We Get Letters: Human Services Commission Takes a Stand on Housing on Church Property

Last week, the Human Services Commission, approved its excellent letter to the City Council in support of a Religious Facilities Housing Ordinance.  It included the following:

“To make it possible for a congregational organization that feels led to provide affordable housing on their underutilized property, we support a zoning amendment that would apply only for interested churches, mosques, temples, and the like that would:

• Be sensitive to the adjacent zoning and character of its neighborhood
• Allow for the right density that would attract a high-quality affordable housing developer
• Allow for enough density that could attract funding sources for larger sites such as tax credits that would bring investments to our city
• Allow religious institutions’ land that are zoned for commercial use to also have a residential designation
• Include “by-right” provisions, which will require all projects to go through a design review process. Delayed approvals make housing more expensive and make projects less attractive to high quality developers.”

Since churches that might build affordable housing on their land are distributed throughout the city, the City Council should pass this zoning amendment so that low income people can afford to live in all parts of our city.

Many thanks to the members of the Human Services Commission!

Sonja Berndt
Pasadena

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