City planning and development staff on [date not specified] presented a semi‑annual update on the 'Building More Housing' focus area, describing near‑term goals, process reforms and tools intended to accelerate housing delivery across incomes.

Rosalind (Deputy City Manager) introduced the focus‑area approach and named Caitlin Kenny as the cross‑departmental lead. Chris Burton, Director of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement, described three priority areas: land use policy/regulation, development services/process improvements, and linking land to capital. Burton said the city has started a four‑year general plan review and is using the Planning Commission as a task force to drive housing policy, and highlighted expansion of a ministerial permit process that can provide statutory CEQA exemptions for qualifying projects.

On process metrics, Burton and PBCE staff described a new way to measure development timeliness: a 'days added or subtracted by the city' metric that aggregates delays across interdepartmental review cycles rather than focusing on single milestones. The intent is to give developers and council a clearer view of city contributions to total project timelines and identify causes (resubmittals, new requirements, developer errors) that drive added days.

Staff also described work on standard CEQA conditions, an initial analysis of projects that could use AB 130 (a state streamlining provision for infill housing), and an ongoing development fee estimator to give applicants ranges of likely service fees across similar projects. Eric (staff) summarized findings from the cost of development study and said multifamily incentives have generated over 1,400 units into construction, including about 200 affordable units; staff previewed January 27 items on incentive underwriting changes.

Council members thanked staff and pressed on capacity to deliver given fee‑funding constraints, the need for better automation and KPIs (staff noted an analyst position and the Amanda permit system complexity), and tradeoffs from prioritizing affordable projects (which speed some projects while adding days on market‑rate projects). Public commenters asked clarifying questions about what 'preserve housing at all income levels' means and urged explicit attention to extremely low‑income housing.

Council member Casey moved and the committee accepted the report. Staff said a fuller housing presentation will return to CED (Team San Jose will present its annual organizational report at a future meeting) and that January 27 will include more detailed recommendations on incentives and the IHO.