office (LAO) and the Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG). <br /> <br />We wish to alert you to the changing political climate regarding local government approval of <br />housing developments. In 2017 multiple laws were passed that placed additional restrictions <br />on local government’s ability to deny housing development (SB 35, SB 167, AB 678, and AB <br />1515). The 2018 Legislature advanced new funding mechanisms for affordable housing, and <br />voters showed their approval in their passage of SB 2 & SB 3 in November 2018. Most recently, <br />Governor Gavin Newsom presented his budget, which includes housing funding, and his plans <br />to set regional housing goals and to hold cities accountable for meeting those goals . He went so <br />far as to say that cities that block housing developments risk losing state funding for <br />transportation. <br /> <br />PeopleForHousing.org <br />OCYimby.org <br />People for Housing OC <br />P.O. Box 6942 <br />Fullerton, CA 92834