The Orinda Planning Commission on Jan. 2026 voted unanimously to adopt Resolution 26-01, recommending that the City Council adopt Ordinance 26-02 to amend Title 17 of the Orinda Municipal Code and implement housing-element actions aimed at streamlining approvals for certain affordable-housing sites.

Associate Planner Darren Hughes told commissioners the city's 6th-cycle housing element, adopted Jan. 31, 2023, obligates Orinda to plan for 1,359 units in its regional housing needs allocation and that state law requires multifamily residential use by right on specified reuse and shortfall sites under California Government Code section 65583.2(c) and (h). "We're proposing text that'll put this requirement into the first chapter of the municipal code," Hughes said, describing a proposed new section (proposed 17.10.12) that would apply to housing-element inventory sites identified in state mapping tools.

Hughes said the ordinance would require cities to permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily uses by right and would not require a conditional-use permit or other discretionary review for developments in which 20% or more of the units are affordable to lower-income households. He added that design review would not be eliminated but limited: "By state law, that design review is limited to ensuring compliance with all applicable objective standards and shall not constitute a project under CEQA," Hughes said. He described that staff would perform an initial compliance check and commission review would be limited to objective standards and public review as appropriate; subdivisions would remain subject to the Subdivision Map Act.

Commissioners asked for clarification about the status of objective design standards (Hughes said they are not yet finalized and a study session with City Council is scheduled for Jan. 20), which projects will still appear before the commission (projects requesting variances), and how the public would be notified of ministerial approvals. Hughes confirmed that projects on sites outside downtown would include public notice and that the department is exploring permit-tracking and a web-based notification or "notify me" function tied to the new permit-tracking system.

Hughes also said the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) had reviewed a draft of the report and ordinance and indicated they were "pretty happy" with the proposal. The commission then voted on a motion recommending Council adopt the ordinance. The roll-call vote recorded "aye" from Commissioners Armstrong, Davis, Doctors, Hubner, Jelnick, Marola and Schmidt; the motion carried unanimously.

The resolution and draft ordinance will be forwarded to the City Council for consideration, likely next month, according to staff. If the council adopts Ordinance 26-02, certain housing-element inventory sites would be eligible for ministerial approval when they meet the stated affordability and objective-standard requirements.

The commission closed the public hearing after no members of the public asked to speak and proceeded to the vote. No amendments to the motion were recorded at the meeting.