Planning staff reports housing‑element amendment progress; aims to submit revised strategies to state by year‑end

Planning staff provided an update near the close of the Sept. 30 special meeting, saying the city is preparing a housing‑element amendment that would spread the city’s affordable‑housing obligations across several strategies and aim for a state submittal before year‑end.

Marnie Woffel (housing staff) said the city has been in regular “friendly review” conversations with the California Department of Housing and Community Development and is targeting an October Planning Commission review and a City Council review in November. “We really wanna get the formal submittal back to the state by the end of the year,” she said.

What staff presented - Revised strategy mix: staff presented existing and proposed strategies and said the amendment shifts ambitions away from concentrating all required units on three city‑owned parking‑lot sites and instead distributes affordable units across a set of approaches including hotel‑to‑residential conversions, updated ADU assumptions, a live‑work program with affordability elements, engagement with local churches for potential housing sites, and a downtown Mixed‑Income Incentive Program (MIIP). - Numbers and targets: staff said the revised approach would reallocate the 149 units initially associated with the three city lots across multiple strategies; staff’s slide deck showed an overall tally indicating the revised portfolio would meet or replace the original allocation by distributing units among the various strategies. Staff did not provide final site‑level environmental or parking solutions at the workshop and said an amended environmental analysis will be required because housing was moved among different sites. - Schedule and implementation: staff expects to return with a full draft to the Planning Commission in October and to the City Council in November, then submit the amendment to HCD for a 60‑day review. Implementation work on adopted housing‑element programs continues in parallel; staff noted completed items (for example the reasonable‑accommodation policy) and ongoing items such as objective design standards and a new housing website.

Public and commissioner questions Commissioners and members of the public asked about (1) the timeline and whether Planning Commission and council would review and approve the revised draft before submission to HCD; (2) how the amendment would account for parking impacts downtown when housing is concentrated in infill locations; and (3) which programs would need additional environmental review. Marnie Woffel said the Commission and Council will have formal review opportunities before the submittal and reiterated staff’s plan to provide a concise packet of the document sections that changed.

Ending note: staff thanked the Affordable Housing Alternatives Committee for its work and said the commission can expect a formal draft and supporting materials on the October agenda.