State Regulators Reject Palo Alto’s Housing Element a Second Time

For a second time, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has rejected a Housing Element from the city of Palo Alto in accordance with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment process. The city adopted the most recent Housing Element in May and had already begun the process of revamping its zoning code to meet its goals for 6,000 new housing units in the next eight years.

According to an article by Gennady Sheyner for the Palo Alto Weekly, the Housing Element rejected by the HCD calls for “raising the allowed density in multi-family zones and encouraging residential construction in historically commercial areas in the southeast portion for the city, around San Antonio Road and Fabian Way.” The Housing Element also expands the city’s new Housing Incentive Program (HIP), “which grants density and height bonuses, as well as other zoning breaks, to housing developers,” according to Sheyner.

“The letter from the HCD does not take issue with any of these proposed programs and concurs that the HIP is a great tool for housing developments,” report Sheyner. “The agency also found, however, that the city has not done enough to prove that the non-vacant sites on the city’s adopted housing inventory are actually suitable for housing.”

“The HCD also found that the city has not sufficiently analyzed some of the existing commercial zones for potential addition of residential use,” adds Sheyner.

The HCD first rejected Palo Alto’s Housing Element in March, before the city adopted its revised Housing Element in May. The city has until Jan. 31 to complete a compliant Housing Element. Until them, the city is subject to “Builder’s Remedy” proposals that are not subject to the boundaries set by local zoning laws. According to Sheyner, the city already has four such proposals in the pipeline.