Housing Element Requests

Recommended site inventory changes:

Add two additional city-owned lots downtown to the site inventory.
Add all sites from the “back pocket” into the site inventory.
Add R2 sites in high opportunity areas South of El Camino with density assumptions derived based on SB 10’s allowance for 30’ heights and ten-plexes.

Recommended programmatic changes

1.2 Eliminate Parking Minimums Standards for Affordable Housing Developments

1.3 Review and Update Ordinance and Precise Plan Residential Standards

1.4: Religious and Community Assembly Sites for Housing

1.8 Park Land Ordinance Update

1.11 No Net Loss of Housing Element Sites

1.14 Cumulative Fees

1.15 Replacement of the Gatekeeper Process

2.6 Affirmatively Further Fair Housing

4.1 Development Streamlining and Processing Revisions

1.2 Eliminate Parking MinimumsStandards for Affordable Housing Developments

Codify exemptions to parking minimumsstandards for 100% affordable housing developments.

Objectives and Metrics

Streamline review by reducing studies and uncertainty, and facilitate100% affordablehousing developments by eliminating parking standards minimums

Milestones and Timeframe

Update zoning ordinance and (if necessary) zoning or Precise Plan amendments by December 31, 2024.

1.3 Review and Update Ordinance and Precise Plan Residential Standards

Review development standards to ensure they reflect contemporary building types, improve ease of implementation and improve consistency across districts.

Ensure development projects can meet their allowed densities and are economically feasible. Conduct a development prototype study, update definitions as necessary for consistency between plans and districts, and revise multifamily development standards in major districts (including R3) and Precise Plans to ensure projects are economically feasibleand can meet their allowed density.
Compile, evaluate and refine requirements outside the Zoning Ordinance, include Heritage tree preservation and Public Works requirements
Ensure that zoning code is updated to reflect densities and other standards as required by state law (e.g., SB 478)
Adopt a TDM Ordinance that provides clear requirements for residential trip reduction across all precise plans and zoning districts and update precise plans as needed. Through the ordinance, study the cost of TDM requirements on typical residential developments, and allow residential developers to meet TDM goals through lower-cost options. Update the zoning ordinance to allow residential parking reductions for projects that implement TDM.
Study live-work as an allowed residential use near retail areas, major corridors and other viable locations
Mitigate each constraint identified by Opticos to housing development in R3 areas, including at minimum the constraints identified in their October 13th, 2020 presentation.
Revise Bonus FAR provisions in relevant precise plans to be authorized via a ministerial pathway under objective criteria.

Objectives and Metrics

Streamline the development review process by updating definitions for standards such as height, open area, common usable open area, floor area ratio, personal storage, pavement coverage and building coverage, and ensuring definitions are consistent with contemporary building types and across the Zoning Ordinance and precise plans.
Reduce government constraints in multifamily zoning districts (R3, R4, CRA) and four Precise Plans (El Camino Real, San Antonio, North Bayshore and East Whisman) by ensuring that projects can build up to their allowed density.
Reduce government constraints by allowing reduced parking for projects that implement TDM.
Expand small business access to opportunity by creating live-work spaces in appropriate residential areas

Milestones and Timeframe

Conduct prototype study and evaluate standards outside the Zoning Ordinance by June 30, 2024 2026
Update Zoning Ordinance and precise plans to reflect reduced standards and live-work by December 31, 2024 2026
Adopt TDM ordinance by December 31, 2026

1.4: Religious and Community Assembly Sites for Housing

Religious and community assembly sites are typically larger sites and are located throughout the City, with several in the City’s highest opportunity neighborhoods. This program would allow affordable multifamily housing on these sites.

Objectives and Metrics

Create more affordable housing in the City’s highest opportunity neighborhoods by allowing deed-restricted affordable multifamily housing up to 3 stories on non-profit, religious and community assembly sites in the R1 and R2 districts. Typical densities are expected to be approximately 10030 to 40dwelling units per acre on the residential portions of the sites. Incentivize such development through ongoing actions, such as outreach, funding and promotional materials

Milestone and Timeframe

Complete zoning amendments by December 31, 2024 2026, including outreach to affordable housing developers, non-profit and advocacy organizations and religious and community assembly properties; development of standards and incentives; and creation of ongoing monitoring and promotional materials.

Responsibility: Planning Division

Potential Funding: Development Services Fund

AFFH Program: Access to Opportunity

1.8 Park Land Ordinance Update

Complete Phase 2 of the Park Land Dedication Ordinance update and the Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan. Analysis that would support fee reductions could include:

Review of best-practices for parkland acquisition funding
Pursuit of grants and other funding sources
Review of the City’s population density assumptions
Opportunities for private development to provide public open space through existing zoning requirements (e.g., POPAs)
Development incentives and exceptions to standards for public open space

This responds to input received from market-rate housing developers during the outreach process (see Chapter 1: Introduction, Public Participation section).

