Pacifica planning commission advances housing-element rezoning package; EIR finds greenhouse-gas and transportation impacts remain significant

Pacifica’s Planning Commission on May 19 heard a multi-hour staff presentation on a citywide rezoning program intended to implement the housing element and submitted the draft rezoning package to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for preliminary review. Staff told commissioners the package includes updated objective development standards (ODS), new zoning districts, a program-level environmental impact report (EIR) with an accompanying Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP), and zoning and general-plan map amendments needed to accommodate sites identified in the housing element.

The rezoning program is intended to provide zoning capacity for 2,042 housing units on 31 sites identified in the housing element, staff said. Samantha Updegrave, the city’s community development director, described the effort as “a result of three years of complex, challenging, and diligent work by the community in Pacifica, the city council, the planning commission, and staff.” She told the commission the housing element must be supported by the rezoning program for HCD to certify the city’s housing element and restore greater local control.

Why this matters: the zoning and ODS under review will determine allowable heights, setbacks, parking, open-space and ground-floor requirements for dozens of sites across Pacifica. Those standards affect neighborhood character, project feasibility for developers, and what projects will look like if built. The EIR’s findings will also shape what mitigation the city must adopt and monitor if the council later certifies the program.

Staff presentation and test fits

Deputy Director Brianne Harquisha summarized the ODS drafting process and noted the planning commission’s prior study-session input shaped the standards. The package organizes ODS by typology…