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La Verne council advances zoning updates to implement housing element, staff say changes align local code with state law
Summary
Council held a public hearing and moved to adopt zoning amendments aligning the Old Town La Verne Specific Plan and Title 18 with the city's certified housing element, adding definitions and ministerial pathways for employee housing, supportive housing and navigation centers, and updating density bonus and objective design standards.
At a Feb. 3 public hearing, La Verne staff presented a package of zoning ordinance amendments designed to implement the city's General Plan and its certified housing element.
Principal planner Andis Bo and consultant Ashley Bradkin of DeNovo Planning Group told the council the amendments update the Old Town La Verne Specific Plan and Title 18 to maintain consistency with state housing law and the city's recently adopted General Plan. Bradkin said the housing element includes 29 implementation programs, with 24 carried forward and five new programs to meet new state requirements.
The amendments add or revise definitions to address employee housing and agricultural worker housing, allow some second units and guest houses to proceed without conditional use permits, add low-barrier navigation centers and supportive housing as permitted uses in specified zones, and change parking requirements for emergency shelters. The ordinance also creates a Housing Element Sites overlay, updates the density bonus chapter to reflect state law, and adopts objective design standards for multifamily and mixed-use projects.
Bradkin told council the city prepared an environmental review for the General Plan and zoning ordinance updates; staff said the Planning Commission recommended certification and the council had certified the EIR at a prior meeting. Staff characterized the zoning ordinance amendments as covered by a common-sense CEQA exemption because the changes are procedural and will not affect the physical environment.
Council members asked clarifying questions about specific definitions and procedures; staff said the changes were designed to preserve capacity to meet the city's housing obligations and to streamline ministerial approvals where state law allows.
The staff recommendation was that the City Council find the ordinance exemptions under CEQA and introduce the ordinance by title only for further readings. The transcript records the Planning Commission recommendation and the staff presentation; the formal adoption process requires subsequent readings as set out in the staff report.
