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Planning commission recommends council amend housing element: remove Patrick Henry site, add Mission Point (Kiley) units
Summary
The commission voted April 16 to recommend the City Council amend the housing element sites inventory to remove the 4701 Patrick Henry Drive site and to include the Mission Point (Kiley) project, a change staff said resolves a threatened legal challenge while preserving the city's RHNA buffer.
The Planning Commission on April 16 voted to recommend that the City Council amend the general plan housing element sites inventory to remove a site identified at 4701 Patrick Henry Drive and to add the Mission Point (Kiley) project to the inventory. Staff said the change responds to an offer by the Housing Action Coalition to settle a threatened legal challenge if the city agreed to remove one site from the inventory and to add the Kiley/Mission Point project; staff and the commission concluded that removing the Patrick Henry site would not undermine the city's ability to meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) with the recommended planning buffer.
Senior planner John Beatty told commissioners that while the housing element must show adequate sites to meet the city's RHNA (11,632 total units for the planning cycle), the inventory includes a buffer beyond the minimum RHNA. Staff's analysis shows the proposed change would reduce the lower‑income buffer from about 33% to about 18% and the moderate‑income buffer from about 31% to about 23% while increasing the above‑moderate buffer from about 103% to about 116%. Staff recommended the change because the Patrick Henry site is fragmented among many owners and faces practical obstacles to redevelopment within the eight‑year planning period, while the Mission Point/Kiley site has an active developer forecast and a development agreement that makes some additional units reasonably expected in the planning horizon.
Commissioners asked about the city's overall ability to meet low‑income housing needs given high local incomes and high area median income (Santa Clara County AMI for a family of four was cited as about $184,300 in staff materials). Commissioner comments and public testimony emphasized the importance of construction jobs and fair wages; Daniel Alvarez, representing Laborers Local 405, urged the commission to ensure projects are built by contractors who pay prevailing wages, use apprenticeship programs and follow labor standards.
On a motion recommending council adoption of the amendment the commission voted to forward the housing element text amendment and revised sites inventory to the City Council with a positive recommendation.
