With nearly 700 new housing units to hit the Claremont housing market in the next couple years, Claremont officials are making room for the possibility of a few more.

The Claremont Planning Commission will conduct a public hearing on Tuesday, January 7 to review proposed changes to the housing element of the city’s general plan. The meeting takes place at 7 p.m. in the City Council Chamber.

The update, required by law, is needed to identify undeveloped land in the city of Claremont that might be viable to meet the area’s housing needs through 2021, according to Brian Desatnik, director of community development. Enacted in 1969, the housing element requires local governments to sufficiently plan for the current and anticipated housing needs of all economic segments of a community. Claremont’s housing element, required to undergo review every five to seven years, was last updated in 2006.

Of the 694 housing units currently being added to the Claremont market, 80 are being developed as moderate-income housing, Brian Desatnik verified. If approved by the planning commission and ultimately the city council, the city will have identified several more potential spaces for affordable housing options.

“We’ve looked at around 20 vacant or unutilized properties and ranked them in order of which ones would be most suitable to be developed in higher density for an affordable project,” Mr. Desatnik said.

The top two potential spaces identified in the housing update are the lot at Mills Avenue, between Scottsbluff Drive and Clarion Place—currently owned by the Golden State Water Company—and the vacant lot next to the Richard Hibbard dealership at Indian Hill Boulevard. Both sites will need to be rezoned as a residential overlay district, allowing developers the option to build higher density affordable housing, according to Mr. Desatnik. The lots are currently zoned as residential and commercial/professional, respectively.

Developers have expressed interest in the vacancy next to the Hibbard dealership, not for affordable housing at this point but market rate residential, according to Mr. Desatnik. The property at Mills Avenue remains open.  

The full report on the city’s housing element update may be viewed on the city’s website at www.ci.claremont.ca.us. For more information, contact Associate Planner Joanne Hwang at (909) 399-5353 or by email at jhwang@ci.claremont.ca.us.

—Beth Hartnett

news@claremont-courier.com