‘Slow Growth’ Has Come at a Cost in Santa Barbara

Three and a half decades after protecting the picturesque coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. became a rallying cry and the source of a steely determination to keep residential developers at bay, residents are learning that slow growth has come with some steep economic, social and even environmental costs. The median price of a single-family house shot up 35% in the last year, from $960,000 to $1.3 million. Sky-high housing costs have forced 30% of the area’s 100,000 workers to drive long commutes: an average 49 miles one way from northern Santa Barbara County or 41 from Ventura County, clogging U.S. Highway 101 and choking side streets during peak drive time and increasing energy consumption and air pollution. Half a dozen Fortune 500 companies have left for less costly locations, and employers who haven’t been uprooted by the housing crisis are finding employee recruitment difficult. Santa Barbara’s College Hospital is facing strong neighborhood opposition to its proposal to build 115 town house units on the site of another shuttered hospital to help recruit nurses, technicians and pharmacists who can’t afford local housing prices. From 2001 to 2005, Santa Barbara added just 400 people to its population compared to a population surge of 10,200 in Santa Maria, the closest place that workers in the city can find housing they can buy. (www.latimes.com)
Los Angeles Times (3/6/06); Jeffrey L. Rabin and Daryl Kelley

[Return to top]

A Battle for the High Ground

In a period of housing shortages and shrinking open space, the hills north and east of downtown Los Angeles have become embroiled in a bitter, protracted dispute over development. The fight reached a flashpoint in the fall of 2004, when environmentalists in the area pressed the city council to adopt an interim control ordinance to sharply reduce the number of building permits. The proposal’s restrictions would have slowed development not just of the region’s major parcels but of all land in affected hillside areas, resulting in a backlash from home owners who objected to provisions that would have placed strict limits on floor space and grading and regulated retaining walls, setbacks and building height in ways that discourage some excesses but also limit creative design. The ordinance failed to muster the support needed for passage, but its supporters have instead turned to lobbying for its components on the regulation of grading and restrictions on hillside development. In an initial win, the council passed a tree ordinance adding Southern California black walnuts, California bays and Western sycamores to the oaks that the city protects. (www.latimes.com)
Los Angeles Times (3/7/06); Jim Newton

[Return to top]

Town Sets Sights on Quaint Alternative to ‘FEMAvilles’

Ocean Springs, Miss. Mayor Connie Moran has been thwarted in her efforts to build a neighborhood of the 300-square-foot prototype cottages that were unveiled at the International Builders’ Show as a solution to the housing rebuilding needs of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. FEMA officials explained to her that under federal law the agency can only provide housing on a temporary basis after a disaster, such as the loan of a trailer or larger mobile home for up to 18 months. As a result, the spot where Moran had envisioned rows of starter homes will soon be another post-Katrina trailer park. Eventually, 135,000 trailers will be installed in the region and Moran fears that “FEMA is creating trailer trash.” Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour’s Office of Recovery and Renewal has sent the Bush Administration a proposal to replace thousands of trailers with cottages, and the government has been asked to look for funding from various sources, not just FEMA. The cottage’s architect, Marianne Cusato, said that although no manufacturer is currently making the house, she could have them rolling off assembly lines in six weeks once she receives a big order. The cottage can probably be had for about the same cost as a trailer. (www.latimes.com)
Los Angeles Times (3/6/06); Richard Fausset

[Return to top]

Company Finds Green in Clay

Faux finisher Croft Elsaesser’s natural American Clay plaster, winner of NAHB’s Outstanding Green Product award in 2004, has struck a chord with builders and home owners looking for environmentally friendly building products. The clay plaster comes in 32 colors and is much easier to apply than regular plaster. It goes on in two coats with the thickness of a credit card and you don’t need to sand between coats, like gypsum plaster. The company has just come out with a new product, Dos Manos, that combines primer with the clay plaster, taking one step out of the process. Those who have the most trouble learning to use the clay, says Elsaesser, are traditional plasterers who have been trained to lay plaster on thick. American Clay can be re-wetted and molded easily to repair a patch, reconstituted when dry and re-used; when wet, it can be stored for four to six months. The product is about 30%-50% more expensive than paint, costing $1 to $1.20 per square foot, although some pigments cost 40 cents more. The company’s sales rose to $1.72 million in 2005 and are projected to double this year. (www.albuquerque.bizjournals.com)
New Mexico Business Weekly (3/3/06); Megan Kamerick

[Return to top]

Nationwide Rents Rise, Vacancies Dwindle

Rents for new and existing apartments in buildings with five or more units were approaching record highs as the national vacancy rate declined to a four-year low at the end of last year, according to NAHB housing analyst Elliot Eisenberg. Based on a quarter to quarter moving average constructed by Eisenberg, rents have increased steadily from the fourth quarter of 2003, when they were climbing at a rate of 1.6%, to the fourth quarter of 2005, when they were rising at a 5% pace. The vacancy rate for buildings with five or more units was 9.5% in the fourth quarter of 2005, down from 10.8% in the third quarter and lower than at any time since early 2001. “Rents are clearly highest on both coasts, median asking rents in the Midwest are at their highest levels ever and the median asking rent in the South is within $38 of its highest monthly reading,” Eisenberg said. A generally robust growth in households helps explain the first sustained increase in renter households since a surge ending in the first quarter of 1995, he added. (www.realtytimes.com)
Realty Times (3/3/06); Broderick Perkins

[Return to top]

Industry Watchdogs Warn of Credit-Booster Sites

Industry watchdogs are warning lenders and consumers alike to be cautious about Web sites offering consumers ways to artificially boost their credit scores. Seasoned Trade Lines of Largo, Fla., for instance, charges consumers $1,000 to $3,000 to artificially boost their credit ratings by adding them to established credit cardholders. The company’s Web site claims that it can add up to 200 points to a credit score in 90 days. Once a person’s score has been boosted this way, they may qualify for a loan that is higher than what they can afford, ending up in foreclosure and far worse off than they were before they got the loan, advises Constance Wilson, executive vice president of fraud protection technology provider Interthinx. (www.inman.com)
Inman News (3/10/06); Janis Mara

[Return to top]