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Local Policy Change: Housing Elements in San Mateo County

Jeremy Levine, Policy Manager

May 31, 2024

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Intro: Who am I?

Policy Manager w/ HLC

“Work with communities and their leaders to produce and preserve quality affordable homes”

Changing policies at the root cause of the housing crisis

A quality mushroom I found!

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Agenda

An hour of bliss

Housing element overview (5 minutes)
Policies from housing elements (25 minutes)
Organizing and housing elements (10 minutes)
Q&A (20 minutes)

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Housing Elements:

What are they?

What is a housing element?

A story about housing and history
A vision for a city’s future
A plan to include new people

Why do they matter?

Updated every 8 years
Powerful tool for policy goals

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Analysis

Needs of community
Constraints to affordable homes
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing focused primarily on sites and zoning

What is in a housing element?

Site Inventory

Law enforced more strongly
Cities must respond to public comments
Larger scope, including equity

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Policies

The product of all this effort

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What changed from prior cycles?

Enforcement

Increased resources for HCD
New laws continued increasing rigor of process
Extended technical review in response to input

Advocacy

HLC and partners funded for review
Network of advocacy groups
Multi-pronged legislative and legal strategy

This cycle was in many ways a continuation of prior cycles. Housing elements have always been the primary tool by which CA cities plan for new policies.

(Click) Still, this cycle has some differences to prior cycles. HCD had more money and staff for review; new laws have for decades increased the rigor of the process, and this cycle saw several changes, such as the addition of an Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Analysis. And HCD spent more time on review, in large part because of public comments.

(Click) And that’s where advocacy came in. Prior housing elements have never been so heavily scrutinized, organizations like HLC have never had the resources to provide such detailed input. Together with a network of advocacy organizations, including groups like Peninsula for Everyone, Public Advocates, and others, we were able to provide cities with extensive feedback. HLC focused on legislative change, while other groups enforced legal penalties. We might not always agree with those groups' choices for lawsuits, but their lawsuits have incidental benefits

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Tracking Housing Elements

HLC’s Newest Resources

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Predicting the future

URL for those on computer: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MbI2tZvZFbQjF_A_isiEeIrvSxtyhzt9sV_h21NXHdg/edit?usp=sharing

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Using the Tracker Effectively

Helpful for:

Setting policy priorities
Comparing changes across cities

Unhelpful for:

Judging if a city is “good” on a particular issue
Single-handedly ending housing crisis

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Three Areas of Policy

For convenience

Subsidy

Constraints

Tenant Protections

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Subsidy

Many forms

Fee waivers

Commercial Linkage Fee updates for revenue

Publicly owned sites

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Menlo Park Parking Lots

8 city-owned lots
Minimum 345 affordable homes
Priority for deep affordability

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Portola Valley

Ford Field Site

City underwent feasibility analysis
2.5 buildable acres
20 du/ac minimum

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South San Francisco MSB Site

2-acre site near BART
Defunct city-owned building
Inclusion in housing element insulates council

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Half Moon Bay

555 Kelly Site

40 homes for farmworkers
Partnership between city and county
Inclusion in housing element backstops the developer

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Other Sites Include:

Redwood City

San Mateo

Hillsborough

Burlingame

Half Moon Bay Pt. II

San Bruno

Affordable housing at 611 Heller Street and 1580 Maple Street, city-owned parcels

Two projects, 4th & Railroad and 4142 S ECR

100 homes at Tobin Clark site, 16 at Town Hall

1500 Ralston, RFP issued 2023

880 Stone Pine Road

Issue RFP for city-owned site by 2026

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Constraints

Entitlements & Zoning

Parking reductions

Streamlining, especially for affordable housing

Rezoning comprehensively

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Reversing the Course of History

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CA Housing Permits per Year, Statewide

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South San Francisco Zoning Map

Maximum densities of 200 du/ac
Pre-existing multi-family and commercial areas

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San Carlos Zoning Chart

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Other Changes Include:

100% Single-Family Suburbs

San Mateo

Belmont

Menlo Park

Redwood City

Introducing first multi-family zoning in history

2x+ allowable densities in some areas

No density cap in Village Specific Plan

2-3x allowable density downtown

20 additional du/ac for all downtown zones

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Limitation of Constraints Reduction

Modest reform at most

Significant improvement … relative to challenging status quo

Limited rezoning in single-family neighborhoods

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Missing Middle Housing in SFZs

San Mateo, Menlo Park

Foster City

San Bruno

Portola Valley

SB 10 implementation (in 2026)

3 ADUs by-right per lot

2 homes, attached or detached, per lot by right

Opt-in rezoning for 6 homes per lot

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Tenant Protections

Uplifting most vulnerable, building coalitions

Anti-harassment

Just cause for eviction

Rental registries

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Different Approaches to Protection

San Mateo, Belmont, Burlingame

South San Francisco

Menlo Park, Foster City

Redwood City

Extend “just cause for eviction” protections

Initiate renter’s task force to evaluate protections

Hold council study sessions on range of protection

Implement anti-displacement plan

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Creating Housing Element Policies

Where does change come from?

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Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships

Cities

Local groups Menlo Together, One San Mateo, Pacifica Housing for All
Regional groups like Peninsula for Everyone
Statewide groups Public Advocates, YIMBY Law

County

United incorporated and unincorporated orgs
Focused on farmworkers, disabilities, transit-oriented development, fair housing

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Building Power Countywide

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Advancing Shared Priorities Pt. I: Special Needs

Just Cause for Eviction	Introduced substantially stronger protections Ordinance failed to pass July 2023
Incentivize housing for disabled community	Adds visitability standards to County NOFA Implements a universal design ordinance
Plan for the specific needs of farmworkers	Multiple planning efforts, including: South Coast Housing Assessment Farm Labor Housing Study Pescadero Community Plan Assessment

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Advancing Shared Priorities Pt. II: Rezoning

Unincorporated Colma	100 du/ac
Broadmoor (unincorporated SSF)	87 du/ac
North Fair Oaks	80 du/ac
Harbor Industrial Area (unincorporated Belmont)	100 du/ac
El Granada School Sites	60 du/ac

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Colma Rezonings

Initial proposal: 60-87 du/ac

Final proposal: 100+ du/ac

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Turning Policy Into Reality

Housing Elements Forever

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Cities Will Need Help

Commitments only work if elected officials support them

Support staff and council members

Alert HLC, P4E, Urban Habitat, and other local advocacy groups

Plan for the future

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Maintaining the Tracker

Add all partner policy priorities
Update policies that have already been approved
Building new tracking partnerships

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Upcoming HLC Projects

Housing elements forever

County Housing Element Campaign Retrospective

Housing Element Progress and Reform Report

Updating the tracker, passing policy goals

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The End (for now)

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Thank you! Let’s connect

Find our info at hlcsmc.org

Join today at

https://hlcsmc.salsalabs.org/HLCGeneralContributionForm