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Carmel council accepts 2025 general plan and housing element reports; ADUs account for all new units
Summary
The council adopted the 2025 annual progress reports and directed staff to submit them to state agencies. The reports show 23 net new housing applications in 2025'025 were all accessory dwelling units, with 20 approvals issued and 15 finaled; the city continues to work toward its 349-unit RHNA target for the 2023'031 cycle.
The Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council on March 3 adopted a resolution accepting the city's 2025 annual progress reports for the General Plan and the Housing Element and directed staff to submit the reports to state agencies by the April 1 deadline.
Planning staff summarized key production and program metrics for calendar year 2025: "for 2025 we had 23 new applications for new housing units. And those were all accessory dwelling units," the planner said. Of those applications, staff reported approving 20 building-permit applications, issuing 23 permits and finaling 15 net new housing units in 2025.
The reports track progress against the city's Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the sixth cycle (2023'031), which assigns Carmel 349 units. Staff highlighted that the city has taken several programmatic steps in 2025 to implement the Housing Element, including updating reasonable accommodation procedures, contracting for objective design and development standards, and maintaining short-term rental enforcement. A new Table D in the state reporting form emphasizes quantifiable outcomes (units produced, households assisted, meetings held) and links to supporting documents.
Council members asked for periodic updates on water allocations linked to development (the council reserved 14 acre-feet for certain land use categories) and urged staff to continue refining the forms used to document ADU affordability and usage. Planning staff said they will begin collecting additional occupancy and rental-intent information through building-permit questions and can also attempt retrospective outreach to recent ADU owners to better document affordability outcomes.
The resolution carried on a roll call vote. Staff will submit the completed APR forms to the state Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the Department of Housing and Community Development by April 1.