Objectives and Metrics:

Reduce constraints on residential development by reviewing and revising the park land dedication requirements to maintain access to high quality open space while reducing the financial impact to residential development.
Maintain the existing goal of providing 3 acres of park land per person.
Recalibrate the park in-lieu fee so the value of land is estimated using average citywide land costs rather than the land costs for recently completed residential projects in the respective density categories.

Milestone and Timeframe:

By December 31, 2024, including adoption of the Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan (addressing anticipated open space needs and long-term funding strategies) and adoption of reduced fees, alternate mitigations and/or other programs to reduce costs on residential.

1.11 No Net Loss of Housing Element Sites

Monitor and update the availability of sites to accommodate the remaining unmet RHNA in accordance with No Net Loss rules. If a shortfall is identified in any income category, identify necessary replacement sites, considering, but not limited to “Back Pocket” areas discussed during adoption of the Housing Element Update. Back Pocket areas included:

R2 sites in high opportunity areas, such as South of El Camino Real and Old Mountain View.
R3 sites without existing residential tenants.
Sites under Program 1.5
Sites under Program 4.2
Moffett Boulevard Change Area
Neighborhood shopping areas other than General Plan Village Centers (such as Bailey Park Shopping Center, Monta Loma Shopping Center, and Leong Drive), including standards to replace or preserve neighborhood commercial uses
Downtown Transit Center
Other nonresidential sites south of El Camino Real

The City will annually report on projects under review to see if they reduce any buffers below 5%. If they do, the City will initiate a No Net Loss rezoning process.

Objectives and Metrics

Ensure adequate capacity for the City’s RHNA by maintaining a list of opportunity sites that accommodates the City’s RHNA and initiating a rezoning process for new sites if the buffer falls below 5 percent, after accounting for development projects under review

Milestone and Timeframe

If the City receives an application for a new construction development project on a housing element site with fewer (or greater) units at the given income level than shown in the site inventory (including pipeline sites), those units will be provisionally removed from (or added to) the inventory. If the project is approved (building permit approval for ministerial projects), they will be officially removed from (or added to) the inventory.
Annually update and report on the provisional and official inventories.

If the moderate-income provisional inventory falls below 5 percent buffer, transfer one or more sites from the lower-income provisional inventory to the moderate income provisional inventory (prioritizing lowest-opportunity neighborhoods) until the moderate-income provisional inventory is at least 5 percent buffer.
If the moderate-income official inventory falls below 5 percent buffer, transfer the sites from the lower-income official inventory.
If the lower-income provisional inventory falls below 5 percent buffer, initiate the no net loss rezoning process.

Make necessary findings on projects that reduce the number of units on Housing Element sites
If the number of units in the official inventory falls below the RHNA, rezone additional sites within six months

1.14 Cumulative Fees

Review all imposed fees, including community benefit requirements, on housing developments to check compliance under recent changes to the Mitigation Fee Act, and set a maximum per-unit cap on the totality of the fees. Additionally, prevent new levels on fees from being a significant constraint on development, to be determined by per-fee feasibility studies. In this section, cumulative fees are understood broadly to include impact fees, in-lieu fees, community benefits payments, and TDM/TDA-related payments.

Objectives and Metrics

Ensure city imposed fees are reasonable and not a significant constraint on development by capping per-unit cumulative fees at 100% AMI for a family of two.
Comply with the Mitigation Fee Act.

Milestone and Timeframe

Finish review of existing fees, set new fees, and set maximum per-unit cumulative fees equal to 100% AMI for a family of two by December 31, 2024.
Annual review after December 31, 2024 to conduct a feasibility study that encompasses each fee as well as the cumulative effect on feasibility of all fees taken together.

1.15 Replacement of the Gatekeeper Process

Replace the Gatekeeper process with an ‘early consideration’ process, outlined as follows:

For non-exempt requests for a zoning change, Precise Plan amendment or General Plan amendment, staff will request early consideration from city council on those requests provided the requests reasonably comply with constraints imposed by state law and the general plan. This early consideration from council will be provided within 90 days of the request and will provide staff with direction on whether to pursue further processing of the application. If the project applicant requests it, more than 90 days can be allotted for council to provide early consideration on a request.
Requests will also be reviewed by council on the merits of the project taken on its own so that projects do not compete with each other.

Council will also expand the scope of requests that are automatically further processed by staff. Council will provide staff with a minimum set of requirements for housing projects that, if met, will greenlight staff to further process requests for a rezoning, precise plan amendment, or general plan amendment.

Eliminate the gatekeeper authorization process, which requires affirmative direction from the Council to submit an application, for residential or mixed-use projects with a significant residential component. The City will process applications for General Plan Amendments and rezonings with reasonable requirements and check-in points.

