Council forwards 2025 housing-element progress report to state despite mayor’s objections

City staff presented the 2025 Housing Element annual progress report and the council voted to forward the document to state agencies despite objections from the mayor.

Jacqueline, the staff presenter, told the council the report summarizes residential building activity, RHNA progress and housing-program implementation during calendar year 2025. She said 15 units were entitled in 2025 and 99 building permits were issued in 2025, with the Commons Lane project accounting for 80 of those permitted units. “The majority of these year's units did come from the Commons Lane project, which involved 80 units,” Jacqueline said.

Staff and council discussed how accessory dwelling units are counted for RHNA categories: staff said they categorize ADUs based on the stated anticipated rental rate provided by the property owner at application. Jacqueline said the city has planned a 12-site multifamily inventory (including the Commons site, Old Town, Avalon Apartments and others) and has active inquiries or applications on several sites.

Council members pressed staff on RHNA shortfalls for very low, low and moderate categories; Jacqueline reported remaining needs of about 113 very low, 67 low and 60 moderate units for the RHNA cycle. City attorney and staff explained that the city's responsibility is to plan for sites and programs, and that if HCD determines insufficient progress, certain state measures (including SB 35 ministerial pathways) could apply.

Mayor James Bizajan opposed forwarding the report and used his public remarks to criticize state housing enforcement and to make serious allegations about conduct by a specific HCD staffer; in the hearing he said the department had improperly supported local ballot measure campaigning in 2020 and named an individual. Those remarks were framed by the mayor as his personal view and were not disputed on the record by staff. Example: the mayor said, in part, “It is my view...the housing and community development department illegally campaigned on behalf of and funneled money into the...Measure N” and named an HCD employee he criticized.

After discussion, Councilmember David Shapiro moved to forward the housing-element annual progress report to the state; Alicia Weintraub seconded. The motion passed with votes recorded as: David Shapiro — yes; Alicia Weintraub — yes; Ed Albrecht — yes; Mayor James Bizajan — no. (Councilmember Peter Kraut was excused.) The council instructed staff to forward the report to HCD and to continue proactive outreach to seek reductions in RHNA where appropriate.

The housing-element annual progress report is informational and documents building activity, site inventory and program implementation; staff emphasized it is part of state reporting requirements and that the report itself does not change local zoning.