Campbell tightens vacancy rule for starter-home projects and asks staff to draft demolition controls

The Campbell City Council on April 21 amended and adopted an interim ordinance to require parcels be vacant at the time a developer files a Starter Home Revitalization Act application and instructed staff to pursue drafting a demolition-control ordinance to limit speculative demolition.

The council's action follows an extended staff presentation and a packed public hearing in which neighbors, housing advocates and an attorney urged the council to tighten the city's local rule after residents said developers were attempting to use an interim local vacancy definition to qualify occupied single-family lots for ministerial 10-unit "starter home" projects.

Rob Eastwood, Campbell's community development director, told the council that state law (SB1123 as codified at Government Code 66499.41 and related statutes) requires streamlined, ministerial processing for starter-home projects but does not spell out a single, statewide date-of-application vacancy definition. Campbell's interim ordinance had allowed applicants to "render" a property vacant during the redevelopment process so a site with an existing house could be demolished as part of the project process. Eastwood said the city had adopted that approach…