Millbrae seeks hike in affordable housing

Millbrae has finished its second housing element review cycle with California’s Department of Housing and Community Development and will be bringing its element up for certification soon, Millbrae Planning Manager Roscoe Mata said during the meeting.

The Harris & Associates evaluation of affordable housing requirements and development incentives will potentially help the city meet its Regional Housing Needs Allocation — the number of new housing units, by income level, that cities are expected to provide per the HCD.

Housing element updates must show the HCD how cities can meet these requirements, although the upcoming work is an implementation measure already accounted for in the previous element iteration, City Manager Tom Williams said.

Councilmember Gina Papan asked that state legislators be informed that Millbrae has spent over half a million dollars to accommodate its housing element update.

“Lots of cities are expending a huge amount of money that could be used for many other things — including housing,” she said.”I don’t think the state realizes, or the housing authority in Sacramento realizes, the expenditure that cities are required to do here.”

The analysis will include a nexus study on the “feasibility and economic impact” of increasing the city’s affordable housing requirement for multi-family residential projects from 15% to 20%.

Another element of the upcoming analysis will be an evaluation of development incentives for a local density bonus ordinance.

This ordinance could promote increased housing density and subsequent parcel assemblage, which could create lots “large enough to actually develop housing projects,” Williams said.

“California provides 5% incentives for affordable housing. We want to take that a step further,” he said. “We want an ordinance developed that we can have a local density bonus program that incentivizes, for example, parcel consolidation. We know we have a lot of small lots and multiple ownership — an ordinance like this could incentivize parcelization so we have lots large enough to actually develop housing projects.”

Mayor Anders Fung said that he was excited to see a density bonus program — something he has been talking about for years — come to life.

“As I first envisioned, a local density ordinance should be considered through the lenses of how to incentivize more development to happen in our downtown area,” he said. “Lot assemblage is a difficult task, not easily achieved. It needs property owners to work together … find ways to enable greater opportunities for even smaller properties to get redeveloped. That’s our way to make sure they get [the] highest and best use in the downtown.”

Fung also encouraged any upcoming study to include an understanding of mixed-use development that combines both residential and retail, including potential second-level office or co-working spaces as well as educational opportunities and ways to expand home ownership.

An analysis of this nature will take around six to nine months, Williams said.

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