By Khalida Sarwari
The Saratoga community had a chance to weigh in on a document that addresses the city’s housing needs within the next eight years, and the ball is now back in the planning commission’s court.
After a period where residents met to discuss and review the 2015-2023 draft housing element, the document will go before the planning commission again on July 23, according to community development director James Lindsay. At that meeting, the commission will make a recommendation on the housing element to the city council, which will then take up the item on Aug. 20. That meeting will include a public hearing before the council directs city staff to submit the document to the state for review, Lindsay said.
The deadline for the state to approve the revised housing element is Jan. 31, 2015. The goal, said Lindsay, is to complete and submit the document by fall.
One of seven state-mandated elements of the city’s General Plan, the housing element contains policies and programs that encourage housing development for a variety of income levels.
As part of the update, Saratoga planning officials must show how 439 affordable housing units assigned by the Association of Bay Area Governments can be accommodated in their jurisdiction in compliance with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. RHNA takes inventory of the housing needs in the state according to population growth and then divides that figure by regions.
City leaders held several meetings to receive input from residents regarding locations in the city that could be rezoned to accommodate the 439 units. During a February community workshop, residents suggested that the city take a creative approach to providing affordable housing in Saratoga, encourage more homeowners to provide second units, annex Saratoga Springs Park where low income people are already living, and find a way to get credit toward the RHNA for the households that presently have multiple generations living under one roof.
A month later at a planning commission study session, the community discussed the pros and cons for each potential site, with many agreeing upon the Saratoga Village Center as a viable location. Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Saratoga Avenue at Cox were also floated around as potential sites, but residents raised concerns about both in regard to traffic, impacts to schools, loss of commercial sites and impacts to neighboring residents.
In the end, the majority of the commissioners agreed upon Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and the Saratoga Village Center as the two housing opportunity sites for the housing element.
Based on residential projects in the planning phase, Saratoga needs to identify 184 units as very low-, low- and moderate-income housing. To accommodate the figure, city staff must look at potential sites that will be given a special high-density and mixed-use designation of 20 units per acre, but Saratoga is not required to construct these units, according to Lindsay.
The 184-unit figure also takes into account the 75 affordable housing units that the city has identified to be built at Fellowship Plaza. The city is looking to identify an additional 10 acres of commercial property to rezone as high-density and mixed-use.
For more information about Saratoga’s housing element update, visitsaratoga.ca.us/cityhall/cd/general_plan_housing_element_update.asp.
City’s draft housing element is headed to planning commission
