By Khalida Sarwari
After a yearlong battle with the Association of Bay Area Governments’ housing allocation mandate to build more than 400 affordable housing units, Saratoga city officials took another step toward approving a document that addresses the city’s housing needs over the next eight years.
On Dec. 3, the council agreed to postpone voting on formally adopting the proposed 2015-2023 housing element for another few weeks to give new Councilman Rishi Kumar an opportunity to read up on the ordinance. The first reading and adoption of the housing element took place Nov. 19.
Newly minted Mayor Howard Miller noted that despite the city’s struggle with ABAG this year, there are some positive aspects to the updated housing element.
“Let’s find the best way to deal with the mandate of the state and to improve where we could in our city,” said Miller. “I think that we did an extraordinary job with the very large number that we were given, but we failed in that appeal. I am grateful for what we’ve done and I think that given the circumstances this is a better housing element than I could have wished for.”
The state Department of Housing and Community Development’s deadline to certify the housing element, which shows how the city will accommodate 439 affordable housing units assigned by ABAG in compliance with the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, is Jan. 31.
One of seven state-mandated elements of the city’s General Plan, the housing element is designed to ensure that local governments adequately plan to meet the housing needs of all people within the community regardless of their income.
Critics, however, maintain that the allocation is flawed, particularly for small communities, because ABAG didn’t consider relevant factors such as Saratoga’s limited employment opportunities and access to transportation in comparison to other municipalities in the county.
Having deliberated on the housing element as the former chair of the planning commission, new Councilwoman Mary-Lynne Bernald said she appreciated the work that went into updating the document.
“I feel that the planning commission and the tremendous Metro group that came on board created a project that was the best that could be for the community,” she said. “I think that that was shown with how quickly the state did approve it and came back with just a tiny, tiny little tweak.
“So having been deeply involved in this, I have no problems with this,” Bernald added.
Some of those tweaks pertain to various sections of the draft element as recommended by the HCD, which also requested that the city include an additional policy action to amend the multi-family parking requirements in the commercial-neighborhood zoning district, with the explanation that the existing parking requirements for multi-family developments of one space within an enclosed garage plus 1.5 additional spaces on site per unit could be a constraint to the development of affordable housing developments.
Amendments were also proposed to the city’s land use element that are intended to ensure consistency and amending the description of the commercial retail land use category to include the new zoning district near Prospect Road and Lawrence Expressway.
The council will return to the housing element ordinance on Dec. 17.
Link: Saratoga a step closer to addressing eight years of housing needs
