Fullerton Condos
The Fullerton Chamber of Commerce supports the Amerige Court development, a condominium project with stores and offices in the city’s downtown by Huntington Beach-based Pelican Center LLC and John Laing Homes of Newport Beach.
The chamber is encouraging other business leaders to join in support of this mixed-use project and attend the Fullerton City Council meeting on June 5.
The chamber feels Amerige Court will upgrade the city’s downtown and provide improvements that will positively impact Fullerton.
The current proposal will create a three-quarter-acre public plaza and provide an additional 20,000 square feet of office space.
It also will provide 20,000 square feet of retail space and introduce 105 residences for sale in downtown. The proposed project would increase parking spaces by 150.
In addition, economic analysis of the project indicates that the city will generate long-term tax benefits from the improvements.
Maintenance of the existing parking lots on which the project is planned will cost $1.5 million in the next 15 years. In contrast, this project will produce more than $10 million in incremental tax benefits over the same period of time.
It is anticipated that Amerige Court will increase business revenues and property values in the downtown area. The city of Fullerton is currently working Pelican Properties to make accommodations for parking during the construction period.
Erin Craton
Fullerton Chamber of Commerce
Affordable Housing
However the housing debate between the Disney Resort and the city of Anaheim ultimately plays out, one thing is for sure: The conflict has focused attention on the affordable housing situation here in Orange County like no other issue in recent memory.
In fact, the conflict is getting national attention in such places as Florida, Texas, Kansas and Wyoming.
The affordable housing crisis is nothing new to OC. The difficulty in providing affordable housing for the county’s workforce and others,and the implications of living in less than acceptable housing conditions such as overcrowding,has been widely reported for many years. Some of the problems more recently cited include:
– Young adults are leaving for areas where they can afford to live. According to the Census, there has been a 13% drop in young adults in the 24- to 35-age bracket living in the county since 2000. The Orange County Business Council foresees a nearly 20% decrease in population of people 25 to 34 years old in the next 20 years.
– Only about 10% of OC households can afford to buy a median priced existing home, which now is about $630,000. For a new home, it’s $763,000. A household would need to earn $171,000 a year to afford to purchase a median priced home.
– County families earning minimum wage, which is about $20,000 a year, should spend no more than $500 a month on rent. But in OC, the median rent today is about $1,300. Nearly half of renters spend more than 30% of their income on rent. A minimum wage worker would have to work 160 hours a week to rent a two-bedroom apartment.
The problems are big. But there are solutions.
First and foremost is realizing that providing quality, affordable housing is not one company’s or city’s or county’s responsibility, it’s everyone’s responsibility.
Secondly, it will take strong leadership and political will from elected officials to clear the path and establish the opportunities and programs to develop affordable housing.
Third, the public sector can’t be solely responsible for providing affordable housing; the job’s simply too big. The private sector must lend a much stronger hand through such organizations as the Building Industry Association and the Business Council, as well as their own employer-supported programs that provide housing and/or assistance to employees.
Finally, transportation and housing are so intertwined within the context of the Southern California lifestyle that it would be nearly impossible to solve the former without solving the latter.
The county’s public and private sectors must implement the programs, secure the resources, and make the commitment needed to build more affordable housing right here in Orange County. No more talk … we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
Peter Villegas
Member, Orange County Housing Trust board,
Washington Mutual Inc.
