BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
Developers have an open door to submitting housing projects that exceed city zoning codes in 11 of 14 Mid-Peninsula cities and counties because the communities haven’t completed a housing plan required by the state.
Cities and counties were required to have an approved Housing Element by Jan. 31. A Housing Element is a plan showing where new housing, including low-income housing, could be built.
If a city is out of compliance, developers can blow off city zoning rules and submit larger-than-allowed projects as long as 20% of the units are subsidized.
And, under the law, cities can’t stop these projects.
They’re known as “builder’s remedy” projects.
The most recent “builder’s remedy” project submitted on June 5 to Palo Alto to replace the Creekside Inn at 3400 El Camino Real with 185 apartments, four townhomes and 200 hotel rooms.
Los Altos and Mountain View have also both received applications for large projects citing the builder’s remedy clause.
Cities can also get sued and be stripped of local control if they don’t get their Housing Element plans approved by the state. Aside from zoning for new homes, Housing Elements must list properties where new housing could go and programs that make housing easier to develop.
The state approved Mountain View’s Housing Element last month, but because it wasn’t approved until May, three developers submitted builder’s remedy projects to the city.
Mountain View, along with Los Altos Hills and Redwood City are the three cities in the Post’s distribution area that are no longer at risk of the builder’s remedy or other penalties.
Meanwhile, Santa Clara County only recently sent its first draft of its Housing Element to the state for review. The plan relies on Stanford and an old golf course in unincorporated San Jose as potential housing sites, and county planners are shooting to finish it by the end of the year — 11 months after the Jan. 31 deadline.
Cities that have submitted two drafts to the state are working on a third draft, with some, such as Menlo Park, hoping to send a new draft in the fall.
There are six cities in the Post’s distribution area working on third drafts of their Housing Element — Menlo Park, Atherton, Belmont, East Palo Alto, San Carlos and Woodside. Los Altos sent its most recent draft to the state in May and should get feedback from the state on June 30.
Controversy in Atherton
Atherton has had difficulty getting residents to sign off on the idea of apartments in their town, including receiving a letter of opposition from Steph and Ayesha Curry about the inclusion of one project in the Housing Element. The town is holding community meetings and asking residents for input on the new draft.
Atherton and Woodside — along with Hillsborough and Portola Valley — were slammed in a recent Civil Grand Jury report that called on the small towns to stop using accessory dwelling units, called granny units, in their Housing Elements until the towns are able to prove that people who earn lower incomes actually live in them.
Meanwhile, San Mateo County, which is working on its second iteration of its Housing Element, has to find new locations for some of its 2,833 homes after Belmont officials announced plans to incorporate a portion of Harbor Boulevard the county had previously been planning for housing. Now, the county is looking at trying to find locations in West Menlo Park for apartments.
With the population going down, why is this necessary again, Gavin?
Menlo Park could have protected themselves for a bit in the last election by forcing R1 zoning changes to be voted on. They blew it, and now the City Council can rezone anyone’s home for high density.