Auburn council adopts 2024 housing-element progress report, officials say affordability remains a challenge

The Auburn City Council voted to adopt the city's 2024 housing element progress report and heard council and staff discussion about shortfalls in affordable housing production and where new units might be built. The measure passed on a voice/roll-call vote with four council members in favor and one member absent.

The report is an annual, Department of Housing-requested update of building permits and finalized units, not a new forecasting plan, and shows Auburn has not yet met required Regional Housing Needs Allocation targets. John Thright, Community and Economic Development Director, told the council the report reflects what was permitted and finaled last year and said the city must pursue additional strategies to produce more affordable units.

Thright said, "Now it is incumbent on us to figure out a way to get more affordable housing," and pointed to several avenues staff and the council are watching, including a large mixed-use "Domes" project and long-discussed sites such as Baltimore Ravine.

Council members pressed staff for detail on where lower-cost housing could realistically be produced. Councilman Holmes noted that several new homes recorded in the report were far above what many residents would consider affordable, citing a Canyon Creek project with homes priced near $1.4 million. Thright replied the market is currently producing at that price point in some areas and that the report simply records completed and permitted units.

The council and staff discussed several policy levers and obstacles: - Baltimore Ravine: Thright said the site already carries a specific plan that allows up to 25 units per acre and could yield mixed housing types, but developer interest has been limited. He warned the council that removing housing capacity from a specific-plan site would require replacing the lost units elsewhere in the city (he used a hypothetical example of 400 units), and noted state rules require the city to account for such losses promptly by upzoning other areas. "If you take away the housing units, you need to find that loss that you're taking," he said. - Timing and updates: Thright and council members clarified that the housing-element update adopted Wednesday is the mandatory, annual progress report requested by the state; the next full housing-element update will occur in the 2029 cycle. When asked by Holmes and others whether potential projects such as a cohousing proposal on Nevada Street could be included in the city's housing inventory, staff said numbers can be counted toward RHNA only after permits are issued and finaled, and formal inventory additions are generally handled during the statutory update cycle. "It's a potential plan," Thright said of proposals that have not been permitted. - Downtown/Downtown-adjacent housing: Council members asked about work to allow residential development over commercial space in Old Town and downtown through form-based code changes. Thright said the form-based code work is moving concurrently with the general-plan update, with a staff target of December for adoption of that zoning change.

Council members also discussed whether the city should adjust the Baltimore Ravine specific plan to make development more attractive. Thright said the city cannot unilaterally remove entitlement capacity from a parcel without replacing it elsewhere and that doing so would trigger state-required adjustments to ensure no net loss in available units.

Motion and vote: A council member moved to adopt the 2024 housing element progress report as presented; another council member seconded. The council approved the report (4-0, with one member absent). The council did not adopt new zoning changes as part of this vote; it adopted the progress report that summarizes permits and completed units.

Why it matters: The annual progress report is the city's official accounting of permitted and finaled housing for the Department of Housing and feeds into longer-term planning and the city's strategy to meet RHNA obligations. Council members repeatedly emphasized that the report shows a gap between the type of housing the market is producing and the affordability goals the city needs to meet.

Next steps: Staff said the form-based code work intended to enable residential over commercial uses in Old Town and downtown will continue with the general-plan process, with a December target for adoption. Thright and the council noted larger housing initiatives such as the Domes project and work on Baltimore Ravine remain multi-year efforts; the next statutory housing-element update cycle will be in 2029.

Votes at a glance: Adoption of 2024 housing element progress report — Approved; roll call indicated four yes votes and one absence. The council did not take additional zoning or development actions as part of this item.