October 26. 2002 Editor The Tribune
I must respond to Julie Bernstein's rebuttal in The Tribune
(October 16) regarding the state housing quota by the Department of Housing
and Community Development (HCD). There are four fatal flaws in her rebuttal
to Jan Marx.
First, local governments do not have the water, sewer, police,
fire and public works resources or budget to comply with the allocation by the
state. This can not be ignored.
Second, all local governments must meet the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQUA) to make their general plan viable and that requires consistency
between elements, mitigation measures, and resources. There is no way consistency
between the land use and housing elements can be achieved under HCD order when
HCD exempts itself from CEQUA and the city must comply with CEQUA. Third,
cities must comply with other state agencies that prevent their ability to expand
and designate housing expansion areas such as the Airport Land Use Commission
and Coastal Commission. Even Cathy Creswell, Deputy Director of HCD, acknowledged
to me directly in a League of Cities meeting that these other agencies present
a significant problem. HCD ignores this conflict among agencies and laws. Finally,
the Department of Finance population projects are incorrect for this county.
The State Attorney General has been asked to respond to this and the fact the
finance department ignored CEQUA.
Therefore, we can not comply with one law by HCD only to violate
several other laws and regulations by other state agencies. We do not have the
authority to "remove local regulatory obstacles" because most of these are state
requirements! It has taken years to do required environmental impact reports
for water. As of now we don't have the water and we can not ignore reality.
Even SLOCOG did not have the votes to accept the HCD number. It also ignores
majority decisions by the voters.
Allen Settle,
Mayor
San Luis Obispo