Water park
ary after multiple fires and years of noncompliance on landscaping, parking lot and permitting issues. The waterpark, formerly known as Pharaoh’s Lost Kingdom, had its permit to operate revoked twice before, and both of those times it was restored.
Since the last public discussion of the state’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment in May, a change to the city’s map of proposed locations to allow housing has added the Splash Kingdom property.
The state is asking the city to zone enough land for housing to accommodate 3,516 potential housing units, up about 45% from the last period.
“The city’s obligation under state law is to provide sufficient land that
is zoned appropriately to accommodate the RHNA numbers,” Brian Desatnik, director of Development Services, told the council Tuesday. “We’re not obligated to construct the housing.”
The proposal for housing locations as it currently stands has 120 acres of land that would need to be rezoned, most of it near Citrus Valley High School, and on the west end of the city south of Citrus Avenue.
“There was no way that we were going to meet our RHNA numbers without looking at some commercial and/or industrial property” for rezoning, Desatnik said.
The Splash Kingdom land is currently penciled in for moderate-income housing, which the state requires to be 12 to 30 dwelling units per acre.
“We think this would likely be a mixed-use zoning
that would allow commercial and residential,” Desatnik said of that site. He added the land is not far from large complexes in the “Donut Hole” just outside the city limits.
In order to facilitate the transition, Desatnik said staff will likely propose putting a stop to industrial proposals in areas slated for rezoning while the city works on the housing element update. That moratorium could be before the council at the first meeting in September.
Any projects in the works still can be submitted until then, Desatnik said, but “they do not become vested until a building permit is issued.”
He said he didn’t see any projects getting to that point before the council considers the moratorium.
If the city does not zone enough land for housing, the state and developers
can sue, Desatnik said, and the city could lose local control of its permitting process and be disqualified for state funding.
The 6th Cycle Housing Element Update covers the years 2022 through 2029.
The deadline for the city to adopt the update is Oct. 15, though there is a 120-day grace period. The city will have three years after the adoption to accomplish the rezoning and necessary General Plan amendments.
Final approval of the update, which includes the rezoning proposals, likely will happen before the council by the end of the year.
More information is available at cityofredlands.org/post/housingelement-update or by contacting Catherine Lin, a principal planner with the city, at clin@cityofredlands.org or 909-3079308.