In 2010, the County of Monterey approved a master plan that would limit the number of new housing units in Carmel Valley to 266. It was too many for residents’ group Carmel Valley Association. CVA took the county to court and won – the result was a cap of 190 units.
Fast forward to today, when state laws requiring cities and counties to add more housing units will force a new reality in the valley. At some point, the cap will be no more.
Rather than preparing to fight, CVA leadership appears to have accepted that more units are coming. They’re turning their focus to pushing the county to make most of them affordable to the people who live and work there.
“The board as a whole has come to the conclusion that the priority needs to be affordable housing,” CVA President Pris Walton says. CVA is now waiting for the county to release its draft housing plan, called a housing element, to comment in detail. The county’s Housing and Community Development director, Craig Spencer, says the draft will be released in mid-May for a 30-day public comment period.
The county must add 3,326 units to its housing element, almost 2,000 of which are in the very low-, low – and moderate-income categories. Some of those will need to be in Carmel Valley.
Now five months past the state deadline to complete and approve a housing element in order for the California Department of Housing and Community Development to certify it, the county is vulnerable to state fines and penalties. It also leaves the county open to what’s known as the builder’s remedy, laws that enable developers to get larger projects approved when there is no certified housing element in place, as long as there is 20-percent affordable housing included in a project.
On April 9, county planners received a builder’s remedy application for 59 single-family market-rate homes and 15 townhomes deed-restricted as low-income – 20 percent of the 74 units total – on Val Verde Drive, at the mouth of Carmel Valley.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.