Portola Valley staff say 2025 housing element report shows steady ADU gains, flag missing 39-unit entitlement for correction

Brandon Ducas, contract senior planner for the town, told the Planning Commission on March 4 that the town's 2025 Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) will be submitted to state agencies by April 1 as required by state law and summarizes housing applications, permits and implementation programs.

"The annual progress report ... is due April 1st every year. This is required by state law and must be submitted to state agencies," Ducas said.

The report shows 13 housing units deemed complete in 2025 (compared with 15 in 2024 and 12 in 2023). Staff said 11 building permits were issued for new units in 2025 (many for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs) and 22 certificates of occupancy were recorded in 2025, including 11 for Willow Commons.

Ducas flagged a data error in the tables: Portola Terrace (appearing in the draft as "Pollola Terrace" in the APR) received an entitlement in 2024 for 39 units that was not reflected in a previous year's table. "We are in the process of reviewing our previous years and we'll be submitting some corrections to make sure that we document it all correctly. We definitely want to count those 39 units," he said.

Commissioners pressed staff on several implementation details. Commissioner Lonnie asked whether ADUs marked as renter in the APR are truly rented; Ducas said the APR treats any unit that is not the primary residence as a renter for reporting purposes, even if an ADU is used as a guest unit in practice. On Willow Commons, staff explained that shared-kitchen arrangements are counted as single units for the APR (the kitchen plus bedrooms count as one unit).

On program work, staff said the ADU amnesty program (program 7.2) was implemented in 2025 and has legalized at least one JADU so far, that planning division office hours and virtual appointment options were established, and that updates to the ADU ordinance (program 7.8) and compliance with state law AB2339 (program 8-3) are scheduled for spring. Regarding an "opt-in" housing diversification program to allow multiple units on a single property, staff said it is listed as underway but delayed by leadership transitions and that they are restarting work under the new planning director.

Commissioner Karen asked staff to compare Portola Valley's progress with neighboring jurisdictions and statewide totals; she said her review showed Portola Valley ahead of some nearby jurisdictions. Staff also noted a discrepancy in Table A2 that undercounts one row's units and said they will fix the form-based error locked by the state template.

Public commenter Karen Asi asked whether Stanford's 39-unit Portola Terrace project would appear in the 2026 counts and requested more explanation of the ADU amnesty rules. Staff said the missing entitlement would be counted once permits proceed and explained that the amnesty program focuses on correcting life-safety issues and that units built prior to 2020 face different legal limitations than those built after 2020; staff invited residents to meet with planners to explore legalization pathways.

The commission did not take action on the APR at this meeting; staff said the APR also will be presented to the Town Council before it is forwarded to the state.

The commission moved on to a separate informational update on the Portola Terrace project later in the meeting.