CORRESPONDENCE- 75B_Received by Planning Commission

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PUBLIC M 1 LAW CENTER PROVIDING ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR ORANGE COUNTY'S LOW INCOME RESIDENTS August 3, 2020 Planning Commission City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza P.O. Box 1988, M31 Santa Ana, CA 92701 RE: Opposition — Zoning Ordinance Amendment No. 2020-03 to Update The Housing Opportunity Ordinance Dear Honorable Members of the Planning Commission for the City of Santa Ana: The Public Law Center is a non-profit pro bono law firm in Orange County that provides access to justice for low-income and vulnerable residents. Our practice includes providing representation to low-income families in housing -related matters, preventing homelessness, and advocating for affordable and inclusionary housing. We write to express our strong opposition to amending the Housing Opportunity Ordinance ("HOO") as set forth in proposed Zoning Ordinance Amendment No. 2020-03 because it is the wrong time to amend the HOO. As the Planning Commission is aware, the nation is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in the death of thousands of Americans and millions of cases nationwide. The City of Santa Ana represents one of the hot spots of the Coronavirus outbreak as the pandemic has disproportionately affected Black and Latinx residents.' Further, the sudden economic loss of many in the City of Santa Ana due to the Coronavirus has exposed the need to provide access to affordable housing opportunities, particularly for those who are in need of extremely low- and very low-income housing. During these unprecedented times, it is important to keep the HOO in its current form, which the City of Santa Ana established to promote the provision of affordable housing within the City of Santa Ana. We have previously written the City Council and informed the Councilmembers of our opposition to efforts to weaken the HOO, which have come largely from developers who alleged that the inclusionary requirements and in -lieu fee requirements were stifling. Developers made this allegation notwithstanding the City of Santa Ana amending the HOO in 2015 to make the inclusionary requirements more predictable for housing developers and to increase affordable housing production in conjunction with new market rate housing development. We have attached true and correct copies of the opposition letters we previously sent to the City Council to this letter as Exhibits 1 and 2, respectively. 1 Santa Ana and Anaheim Residents Are Getting Hit with Coronavirus at far higher rates than other O.C. Cities, available at https://voiceofoc.org/2020/06/santa-ana-and-anaheim-residents-are-getting-hit-with-coronavirus-at-far- higher-rates-than-other-oc-cities/ (last visited on August 1, 2020). 601 Civic Center Drive West • Santa Ana, CA 92701-4002 • (714) 541-1010 -Fax (714) 541-5157