By Braden Cartwright
Daily Post Staff Writer
The town of Portola Valley has had its housing plan revoked by the state for allegedly failing to allow housing as the plan described.
The city committed to allowing multiple units on seven different properties, including a vacant portion of Dorothy Ford Park, an abandoned tennis court and a horse pasture on Alpine Road.
But those changes still haven’t happened. The state put the town on notice on Feb. 5 and revoked the Housing Element on March 26, according to a letter from David Zisser of the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
Portola Valley is the first agency to have its 2023-2031 Housing Element revoked by the state.
Mayor’s response
Mayor Sarah Wernikoff pushed back on the state’s approach yesterday, saying that Portola Valley isn’t trying to delay the plan.
The town is small and doesn’t have a lot of resources, so making changes to allow for housing takes time, Wernikoff said.
This is the first time that Portola Valley has allowed multi-family housing, and the plan should be carried out in May, she said.
The state’s “one-size-fits-all approach interwoven with rapidly changing housing laws has overwhelmed our small town and made compliance a Herculean task,” Wernikoff said.
Builder’s remedy
This leaves the town open to the builder’s remedy, which allows developers to ignore local rules on height and density when building apartments.
The builder’s remedy has led to buildings proposed much taller than what cities would typically allow.
One developer wants to build a 300-foot tower at the old Sunset Magazine headquarters in Menlo Park. Another wants to build a 177-foot tower at Mollie Stone’s grocery store in Palo Alto.