CLEARLAKE— Clearlake City Council met on Thursday and considered the adoption of a resolution authorizing the application and adoption of a plan to allocate funding for housing, the Permanent Local Housing Allocation Plan (PLHA) among other business items on their agenda.
“Back in 2017, Governor (Jerry) Brown signed a number of housing bills, including establishing a $75 recording fee on real estate documents. Part of the funding for that went into a fund that created this Permanent Local Housing Allocation program. Each jurisdiction in the state receives an allocation of funds every year based on transactions that are recorded. There’s a competitive side to the program, and there’s this allocation side,” said City Manager Alan Flora, adding that the city still needs to apply for the allocation. “There are also program requirements, but it’s not competitive for the funds that we have allocated to us.”
According to Flora, the state is estimating Clearlake’s allocation to be a little bit over $175,000. “It’s not an enormous amount of money, but it does add up. This was something that was not well publicized to the jurisdiction over here locally in our county. We didn’t even realize this money was allocated to us until late last year,” said Flora, adding that now it got to a point where 2019 funds, if not applied for by the end of this month, will be lost. “They will reallocate it within HCD (Housing and Community Development) to other housing programs. We need to get this plan done and we need to get an application submitted so we don’t lose that.”
According to Flora, there are three affordable housing projects that are in the works in the city, currently two are under construction and one in the planning phase, scheduled to be in construction next year. Regarding this last one he said, “there was some ancient volcanic ash discovered on the site which is causing geotechnical problems and extra expenses. Because of changes in state law related to these types of projects, they don’t follow the normal process, and we don’t have the normal opportunity to condition these projects, to require off-site improvements and so forth,” he said.
“My thought on that was to put those funds towards the infrastructure that’s still not complete at the Hope Center. I don’t think it will take the whole amount, and then use the remaining amount for the acquisition of a few pieces of property for the workforce housing piece. We need to be able to get something adopted so we can apply and use the 2019 funds,” Flora added.
Mayor Dirk Slooten said the funding could also be used it for the city’s homestead program and to allow some of the city employees to purchase housing.
Flora concluded, “the funding has to go to create workforce housing that does not exceed 120% of the average median income. We probably could purchase property that we can then use for the homestead program, but we’d be required to verify that applicant not only met the requirements of the homestead program but did not exceed 120% of AMI (area median income).”
The funding resolution four housing was approved unanimously by the Council.
In other business, the council discussed the agreement between the city, the Lake County Economic Development Corporation, and the Clearlake Chamber of Commerce for use of the Clearlake Visitor Center facility, with a recommendation to authorize the City Manager to make any necessary minor adjustments.
The Council also considered a resolution authorizing Chief of Police Andrew White and the police department to enter into a five-year agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. for 30 body worn cameras and a digital evidence management system.
Information on meetings, agendas and minutes of the Clearlake City Council can be found online at https://clearlake-ca.municodemeetings.com/
