The Neighborhood Congregational Church (NCC), located at 340 St. Ann’s Drive, has rolled out its highly anticipated plans for potential affordable housing in Laguna Beach.
The plans to provide affordable housing on the property come after a state mandate assigning Laguna Beach the task of planning for and accommodating the development of 394 housing units over the next five years.
In partnership with developer Related California, the NCC aims to completely remodel its property to accommodate 51-55 one to two-bedroom units, a step back from the initially proposed 72 units, a spiritual center, a plaza, as well as other amenities.
Each residential unit is slated to have one parking space, while the church buildings, taking approximately 7,000 square feet, will have 35 parking spaces for the church and the public.
“The goal here is to replace an existing monument in the community with a new one for the future,” Related California Chair Bill Witte said in a media briefing.
The project design intends to use elevation changes around the site to blend into the surrounding neighborhood, a community plaza that extends Glenneyre Street, a two-story sanctuary space, a courtyard for privacy and buffer for neighbors, and a modern design for the spiritual center.
NCC Pastor Rod Echols said the idea behind the church providing affordable housing was created four years ago by its congregation. The hope is to stay as a church community onsite, offer community benefits on its land and be financially sustainable.
“Three years ago, the city identified the NCC site in the Laguna Beach Housing Element as a housing opportunity site,” Echols wrote in an email. “We began to explore this option more intently at that point. There were several steps to get to the point of the preliminary plans, including a comprehensive review of the options for the site, the selection of the developer, and most recently working with an architect to design the site. Throughout the multi-year process, there have been numerous votes of the NCC membership to approve the decisions we’ve made and bring us to where we are today.”
The preliminary plans come after several months of community meetings with immediate neighbors, parents of the Montessori School of Laguna Beach, El Mirador Community Association and Village Laguna to gather feedback and address concerns.
A preference for income-qualified people who work in Laguna Beach will be prioritized for affordable housing. A lottery system will be used to allocate the affordable housing units, prioritizing local preference households.
The project aims to provide affordable housing for households between 30% and 80% of the county median income – between $33,000 to $117,000 per year. The rent will range from $800 to $2,500.
“Our proposed development will help satisfy the city’s low-income mandates,” Witte said.
However, dropping the number of units from 72 to 55 is still not enough for some residents, who fear the project is too large for the area.
“The number of units per acre is tenement style,” resident Jacob Cherub said at Tuesday’s city council meeting. “We need our council and commissions to be involved with that process…because if we’re not careful, the project will rock the lives of the people in that neighborhood. It’s going to create a housing development with the kind of units that, unlike Alice Court, are going to be borderline unlivable.”
The NCC will likely apply for state funding for the affordable housing component and then submit the full project package for city approval in November. If approved and funding secured, the project will begin construction in mid-2026.
More details on NCC’s preliminary affordable housing plans can be found at nccproject.org.
