City Council Agenda: Affordable Housing Fees, Cays Park Dog Fence, Port Updates

The agenda for this week’s meeting of the Coronado City Council includes reconsidering housing in-lieu fees for subdivision projects, considering a fence around the dog run at Cays Park, and an update from Port of San Diego Commissioner Frank Urtasun. Public comment will be heard.

The meeting is at 4 p.m. on July 15 in the City Council Chamber at 1825 Strand Way, and will be broadcast here. The full agenda is here. A recording of the meeting will be posted here.

After pushback, reconsidering an increase to the city’s housing in-lieu fees 

When a developer builds a subdivision project with two or more units, there are two choices: Provide affordable housing units, or pay a fee.

The housing in-lieu fee, as it’s known, is used to help the city fund other affordable housing projects. In April, the Coronado City Council voted to raise its in-lieu fee for the first time since 1993.

Before, the fee was $7,000 per unit. The agreed new rate was $59 per square foot, the highest fee in the region. Although the change passed, developers and residents balked, so the council voted to reconsider. The former $7,000 fee is still in place today pending reconsideration.

The concern is that, by making the fee prohibitively expensive, investors might simply build elsewhere, or build only single-family homes, which are not subject to the fee. An example cited during this discussion was a 12-unit project underway now on Orange Ave., none of which are designated as affordable housing. Under the old fee schedule, the housing in-lieu fee would be $84,000. The new fee would cost $1.3 million.

However, the council—and developers themselves—said they understand the need for the fee, as well as the need for affordable housing.

The council will consider several options during Tuesday’s meeting: approving a lower fee, a phased approach to implementing higher fees over several years, pipelining the fee so pending developments aren’t slapped with an unexpectedly high fee, and expanding the program so that the fee applies to more types of housing projects.

Currently, the fee only applies to owner-occupied residential subdivision projects. The council could expand the program to multi-family rental projects in effort to generate more revenue. Doing so would require a zoning code amendment.

Within San Diego County, the average housing in-lieu fee is $15-20 per square foot. Before the change, Coronado’s was the lowest in the region.

The council will also consider whether to include non-livable square footage (such as balcony and garage space) in the calculations of these fees during the July 15 meeting.

Consideration of a dog fence at Cays Park 

The council will consider installing a fence around the dog run at the Cays Park, one of two locations in the city where off-leash dogs are permitted. The decision made at Tuesday’s meeting will not be final; if the council supports moving forward, city staff will prepare designs and cost estimates, which will come before the council again for further discussion.

The current dog run is 1.5 acres in area and approximately 800 feet long. The council may discuss whether to enclose that existing footprint or expand it; whether to divide the park into sections for small and large dogs; which type of fencing it would prefer; the height of the fence; whether natural plants should be used around the barrier for aesthetic reasons; the number and location of access gates; and whether to include new amenities for the dog park (it currently includes three picnic tables, trash cans, a bench, and dog waste bag dispensers).

A Port of San Diego update 

Port Commissioner Frank Urtasun, who represents Coronado on the San Diego Board of Port Commissioners, will provide an update on port matters relevant to Coronado. The Port oversees waterfront property under a public trust in San Diego and other member cities, including Coronado.