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Planning Department extends comment period for 2009 housing element DEIR to August 31 after public request
Summary
After wide public concern about the draft housing element and its DEIR, Planning staff extended the public comment period to Aug. 31 to allow more time for review and written submissions, following multiple requests from neighborhood groups and advocacy organizations.
Following a lengthy public hearing on the draft environmental impact report covering the City's 2004 and 2009 housing elements, Planning Department staff announced an extension of the DEIR public-comment period to August 31.
Multiple neighborhood organizations, green-space and planning groups, housing advocates and small-property owner associations urged more time to digest the voluminous DEIR materials and to reconcile differences between various drafts of the policy text. Commenters asked for a 60-to-90-day extension; planning staff said the department would extend the comment window to August 31 to accommodate additional written submissions and promised the comments-and-responses document would follow.
Speakers ranged from housing-policy analysts urging stronger smart-growth language near major transit to small-property owners pressing for the housing element to acknowledge the removal of rental units. Planning staff emphasized that the DEIR is a technical environmental review document and that the 2009 housing-element policy text itself will continue to be revised with further stakeholder input before any adoption vote.
Outcome: Planning staff extended the public comment deadline to Aug. 31; staff will compile and respond to oral and written comments before certification and any decision on the housing element.
