No Plans to Build Low-Income Housing, Say City Officials

There are no immediate plans to build low-income housing in Diamond Bar, city officials said Tuesday.

That assurance followed a June 21 scoping meeting that earned the ire of some residents concerned that low income housing could soon be coming to a northeast portion of the city known as Tres Hermanos, bringing with it more crime and worsening traffic.

“Why would anyone want to vote on this?” wrote Patch reader Sylvia after reading a Diamond Bar Patch blog post on the meeting. “There are plenty of other cities out there that already have low income housing. Why not squeeze it in there instead? We moved here because we always heard that Diamond Bar was nice. It had great schools, and a good place to raise our children. Now all that is going out the window if we bring in (this) low income housing here. Take it somewhere else.”

The reaction is understandable given the complexity of the state housing mandates that, by some expert accounts, has confused a fair number of city officials and planners who must work within its regulations.

Yes, there is an area that has been identified as a potential location for low-income housing. And yes, a study of what kind of impact that type of housing would have on the area was approved. But there are no plans to build.

The city is currently working on implementing its Housing Element, which the state requires be included in the city’s General Plan. Diamond Bar updated its Housing Element in April 2011.

In essence, the state places requirements to make sure that cities do their part to build housing for all income levels. The Housing Element contains that "roadmap." The Southern California Association of Governments, through a Regional Housing Needs Assessment, determines specific housing needs for participating cities.

“Among other things, the Housing Element must identify how the City will comply with its obligation to provide housing sites to accommodate our fair share of the region’s lower income segment of the population (i.e., those households earning less than 50% of the area median income),” Diamond Bar Mayor Ling-Ling Chang wrote in an email response to Patch. “Our fair share, under the last Regional Housing Needs Assessment approved by SCAG, was 468 lower-income housing units. SCAG is likely to (raise) that number to 490 for the next RHNA cycle commencing in 2013.”

Part of the effort is conducting an environmental impact report, which is needed to set the appropriate zoning, city officials said. The rezoning program must be done by April 2013.

The proposed housing site is on undeveloped hillside land generally located along the west side of Chino Hills Parkway/Philips Ranch Road, just south of Diamond Ranch Road and Scenic Ridge Drive. It’s adjacent to Diamond Ranch High School, in the northeast portion of the city. The environmental study will focus primarily on a 78-acre portion west of Chino Hills Parkway and south of Highway 60.

It’s important to note that the city is not required to provide “housing for any economic segment,” Chang said.

“We are only obligated to zone sufficient land to provide the capacity to meet our RHNA allocation,” she said.