East Palo Alto nears state approval of Housing Element

East Palo Alto is on the cusp of winning approval for its housing plan after the state Department of Housing and Community Development determined that the city’s latest submission largely complies with state law.

HCD’s determination that the city’s Housing Element is now in “substantial compliance” means that the council will only have to make some minor revisions before its Housing Element is deemed completed. The plan, which every city in California is required to submit, lays out the city’s strategy for adding 829 housing units between 2023 to 2031.

The city council had adopted the Housing Element in February 2023 but was subsequently notified by HCD that it needs to revise the document. Paul McDougall, senior project manager at HCD, informed the city in a Feb. 20 letter that its latest submission “will substantially comply with State Housing Element Law when it is re-adopted, submitted to, and approved by HCD.”

HCD approval is an important milestone for cities throughout California in light of recent laws that have turned what was once an academic exercise into an increasingly consequential one. Cities that have not received HCD approval remain vulnerable to the “builder’s remedy,” a previously obscure provision of state law that allows developers in cities that do not have compliant housing plans to effectively circumvent local zoning laws and development standards.

In Palo Alto, which has twice seen its Housing Element submission rejected by HCD, developers have proposed numerous builder’s remedy projects along a stretch of El Camino Real, south of Page Mill Road. And in Menlo Park, a developer is invoking the law for a plan to build a 421-foot-tall tower at the former site of Sunset Magazine at 80 Willow Road.

East Palo Alto, for its part, is preparing to go well beyond its state mandate of 829 units. The city already has projects totaling 1,001 dwellings in its development pipeline, according to the Housing Element, and it plans to add 817 more in “opportunity sites” such as the Ravenswood Business District/Four Corners, a roughly 200-acre area with a mix of retail and residential uses. The city is now updating its specific area plan for this area to encourage more housing.

If things go as planned, East Palo Alto would add 1,933 new residences by 2031, a number that includes 115 accessory dwellings units, according to the Housing Element.

East Palo Alto’s Planning Commission plans to discuss the revised Housing Element on March 11 before the document goes to the city council for formal approval on March 19, according to a statement issued by City Clerk James Colin.

“The Housing Element is an important policy document that reaffirms East Palo Alto’s commitment to fairly and equitably meet the housing needs of all existing and future residents,” Mayor Antonio Lopez said in a statement.