LHC

  The Lafayette Homeowners Council (LHC) recognizes and supports over 50 neighborhood homeowners’ groups as well as individual homeowners within the City of Lafayette. Whether condominium, town home, or single family home, the homeowners within the City form the backbone of residents who have chosen to live, participate, and invest in their neighborhoods and our community.

Our residents have chosen to live in Lafayette because of its natural beauty, its many amenities and quality of life available to all residents. We believe a variety of housing types and neighborhood choices are part of what makes Lafayette a very special place.

The LHC supports the creation of both owner-occupied and rental housing units available to people of all economic levels.

The LHC strongly supports inclusiveness and diversity in Lafayette, which makes Lafayette a better and more vibrant place to live.

The LHC highly values protecting our open space, green hills, protected ridge lines, parks & trails, great schools and vibrant downtown commercial district. We support increasing the quantity and quality of these community assets.

The LHC supports City efforts and those by individuals and groups to limit state control of land use decisions. We believe in local control.

The City faces the challenge of meeting State mandated addition of 2,114 housing units within Lafayette. This includes the addition of affordable housing units as well as market rate units. The LHC supports and encourages the City to explore ways to reduce this excessively high number of units.

Our downtown district with its pedestrian and bicycle access to our commercial corridor, a variety of amenities, and a BART station is where the LHC recommends the majority of the new housing units be built and is most logically suited. This can provide a greater diversity of housing types, both rental and owner occupied. We see the appeal of this area growing as housing units are built. It is important to note that 943 of the 2,114 units must be produced in Low Income and Very Low Income categories which can be built by developers using economies of scale. Therefore, apartment buildings, condominiums, and town homes are the only way to realistically create such a high number of affordable units and it makes sense to locate these units in or near the downtown core.

Outside the downtown and east/west corridor, we are a town of hills and valleys with limited access and vehicle traffic using curvy two lane, narrow roads. Several of these areas have also been identified as high-fire danger zones or are surrounded by them. Housing in these neighborhoods is mostly single family homes. This type of housing provides quieter, semi- rural neighborhoods that many residents desire and are part of their lifestyle choice. We support the development of Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) housing in these areas but believe that multi-unit housing would significantly change the character and feel of these neighborhoods, exacerbate the access problems, and increase exposure to fire and safety risks

– all without providing for the affordable housing that is required.

While not perfect, the current Terraces project is supported by the LHC because it not only provides 315 new housing units, but it also designates 63 of those units for affordable housing.

The LHC also supports reasonable development of the BART parking lots. While we have concerns for development close to a high-fire danger zone area, development of this area would provide housing types close to the amenities of our downtown core area. We believe significant parking for both residents and commuters would also have to be provided as part of any development plan.

People generally have a choice of where to live and the LHC supports the need for development of increased housing stock for all income levels. But we need to be careful about changing with a broad stroke the character of our city and neighborhoods. Not all areas should try to be converted to mini-cities. Suburbs like Lafayette exist for many good reasons and should be nurtured for all they are and provide.

May 25, 2021