Below are city council candidate Jim Cunneen’s responses regarding voters’ concerns in Fountain Valley:
High Density Housing, Parking, and Traffic
As Vice-Chair of the General Plan Advisory Committee, we are currently working to update our 20-year General Plan, where about 60% of land use is residential and of that, nearly 65% is built out with single family residences. This was master planned, including narrow arterial roadways (two directional lanes) connecting many neighborhoods with parks/schools and rather limited commercial and industrial area overall.
We are known to be a “bedroom community” and that is part of why we as homeowners chose to live here and raise families. We also are blessed with one of the best elementary school districts, FVSD, which adds to the richness our culture and makes FV a really nice place to live and learn. I want to continue that tradition and beauty here.
Thus, high density housing overall does not work in our city for those reasons. Parking needs to be addressed and block-by-block solutions should be accomplished to reduce the burdens on our neighbors who have lost parking in front of their homes and streets.
Next, auxiliary dwelling units or ADUs are a possible development tool to increase our Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) numbers which were 358 units until the State of California recently assigned over 4,800 to FV. That new number is unreasonable and likely unattainable in FV. The question now is whether FV can count some portion of our ADU capacity, which according the City is about 26,000 city-wide. We should know more about this in the next couple months.
WISP and Internet Service Providers
I understand that WISP provides high speed internet using point-to-point antenna connections. This 5G technology delivers speeds that are extremely fast and easy to install, providing a cost competitive advantage over traditional internet service providers (ISP). I am not a WISP customer so do not have first hand experience with this service. I am open to exploring the benefits WISP can bring to our community and look forward to learning more in the near future.
Homeless Situation
To better understand current homelessness in our city, I interviewed our Police Chief Matt Sheppard where I learned that our homeless population generally varies from about 18 to 20 individuals per day. Further, our Police Department employs a dedicated Community Resource Officer who is also paired with an Orange County mental health specialist. This team effectively works to understand the systemic cause and support those in need while balancing their rights within the community.