Council Meeting: Affordable Housing Project Goes Forward

The Santee Wednesday night, and spent most of the meeting discussing details of the plan for a that was approved by the Council.

The meeting began with a proclamation affirming that Santee is a Tree City USA for the ninth year in a row. It means at least $2 per capita must be spent each year on a Community Forestry Program and an Arbor Day festival, the , must be held.

Then the Council approved the resolution designating certain City staff to submit the required documents necessary for the City to recoup about $545,000 of money spent to repair the that caved in this winter. San Diego County municipalities are eligible for Federal Emergency Funds to help repairs due to the heavy winter storms, and Santee is attempting to take advantage of these.

The longest portion of the meeting was spent going over the finer points of plans for building an .

The Council was quite concerned with the issue of not enough parking being provided on site. State law requires one parking spot per low income single bedroom unit, Santee code requires 1.5 spots. The complex that was approved by the council will be built short three spots (according to state law), with no guest spots, but with about 20 parking spots open on the on Via Zapador cul de sac.

Here's the situation: This redevelopment money must be spent on affordable housing, and must be spent assoon as possible, or the funds will likely be taken by the state in th near future.

"If we don't use it, we lose it to the State," said Councilmember .

Three existing single family homes will have to be removed from the property, to be replaced by the more efficient housing.

When it came down to it, the half hour spent debating the parking issue came to no real resolution, but the Council had to take a vote. The vote was 4-1, with voting against the resolution. The need to get this project going outweighed any Council doubts about parking.

Finally, the Council announced that they had appointed , School Board candidate, SPARC member and local , to the Community Oriented Policing Committee, the seat that Councilmember had to give up in order to sit on the Council.