City Council voted to authorize Carpinteria Planning to submit the project to HCD. Main concern from the council was that the city was providing over 2x rhna numbers in their site inventory and planning said they would put in a cap so they didn't go too far over.  The housing element isn't bad. It could be better but we should happy enough. 

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I commented both spoken and written that the city was already on track to miss its Feb 15 deadline by at least a few days, and once it missed its deadline the Builders Remedy kicks in. I also gave some generalized feedback on the element, which isn't bad. 

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Council followed up after my comment with planning or the consultant (not sure who) about the Builders Remedy, they responded that there may be "limited remedies" in "very narrow circumstances" that may apply and expect coastal commission to absolve them of anything. 

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When followed up on based on timelines, consultant did not mention that they will miss the deadline and was very nonchalant about it, just saying hcd has a 90 day review. Planning also responded suggesting the only thing they have to worry about is completing the rezonings within a year. 

This was mostly an informational meeting with some Q/As.  County Supervisor Das Williams gave a rousing but somewhat defensive speech at the beginning -- he is a real ally, but obviously expects opposition.  Then planners presented their plans.  Then there were some pre-selected questions from those who registered and finally just 2 questions from the audience.  The first audience question was "You're saying you want affordability, I believe upzoning raises land values, discuss."  The planners did not attempt to correct her understanding of economics, instead went on the defensive, "upzoning is just one of the tools", City of SB went so far as saying there won't be any net upzoning in their plan.

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I have notes on the other questions but nothing leaps out as especially telling.

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City of SB draft HE will be out in early July.  The allocation is 8001 units, they are saying that nearly 1000 will come from ADUs and 1800+ at La Cumbre Plaza (single large development).  They claim that they have enough sites with minimal rezoning (although in the presentation they also mentioned completely removing parking requirements downtown and increasing allowed density).  I asked Dan Gullett (SB principal planner) how they intend to quadruple housing production without rezoning.  He essentially said that the unit number is merely a guideline and won't really be achieved -- not a good sign.

The context for this meeting was that Carpinteria's SBCAG rep, their vice mayor, was the only SBCAG member to vote against SBCAG's RHNA allocation, discussing that they should consider appealing. 

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In this meeting the Carpinteria CC voted to approve their draft allocation/staff report, which basically meant that Carp will not file an appeal themselves. But there is not a strong yimby attitude on this council