How can the Lompoc City Council be expected to provide enough funding to maintain an adequate level of service for a community if they must rely on low to medium-income families to provide funds (tax and fees)?
In 2018 the Lompoc city manager was reporting that 76 percent of multifamily units were in the “affordable” category. In comparison, other jurisdictions had less than 10 percent in the affordable category.
This means three-fourths of multifamily units in the city are occupied by low- to medium-income families.
In addition, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2022, 20 percent of the population in Lompoc was living in poverty.
To put this in context, the city of Gilroy, California, (population 58,000) had a poverty rate of 7.4 percent.
According to a recent conversation I had with the city manager, Lompoc with a population of 41,079, has 976 Section 8 vouchers, or 23.8 vouchers per 1,000 residents.
Contrast that with Santa Maria that has a population of 109,711 and 1,465 vouchers, or 13.4 vouchers for every 1,000 residents. Thus, Lompoc’s Section 8 voucher rate is 78 percent higher than Santa Maria’s.
This is an out-of-balance condition when compared to other communities, and has a serious impact on the ability of the city to provide needed services to the community.
According to Lompoc’s city manager, almost 85 percent of Section 8 vouchers are issued in north Santa Barbara County.
To understand this, we need to consider that over the past few decades the Lompoc City Council has frequently offered “incentives” to developers, such as waiving development fees to encourage them to build in the city. The thinking was that by doing so they would somehow reap increased sales and property taxes.
But waiving fees such as those for traffic impact mitigation simply means roads can’t be improved to handle the new traffic generated by the project.
Or, by keeping impact fees for police and fire services low or waiving them, it means the project will increase demand while not accommodating growth of these departments to meet new challenges caused by the project.
They also thought that by annexing large parcels it would produce more revenue. But, they forgot an important point — the county keeps most of the property tax when these annexations occur.
Another factor is that many low- and medium-income projects are incentivized by the state of California and pay little if any property taxes; so once again, the city loses revenue.
Lastly, the folks occupying the low-income properties have very little money to spare, so any idea that adding more of these units to our city would increase sales tax revenue isn’t viable. Because if they only have money for rent, transportation and groceries, they certainly won’t have any left over to buy taxable items.
So, exactly what services are impacted?
For one, the ability to maintain and upgrade park and recreation facilities is severely impacted. While it’s true that the city is trying to perform some repairs on park or recreation facilities, the fact remains, there are many years when park staff is minimal. In addition, any major upgrades must wait until grant opportunities are available, and even then, the city must match a portion of the grant.
The roads in residential areas are in deplorable condition. According to a February 2023 staff report, it would take about $75 million to bring these streets up to national standards for serviceable roads, and at least $9 million a year to maintain them.
Other surface streets maintained by the city are in equally bad shape; take a ride from H Street west or east on Laurel Avenue, a main thoroughfare, and you’ll see what I am talking about.
Both Police and Fire departments are understaffed, and their facilities need some serious upgrades. For example, the main fire station downtown would likely fail during an earthquake, trapping or injuring firefighters or rendering their equipment unusable.
Some of these two departments’ equipment, including vehicles, radios, body cameras and other critical items must wait until funds are available. This means citizens must wait, sometimes for several minutes for help to arrive, or the situation gets worse because all units are committed to other emergency situations.
For example, at a recent fire in a large agricultural cooler near the airport, the Fire Department had to wait nearly 30 minures for an aerial ladder and crew to arrive from Santa Maria at a critical time.
Numerous large or multi-story buildings already exist in the city and several other projects that would require the services of a ladder truck and crew are currently planned. An aerial ladder truck is a critical tool for prompt rescue and firefighting operations.
Will Lompoc ever be able to provide an adequate level of service to the people of our town? If the current trend of the county to seemingly “locate” so many low- to medium-income families in our community, it’s doubtful.
References:
Pavement staff report: https://www.cityoflompoc.com/home/showpublisheddocument/37060/638122410531030000
U.S. Census: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lompoccitycalifornia
