Workforce housing is a major problem in Orange County. It is essential to a sustainable, functional local economy. Just ask the Orange County Business Council.

Earlier this month, the community center in San Juan Capistrano served as the venue for a public community dialog about housing organized by The South Orange County Alliance for Housing Our Communities, with the woefully brutal acronym SOCAHOC, which, the emcee soon told the audience, was pronounced “Sok-a-whok.” Like I said: brutal. But that’s neither here nor there.

The point was to host a public discussion of “cities’ legal responsibilities to develop affordable homes in response to economic, environmental, transportation and social demand.” The format of the event started with a few minutes of open conversation at each of the 15 or so round tables in the room, with the objective of having each table write down questions for the panel. Then came some opening remarks, a moderator and a panel of four presenters.

The mayor of San Juan Capistrano, Mark Nielsen, gave opening remarks and offered some context for the day’s discussion. Some highlights:

• Orange County income threshold for affordable housing: $65k per year for a family of 4
• Housing isn’t just a policy “issue,” it is at the base of Maslow’s pyramid of needs: shelter
• There are inherent problems with in-lieu fees as an alternative to fulfulling regulatory housing requirements
• Renovating a neighborhood with fair housing covenants is an idea whose time has come because it can:

1. uplift existing neighborhoods
2. provide economic stimulus for local tradesmen
3. increase affordable workforce housing
4. meet regulatory and social responsibilities

Bring Your Company to OC. Leave Your Employees Behind
The moderator was Michelle Hart, Director of External Affairs at the Orange County Business Council. In her initial remarks Ms. Hart commented that her organization gets several inquiries each week from companies who are interested in relocating their businesses to Orange County. The conversation invariably crescendos with excitement as they talk about all the advantages OC has, until they learn the overall housing costs. Then those conversations crash and burn.

The lack of workforce housing options in Orange County is an obstacle to economic growth in Orange County.

Affordable/Inclusionary/Workforce/Fair/Senior Housing
Dr. Victoria Basolo, Associate Professor, UCI Dept. of Planning, Policy and Design, discussed how affordable housing fits into the overall process of community revitalization. In very general terms, these factors tend to generate “positive effects:”

• Projects of under 200 units (larger tend toward negative effect)
• Higher quality design and management
• Structures not heavily concentrated in one location
• Structures designed to fit in the character of an existing area

Another question is: How do we define “positive or negative effects” of affordable housing? Almost exclusively, studies of this question have measured only property values in the surrounding area. Are there other ways to measure the “effect” of inclusionary housing on the neighborhoods where they are created? How do surrounding residents feel about workforce housing some time after they are lived in, for example? Dr. Basolo had some interesting things to say about that question.

Also, there are some policy problems with the government programs that fund inclusionary housing, namely that most programs require a project to include a large number of units in order to qualify for funding, despite the fact that the data show high concentrations of these units tend not to benefit overall revitalization.

Legislative Landscape
David Barquist presented an overview of the regulations currently in place regarding housing and sketched out the landscape of new and pending legislation, largely focusing on SB375 and regional planning initiatives. This will have an impact on local governments in ways that are not yet clear and are causing a lot of debate. The undeniable fact that workforce housing is a regional issue (not just a city-by-city issue) and therefore should be addressed on a regional level adds complexity to the effort to implement solutions.

Green Building Practices
Phyllis Alzamora, Executive Director of the Urban Land Institute, spoke about the costs of not doing environmentally sensitive development, and the benefits of doing so? Here is a video clip of her presentation (sorry, don’t have her slides).

The costs of continuing to develop housing with no regard for sustainability include obesity and losses because of climate change. Building healthy communities means connecting people to jobs, promoting walking and biking, and creating opportunities for people to connect and fortify a sense of community.

• A Center for Housing Policy study from 2006 figures that for working families earning $20-50k/yr in the Los Angeles area, 59% is spent on housing and transportation. That leaves only 40% for food, clothing, healthcare, and everything else in life.
• Every dollar saved by working families through finding lower cost housing, .79 is added in transportation cost
• “Drive until you qualify” is not a viable approach to a live/work balanced life.

“Housing has always been this competitive sport and there has always been a negative connotation to being small.” There is a movement afoot now to live in smaller homes as a response to the credit crunch, rising energy prices, and global warming. “The small house movement and small house blogs are teaching people to live with less. Many are being built with vintage or salvage materials,” which might last longer and definitely have less overall environmental impact.

Benefits of building green?

• 40% of raw materials humans consume are used in construction
• 40% of builders say green building helps them market their homes in a down market
• Smaller, taller homes built closer to transit sources preserve more open space and wildlife habitat

Ms. Alzamora also reported that Met Life built some market rate rental apartments in Irvine which include a community garden, gourmet cooking classes, a dog park, community room and fitness centers. A number of builders are looking at community gardens as a way to eat and live healthy, “but it isn’t enough to just have some garden space, because many of us don’t even know how to cook them anymore.”

