In Santa Paula, Ventura County's poorest city, a debate is heating up over how much affordable housing is too much.

The issue has bubbled up at a series of community workshops on the city's Housing Element Update, a blueprint for the amount and type of housing to be built in Santa Paula over the next six years. The next public hearing on the document is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Santa Paula Community Center.

On another front, affordable housing is at the heart of a case before a Ventura County Superior Court judge that has pitted the Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit affordable housing group, against the city of Santa Paula.

The lawsuit centers on whether the Santa Paula City Council was within its rights in denying a large affordable housing development with for-sale homes and apartments planned for working families and farmworkers.

'The right balance'

Although the court case and the public discussion on the Housing Element Update are quite separate, the outcome from either one will likely have a profound effect on how Santa Paula grows over the next several years.

"The community is looking for the right balance," said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz.

It's not just about affordable housing. Bobkiewicz said the upcoming political debate over a 1,500-home market-rate development, dubbed East Area One, has the same potential to shift the mix of housing within the city. The project is set to go before voters in June.

In Santa Paula, a century-old blue-collar city of 30,000 whose median income is the lowest in the county, the debate centers on whether the city should continue to push for more low-income housing development or whether it should encourage the construction of bigger, high-end homes.

At public meetings on the Housing Element Update, some residents have argued that the city has carried a disproportionate share of the county's low-income development, while others contended that housing in the city is still way out of reach for most residents.

This debate over the amount and character of housing that has come up in the Housing Element Update process is happening in other communities across the state.

Capping affordable homes

The state mandates that every city and county in California assign itself the number of homes and the kind of homes that need to be built to meet the growing population. These so-called Regional Housing Needs Assessment numbers are meant to give communities a framework for development every seven years.

In the case of Santa Paula, that number is now 2,241 homes with about 38 percent of those affordable to poor and working-class families. There are those in the city who support adding low- and very low-income housing with high density, said Mayor Bob Gonzales.

"I've listened to what they have to say," Gonzales said. "But there's another faction that's saying enough already,' and that we should wait and not approve any more until there's a balance."

Gonzales added he was not specifically talking about the project that is the subject of the Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. lawsuit.

That case was triggered by the Santa Paula City Council's denial in August of Cabrillo's planned 150-unit Plaza Amistad development, which would include affordable for-sale homes, farmworker housing and rental units.

City attorney Karl H. Berger said the court case is totally unrelated to the Housing Element Update.

The city's denial centered on a request for a zoning change regarding things like building heights, setbacks and landscaping, Berger said.

The suit centers on whether the City Council has the legislative authority to deny the project, according to the city attorney.

But Cabrillo's attorney, Nancy Kierstyn Schreiner, said the case is really about the city's obligations under state law to promote the construction of affordable housing.