Concerned about an apparent increase in interest from apartment developers, the Antelope Valley cities of Lancaster and Palmdale are both moving toward moratoria on multi-family units. Their moves appear to be part of a growing trend among exurban communities to reassess their policies on multi-family construction. In Lancaster, where the City Council adopted a moratorium in January, officials say they will use the moratorium period to examine whether Lancaster has an over-supply of apartment units or an over-concentration of them in low-income neighborhoods. In Palmdale, the City Council adopted a temporary 45-day moratorium in late February and extended the apartment ban by 10 months and 15 days on April 21. However, the state Department of Housing and Community Development appears likely to examine the Lancaster situation — just as it did in a similar situation in Brentwood, a fast-growing city in eastern Contra Costa County. HCD is charged with reviewing and monitoring local housing policy around the state. HCD may examine the Palmdale situation as well. Under state law (Government Code §65858), temporary moratoria are permitted for a period of up to two years with a four-fifths vote of the City Council. Lancaster followed the procedure in the last by adopting a 45-day urgency moratorium in January, followed by a second ordinance extending the moratorium for 10 months and 15 days. The moratorium does not cover projects for senior citizens. Palmdale's initial moratorium followed the same procedure. Brian Ludicke, Lancaster's deputy director of community development, said that no particular apartment proposal had stimulated the moratorium. But he added that apartment construction had been an issue in a recent City Council campaign, which resulted in the election of two new council members. He said that in addition to supply and concentration, the city will examine whether absentee apartment management has created problems for the city. "There are real problems with triplex and four-plex units," he said. "Typically, these used to be managed by an owner living in one of the units. Now we have a lot of absentee landlords." The Lancaster council approved the moratorium over the objections of the Independent Living Center of Southern California, an advocacy group for the disabled. Independent Living Center representatives argued that Lancaster should not limit apartment housing for relatively low-paid workers when, at the same time, the city has provided financial incentives for Michael's and Rite-Aid to build warehouses there. The warehouses are expected to employ more than 1,000 people, many of them in relatively low-wage jobs. Lancaster officials argued that the moratorium is needed because the city is accommodating more apartment construction than either surrounding or comparable cities. In Palmdale, the City Council began to consider a moratorium in late January, when a group of homeowners protested the city's approval of a 200-unit apartment complex for low-income residents. Palmdale Planning Director Laurie Lile said that in imposing the temporary moratorium, the council asked the city staff to examine three issues: the cost of providing services to multi-family projects; the location of vacant multi-family units within the city, and the supply of senior housing in the city. In preparing a report to the council for the April 21 meeting, the staff did not provide a recommendation on whether to extend the moratorium. When extending the ban, the city council exempted the 200-unit project that spurred the initial moratorium. According to the latest figures from the California Department of Finance, 24.3% of all housing units in Lancaster are multi-family units. That figure compares to 16.6% in neighboring Palmdale and 21.1% in the comparable community of Victorville, to the east. However, it's much lower than the figure for the state as a whole (approximately 33%) and for the six-county Southern California Association of Governments region (36%). Since 1990, Lancaster's multi-family stock has risen 17%, while Palmdale's has gone up only 5%. Cathy Creswell, HCD's deputy director for policy, said she knew little about the Lancaster situation but expected that HCD would look into it. However, she compared Lancaster to Brentwood, which imposed an apartment moratorium in 1996 but then worked with HCD to devise a new policy intended to accommodate affordable housing without creating an over-concentration of low-income residents. HCD intervened in Brentwood based on its determination that the moratorium violated the government code, which permits moratoria to protect public health and welfare. Specifically, HCD's lawyers concluded that the Legislature "could not have intended that the existence of an overconcentration of multi-family units, in residential zones where such use is permitted, in and of itself would constitute a threat to the public health, safety, and welfare." Creswell said that if the Lancaster moratorium is based on similar criteria, HCD would probably intervene there as well. The moratorium in Brentwood was stimulated by two apartment proposals by nonprofit developers engaged in low-income housing tax credit deals, according to Winston Rhoades, a planner for the city. Both were in the same part of town, Rhoades said, and the City Council became concerned about an over-concentration of multi-family units. The Brentwood situation quickly attracted the attention of HCD, which reviews and monitors local housing policy throughout the state. In recent years, HCD has encouraged local governments to accommodate affordable housing by "upzoning" properties for apartment development. HCD has also discouraged multi-family moratoria. In Brentwood, the city eventually adopted a "voluntary inclusionary housing" policy encouraging all housing developers to set aside some of their units for families of modest means. The ordinance also encourages a mix of densities by encouraging developers to provide duplexes, similar in appearance, at the entrances to single-family neighborhoods. Rhoades said that since the ordinance went into effect one project has been approved in which the developer agreed to a 10% voluntary setaside. He said the inclusionary requirement could become mandatory in the future. "We're going to be monitoring the issue," he said. Creswell said she was pleased with the Brentwood process. "Where they got to eventually was a good place," she said. According to state figures, only 13.5% of Brentwood's housing units are multi-family units. Contacts: Cathy Creswell, Department of Housing and Community Development, (916) 323-3183. Laurie Lile, City of Palmdale, (661) 267-5211 Brian Ludicke, City of Lancaster, (661) 723-6100. Winston Rhoades, City of Brentwood, (925) 634-6905