Six candidates are running for two at-large Seaside City Council seats in the Tuesday, Nov. 3, election, and affordable housing dominates the race.

Councilmember Alex Miller is giving up his seat to run for mayor, leaving incumbent Rita Burks as the only sitting council member seeking re-election. She faces five challengers: Lacey Raak, Ken Fittro, Karla Lobo, Annalisa Mitchell and Dennis Volk, according to the Monterey County elections candidate list.

Monterey County NOW first reported on the race Oct. 1, covering five of the six candidates' positions. All five who responded named housing affordability as a top priority, though their approaches differ.

Raak, a nonprofit executive director, pointed to Seaside's large renter population. About 61% of the city's housing units are renter-occupied, according to Point2Homes. "We need more [housing] supply but supply alone is not going to solve the problem," Raak told Monterey County NOW. She proposed building affordable workforce housing on state-owned land such as the CSU Monterey Bay campus, along with co-op housing and microhousing.

Fittro, a retired special education teacher, administrator and swim coach, said he would push the city to strengthen partnerships with nonprofit developers such as CHISPA, Monterey County's largest private nonprofit housing developer. CHISPA has built or renovated 2,447 single-family homes and apartments for low- and moderate-income residents across Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties since 1980.

Burks has served on the council since 2022 and works as principal of the Dual Language Academy of the Monterey Peninsula. She said she would pursue a mix of market-rate and affordable housing, cut unnecessary development costs, streamline permitting for affordable projects and leverage city-owned land.

Lobo, a former member of the Seaside Parks and Recreation Commission, said she would push to modify the state's Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) to require more below-market-rate units and streamline the city's permitting process. She wrote in her candidate statement that she has worked across the public, private and nonprofit sectors for more than 30 years.

The field is crowded. Mitchell serves as president of the Hamilton Ellis Martin Plaza Board, which oversees a 192-unit affordable housing community on Yosemite Street in Seaside. She also sits on the Seaside Civic League board. Mitchell said the city needs to protect existing affordable housing and build more so that residents' children and grandchildren can afford to return after college.

Volk, listed on the county ballot as a businessman, did not respond to Monterey County NOW's interview requests.

Ballots will be mailed to all active registered voters by Monday, Oct. 5. The voter registration deadline is Monday, Oct. 19, though same-day conditional registration is available through Election Day.