Foster City passes housing element

The council used the meeting to adopt the 2023-2031 housing element update, a state-required plan that details goals, policies and programs to increase housing. While the city does not have to build the housing, it must create conditions for development. Foster City was responsible to create zoning for 1,896 housing units as part of its Regional Housing Needs Allocation number, or RHNA, of which 520 units are designated for very low income, 299 for low, 300 for moderate and 777 for above moderate.

Foster City’s RHNA numbers are assigned by the Association of Bay Area Governments, a regional planning agency in charge of allocating the numbers to all cities in the Bay Area. The number is a 341% increase from the 2015 cycle of 430 units. Because Foster City has limited development areas, apartments like the Franciscan Apartments, Sand Cove, The Lagoons, Beach Cove, Shadow Cove and Harbor Cove are under consideration for more housing and provide most of the RHNA housing units numbers. The 1010 Metro Center Blvd. site could also go from commercial to mixed-use and add 111 units.

Foster City faces an affordable housing crisis, with housing for about a third of existing Foster City households considered not affordable, and 34% of all households pay 30% or more of their income on housing. The city has said of the 13,174 housing units in Foster City, 35% are single-family detached homes, 20% are single-family attached, 7% are structures of two to four units, and 38% in structures with five or more units. Rents have increased by around 33% in the past decade, and the typical rent for a Foster City apartment was more than $3,000 in 2019. To rent an apartment, a household would need to make around $122,000 a year. In 2020, the average home price in Foster City was estimated at $1.64 million.

The city also plans to send the adopted housing element to the state’s HCD for review to ensure it meets requirements. The city has worked with the state to get into compliance and has received extensive comments about how to ensure it meets state compliance and retains local control over zoning.

“There is a housing shortage in the Bay Area,” Councilmember Stacey Jimenez said. “There is no question about that. The one-size-fits-all plan that Sacramento has before us is not ideal, but the state has made it very clear there are serious consequences if we do not have our housing plan certified.”

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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