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Fullerton residents living in historical zones won’t have to worry about tall housing developments in their parts of town.
It comes after city council members further limited how tall new housing developments can be in those areas as officials grapple with meeting state housing mandates.
According to City Manager Eric Levitt at Tuesday’s city council meeting,the additional height restrictions don’t impact Fullerton’s ability to comply with the state housing mandate and deadline.
[Read: Fullerton Officials Gear Up For Over 13,000 New Homes Across The City]
The city has to zone for more than 13,000 units, according to the state-mandated housing plan officials adopted last month.
City council voted 4-0 on Tuesday to increase height restrictions in historic areas.
The move also requires residents who live or own businesses within a 300-foot radius of any developments part of the plan to be notified of construction by mail. Councilman Ahmad Zahra was not present at the meeting.
For developments within 100 feet of a historic zone, 40 feet is the tallest buildings can be, depending on the grading in relation to nearby properties.
Existing single-family home neighborhoods that aren’t in historic zones already have the height limits.
The limit is 65 feet for other developments.
According to Sunayana Thomas, director of community and economic development in Fullerton, areas currently zoned for new housing developments do not include historic designations.
However, the changes were proposed “to ensure that development would not loom over those historic properties,” said Chris Schaefer, planning manager for the city.
Currently, the construction of 2,588 housing units is approved, while another 10,257 units are zoned for, according to a staff report.
City council members initially requested the height restrictions for historical neighborhoods at the Jan. 7 meeting.
Council members expressed disappointment on Jan. 21 when the city staff failed to do so, which ultimately resulted in this item being addressed on Tuesday.
Fullerton resident Jane Reifer said during public comment on Jan. 21 that residents have been trying to get historical preservations codified in city projects for years.
“Many, many of the historic buildings in this city are not being protected,” Reifer said. “None of the [state-mandated housing developments are] in any preservation zones. That’s not the issue. But if they’re right next to, or around the corner, that is the issue.”
Mayor Fred Jung said the process of creating a plan to zone for that amount of housing was difficult.
“At this point, we’ve just got to figure out ways to get this done, remain in compliance and still do everything in our power to preserve what we have of our city that’s left, that’s not being taken over by Sacramento,” he said at the Jan. 21 meeting.
[Read: California’s Housing Mandates: One Size Fits All? It Depends Who You Ask]
At that same meeting, Councilmember Nicholas Dunlap said that city staff should have included restrictions near historical designations when the housing element was presented to council previously.
“Frankly, if it wasn’t for a group of highly intelligent and active community members that had the wherewithal to get together and and share information, advocate for their neighborhoods, this thing would’ve gotten railroaded through and people would’ve been all high-fiving each other over a crappy work plan.”
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