A quiet chuckle slowly rolled through the room. She paused and said, “I know, it’s a nervous laugh, isn’t it?”

Dana Point Town Center Computer Rendering

Dana Point California has big plans to renovate its commercial town core. Several years of collaborative, public planning have been translated into a comprehensive plan by the urban design firm ROMA Design Group.

The plan has been finalized (click here to see the PDF file), approved by the City Council, and approved by the California Coastal Commission. The City of Dana Point’s Public Works department is in the process of planning the construction work on the streets and sidewalks and is gathering bids from contractors to do that work.

Because of the overall economic crisis and the California state budget crisis, it is unlikely any contracts will be awarded soon, however. It is just a matter of time, however.

There are many, many aspects to the plan, from land-use regulations to sustainability incentives to public art to parking issues.

Today, let’s look at one aspect: wayfinding (in the crushingly strict vocabulary of urban planning).

Way Finding. Way-Finding. Wayfinding. Whatever.

The basic idea of wayfinding is: “the user experience of orientation and choosing a path” while navigating a built environment, or in this case, a small town. In a word, we’re talking mostly about signage.

Wayfinding can sometimes be accomplished through design techniques less overt than signage, of course, but roughly speaking, wayfinding signage is the main method.

So, the Dana Point Town Center Plan sketches out a compelling image of the community as manifested in a commercial center, including a reflection of our natural beauty, unique character and our history.

Signage, especially wayfinding signage, play a huge roll in establishing the look-and-feel and personality of the area.

Something to Consider

In an article published in the Dana Point Historical Society’s newsletter, The News Drogher, Vice-President Barbara Force Johannes, asks some important questions.

“But what historic resources do we have that establish the character of the City of Dana Point and its relationship with the harbor that could enhance the economy of our community?”

“How do we convey our historic memories to our citizens and visitors?”

“Historic resources or districts encourage tourists to stay longer and spend more money while visiting. Such resources create in visitors a desire to return.”

“Sustainable tourism strategies include buildings, landscapes, and roads that give a sense of our city’s place in history and identify the unique character of our community, contributing to its attraction as a unique tourist destination.”

“Many businesses can be located anywhere, and what does Dana Point offer to attract knowledge-based businesses to our community?”

“The City Council has adopted the Town Center Plan that recommends the restoration and preservation of the historic buildings and structures in Town Center.”

These are all great observations and important questions for all of us in Dana Point to ponder. And to put a fine point on my reason for writing this blog post, Ms. Johannes asks:

“What are the next steps in preserving the local character of Woodruff’s Dana Point?”

Please share your thoughts about these questions in the comments section below.

What’s more, I wonder if anyone would be interested in organizing a formal effort to talk with ROMA and everyone involved with the Town Center project, to create the most complete and effective wayfinding plan we can… including one that includes a full consideration of the questions Ms. Johannes asked here.

I am interested and will gladly join in! How about you?

Twitter Charts

http://www.xefer.com/twitter

Enter a Twitter username and this will map out a scatter chart indexing time of day and day of the week for that person’s twitter postings. It gives you a picture of exactly when a person tends to be using Twitter.

Twitter Charts

BioMapping

http://www.biomapping.net

Map emotional responses to architecture and environments. Volunteers wear a Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) device, which provides an indication of  emotional arousal correlated to exact (GPS) geographical location.

Check out the various maps of cities around the world, each using a different visualization. Very cool. If only Donald Applegate had lived to see this stuff.

People re-explore their local area by walking the neighbourhood with the device and on their return a map is created which visualises points of high and low arousal. By interpreting and annotating this data, communal emotion maps are constructed that are packed full of personal observations which show the areas that people feel strongly about and truly visualise the social space of a community.

BioMapping.net

DoodleBuzz

http://www.doodlebuzz.com

Draw Your News. Enter a search term and start doodling like a 4 year old… let the casual pleasure of doodling influence the way you browse and explore news. Never underestimate the power of combining play and work; creativity and learning.

Doodle Buzz News Viewer

TagGalaxy http://taggalaxy.com

Enter a search term and this site will find all the photographs on Flickr with matching tags, then cluster similar or associated terms, rendering your main search as the biggest planet at the center of a galaxy and the associated terms show up as nearby planets.

Tag Galaxy, search term "Dana Point"

Move the planets around as you want, then click on any planet. It will gather all the photos from Flickr and paste them on the surface of the planet. Spin the planet to browse all the thumbnails. Click on any image to preview.

Tag Galaxy, preview of one picture on planet "Dana Point"

“Sweeeet.”