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Palo Alto staff outline downtown housing options, shelter timeline and outreach services
Summary
Planning staff described options to increase downtown housing capacity, including taller buildings and incentives; city staff and nonprofit partners summarized outreach, rotating shelters, safe parking and a shelter opening in 2026.
City planning and housing staff told residents at a neighborhood outreach meeting on Aug. 27 that the city is studying a menu of options to accelerate housing downtown and described a range of services and shelter options for people experiencing homelessness.
Jonathan Lake, director of planning and development services, said the downtown housing plan flows from the council—s adopted housing element and will present options in the fall for council direction on levers such as increased height, higher floor area ratios, incentives for lot consolidation and other tools to encourage housing where parcel sizes and preservation constraints make redevelopment difficult.
Why it matters: downtown is high land‑value and has limited lot depth and many historic properties. Staff said more height and greater density will likely be necessary to generate housing opportunities downtown and to create inclusionary (deed‑restricted) units.
Lake said the downtown housing study will return to council in fall with a menu of options for direction. He described the current pipeline: one downtown lot (referred to as Lot T) is being advanced with an expedited schedule toward a refined concept design and a proposed expedited review early next year; the Lot T concept currently contemplates roughly five stories and about 54 units. Lake also discussed a charity housing project (El Camino) expected to have about 125–130 affordable units with funding largely in place and an anticipated building‑permit stage before year end.
On homelessness services, Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton Gaines outlined outreach programs: city outreach workers and nonprofit partners conduct weekly outreach and maintain resource tables in Lytton Plaza (Tuesdays) and All Saints Episcopal Church (Wednesdays) with a food closet; Dignity on Wheels provides laundry and showers periodically at City Hall; the Opportunity Center and rotating shelter sites host additional services; the overnight warming location ("the owl") uses the downtown library during declared inclement weather and accepts up to 10 people when activated.
Gaines said the city is building a permanent shelter scheduled to open in 2026 and named nonprofit partners and philanthropic contributions that are supporting other transitional housing efforts. Lake and other staff described a transitional housing project near San Antonio Road of roughly 80 units with a $30 million+ funding package combining city, county, state and philanthropic dollars.
Staff emphasized outreach, the difficulty of financing middle‑income housing, and state constraints such as the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) framework. Lake said the council is considering using selected surface parking lots downtown for 100% affordable housing and is advancing a Lot T project as the first test of that approach.
No council action was taken at the meeting; staff requested public feedback on the upcoming draft options and asked residents to sign up for email updates and forthcoming community meetings.
