Like all but a handful of Bay Area cities, Palo Alto failed to have its new Housing Element certified by the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) by the Jan. 31 deadline. While the city submitted its draft to the HCD on Dec. 23, it has not yet received a response from the state agency.
The only part of the city's Comprehensive Plan that requires state approval, the Housing Element lays out the city's vision for meeting its regional allocation of 6,086 new dwellings between 2023 and 2031. Palo Alto was one of the last cities in Santa Clara County to submit its draft to the state, and city officials expect the HCD to require various revisions as part of its review, which means it will likely take months to get the final stamp of approval.
This leaves the city in a legally precarious position. Last month, Palo Alto was one of several cities — along with Belvedere, Burlingame, Cupertino, Daly City, Fairfax, Martinez, Novato Pinole, Pleasant Hill and Richmond — to get hit with a lawsuit from housing advocacy groups calling it out for failing to get their Housing Elements certified by the Jan. 31 deadline.
The lawsuit from the groups Yes In My Backyard (YIMBY) Action and Housing Defense Funds requests that the courts, among other things, require the city to rezone sites on an accelerated schedule to accommodate more housing and to bar the city from relying on code provisions to reject housing projects or make such projects infeasible.
This week, the groups announced another lawsuit against Sausalito, where the council voted to adopt its Housing Element despite HCD findings that its list of future housing sites fails to comply with state law.
Some housing advocates argued Wednesday that the city should not take any action on the Housing Element until the state agency weighs in. Scott O'Neil, a board member at the group Palo Alto Forward, suggested that pursuing what he called "self-certification" will place the city into greater legal jeopardy.
"Execute well, and we can get certification early this summer with almost zero chance of Housing Element going before a judge," O'Neil told the commission Wednesday.
Resident Michael Quinn, a volunteer with Palo Alto Forward, also urged city officials and the commission to wait for the HCD and to avoid throwing what he called a "self-certification Hail Mary," which could be interpreted as a bad-faith move by the state.
Palo Alto officials strongly rejected that characterization. By asking the Planning and Transportation Commission to adopt the new Housing Element, they are seeking to speed up the ultimate approval of the document, city planners maintained. The commission's approval, they noted, will be followed by further revisions to the document, based on HCD comments, before the document is finalized.
"We can't certify. We don't have the ability to do that," Planning Director Jonathan Lait said. "Only HCD has the ability to certify our Housing Element. What we can do is adopt a Housing Element that we believe, based on findings that we would make, that it's compliant with state law."
Tim Wong, senior planner who is leading the effort to adopt the new housing vision, suggested that bringing the Housing Element to the commission "streamlines" the adoption process while allowing commission to weigh in on a document, which he noted has been modified by the City Council since the commission last discussed it. This, Wong said, allows the commission to focus all its energies in future reviews on responding to HCD comments.
The commission broadly supported the staff approach and voted 5-0, with Commissioner Giselle Roohparvar absent, to recommend adoption of the new Housing Element. Some commissioners expressed frustration with the slow pace of the adoption process, particularly after Lait suggested that the city expects a "robust comment letter" from the HCD followed by at least one and possibly more rounds of revisions — each of which could take months.
"This is sobering," Commissioner Keith Reckdahl said. "Because then if they come back and don't accept that, then we have another round and it could be the end of the year before we get a Housing Element approved."
The city did, however, receive one hopeful sign this week. Palo Alto's plan for building housing heavily relies on rezoning industrial and commercial zones around San Antonio Road and Fabian Way to allow multi-family residential use. The Housing Element estimates that this could generate 2,141 new dwellings, more than a third of the city's total allocation.
Far Western Land and Investment Company, which owns a property on the 3900 block of Fabian Way that used to house Space Systems/Loral and then Maxar, submitted a letter this week urging the city to include additional all six of the parcels that make up the property as "opportunity sites" for housing (the city's Housing Element only lists three parcels).
The March 6 letter from Farrar's attorneys, Chelsea MacLean and Genna Yarkin states that the property owner has a "dedicated interest in providing affordable housing" as part of a residential project on the site. The developer was rebuffed two years ago when he proposed a 290-apartment complex at the site, a project that council members felt was too ambitious.
"The Property is surrounded by nearby residential development, and is steps away from high-quality transit. It would therefore be entirely appropriate to list the entire Property," they wrote.