Objectives and Metrics

Allow the development community to propose projects that provide significant amounts of new housing. The City will annually report to HCD the size of the application queue for the ‘early consideration’ process and the number of non-exempt units approved through zoning changes, Precise Plan amendments, or General Plan amendments.

Milestone and Timeframe

Transition to an ‘early consideration’ process by December 31, 2025
Ensure all of the projects currently in the Gatekeeper process get heard by council by December 31, 2026 if the applicant requests it.

2.6 Affirmatively Further Fair Housing

Continue to prepare and update the City's Assessment of Fair Housing and implement actions as necessary to remove barriers to fair housing choice, as required by HUD and State Housing Element law.

Objectives and Metrics

Remove impediments to fair housing and provide equitable access to housing and opportunity.
Plan to create housing choice in high opportunity areas to mitigate patterns of segregation. Housing choice will be measured by two metrics. First, the City will track the number of affordable units constructed South of the El Camino Precise Plan, with an objective to build at least 100 units of affordable housing there by July 31, 2027.
Create an educational equity target by 2024 as follows. The city will identify a percentage of the overall market-rate and affordable housing RHNA targets that should be built in each neighborhood or within each elementary school enrollment boundary. These percentages shall ensure that at least 33% of the RHNA is evenly allocated among these geographic boundaries (e.g., if using the 7 elementary school boundaries, at least 33% / 7 = 4.7% of the overall RHNA should get built in each school’s area).

Milestone and Timeframe

Update Assessment of Fair Housing as required by HUD with the first update completed in 2023, and subsequent updates based on HUD guidance.
Implement necessary actions continuously as needed.
If 100 units of affordable housing are not constructed South of the El Camino Precise Plan by July 31, 2027, the City will survey landowners South of the El Camino Precise Plan on regulatory barriers to housing development, forward the survey results to HCD, and request HCD’s reasonable recommendations on programs, including but not limited to streamlining and zoning reform, that would create more housing across the income spectrum South of the El Camino Real Precise Plan. The city will implement HCD’s reasonably recommended programs to the satisfaction of HCD by July 31, 2029.
By July 31, 2027, the City will identify whether at least half of the units required by the educational equity metric have been built and commit to additional programs (including SB 10 rezonings) if these targets are not met.

4.1 Development Streamlining and Processing Revisions

Implement processing procedures and technology improvements that will reduce Planning and

Building Permit review timelines to address constraints resulting from the duration of staff review.

Review and update the City's affordable Housing NOFA process to improve coordination and communication internally (e.g., coordination between Housing, Planning and other departments and internal processes in Planning and other departments) and with applicants. Encourage affordable housing developers to work with outside funding sources to leverage the City's local funds to the maximum extent possible. Initial steps in the review include additional developer roundtables, garnering consultant advice, and scanning other public agency processes for best practices. In addition, the City will continue to facilitate and support 100% affordable housing development in the review process, by allocating dedicated staff and utilizing streamlining opportunities. This responds to input received from affordable housing developers during the outreach process (see Chapter 1: Introduction, Public Participation section).
Review development and post-development processes, timelines, and approval body levels to streamline permitting processes. Adopt procedures that improve internal coordination and staff throughput. This responds to input received from market-rate housing developers during the outreach process (see Chapter 1: Introduction, Public Participation section). Implement all high-priority recommendations from the Development Review Assessment (“Matrix Study”), including the development of a new permitting software system.
Acquire tools and software that will improve development review, monitoring of housing supply, management of funding, transparency of data and approvals, and other processes involved in housing development for staff and public use.
Create a ministerial approval pathway by 2025 for approving applications for all projects that are code-compliant and meet the City's inclusionary requirements, provided an applicant has submitted all materials and requirements as stipulated under SB 330.

In addition, Program 1.3 will streamline development review by improving the consistency,

transparency and relevance of the standards that affect residential development.

Objectives and Metrics

Facilitate at least 1,100 units of 100% affordable development by streamlining the funding approval process, prioritizing staff review, utilizing State streamlining (e.g., SB35)
Reduce the number of resubmittals and time between application completeness and approval through process and approval body revisions
Bring the city fully into compliance with new transparency legislation by posting project-specific fees online.

Milestone and Timeframe

Bring City into full compliance with transparency requirements as soon as possible.
Review and update NOFA process by June 30, 2024.
Update the Zoning Ordinance process and approval bodies by December 31, 2026
Fully implement electronic review software by June 30, 2024. Acquire additional software and tools as identified.
By December 31st, 2023, complete all high-priority recommendations from the Development Review Assessment (“Matrix Study”) that do not rely on acquisition of new software. These are recommendations 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 31, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, and 45 in the Matrix Study.
By December 31st, 2024, complete all high-priority recommendations from the Development Review Assessment (“Matrix Study”) that do rely on acquisition of new software. These are recommendations 8, 17, 18, 22, and 47 in the Matrix Study.