Every week at All Saints Church we put our faith into action. This week our focus is affordable housing in Pasadena. We support the proposal to rezone religious land in Pasadena for affordable housing.

The state has mandated that Pasadena make a viable plan to build almost 6,000 units of affordable housing in the next 8 years, but the city has not identified a sufficient number of sites to meet those goals. The Director of Planning, David Reyes, has said that there are not enough sites, but rezoning church land would provide much needed additional sites for affordable housing.

Ten churches in Pasadena have expressed interest in having affordable housing on their land, but most churches are either not zoned for residential housing or not zoned at a high enough density to make an affordable housing development financially feasible. Making Housing and Community Happen (MHCH) has submitted a proposal that carefully looks at each church site in the city and proposes a density limit that makes sense considering what surrounds each site.

The rezoning of church land for affordable housing needs to be “by right.” If it is not “by right” then a lot of projects won’t happen because nonprofit affordable housing developers won’t be able to invest the time and money in predevelopment due to the risk that it might be denied. They don’t have the deep pockets that for-profit developers building market rate housing do.

“By right” zoning will also put affordable housing throughout the city. To deny multifamily housing that is adjacent to single family neighborhoods is to perpetuate the racist and classist exclusionary zoning that has shaped Pasadena and many other cities in our nation. The state policy of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mandates that cities spread affordable housing equally throughout the neighborhoods. Pasadena is not yet in compliance with this policy; rezoning religious land for affordable housing is a step toward complying with this very important racial justice housing state policy.

There are ways that this zoning amendment can be written that will assure that it will work and actually produce affordable housing, and there are ways that it can be written that will assure that it will not work. MHCH has addressed these factors in their letter to the city, so we recommend that the council seriously consider what MHCH has proposed. We desperately need more affordable housing in Pasadena. We need a zoning amendment that works.

Options to Take Action:

1. Sign the Action Letters at the Action Table outside the church on Sunday morning.
2. Download pdf copies of the Action Letters that you can sign and mail.
   Action Letter to your member of the Pasadena City Council

What Is “By-Right” Development?
A by-right approval (also known as an as-of-right approval) is granted when a development proposal strictly conforms to zoning and building codes and, thus, qualifies for construction without requiring discretionary approval.

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