Half Moon Bay may loosen growth cap

City staff will look into two Measure D-related amendments going forward. The first, which might not require voter approval, would require ADUs to have only half a Measure D certificate, allowing for more of the secondary suites to be built. This option would also allow for development of junior ADUs — units contained entirely within an existing single-family structure — without a Measure D certificate. 

The second, and more expansive option, which would require voter approval, would entirely exempt ADUs from Measure D certification, as well as exempt all lower-income units and mobile homes. This alternative also comes with a proposed amendment to the downtown map that would require voter approval. 

Half Moon Bay is in a challenging position as it tries to certify its housing element, meet state housing laws, and also maintain the standards of the Coastal Commission, which rejected an original City Council proposition to exempt ADUs from Measure D in 2014, Jill Ekas, assistant to the city manager, said. 

“State housing law is very specific that you can’t apply a local growth control measure to restrict ADU production, and yet the Coastal Commission has advised us in different ways over time,” Ekas said. “We’re trying to really thread a needle and find a way out of that conflict.” 

There’s currently many more ADU applications than available Measure D certificates, Ekas said. The deadline to submit an amendment for voter approval, if the City Council were to move forward with an ordinance, is August. 

All but one councilmember, Vice Mayor Harvey Rarback, supported further exploration of two potential Measure D amendments. Councilmembers chose not to pursue other options presented by staff that would exempt only ADUs or exempt only ADUs and lower-income units. 

Rarback does not support any amendment to Measure D, he said, because changes to the legislation wouldn’t promote the multifamily rent-subsidized units that the city needs to address its housing crisis. 

“Up to now, the majority of the Measure D applications are for ADUs. If you suddenly either exempted them, or gave half allocation, the inevitable result would be more people building single-family houses,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the way we want to go.” 

Councilmember Debbie Ruddock, who co-authored Measure D in 1999, said she wouldn’t want to see more subdivisions built across the city, but would be supportive of ADU exemptions to help families sustain themselves in Half Moon Bay. 

“I support the concept of multigenerational housing and would like to exempt ADUs for existing properties. I like the concept of allowing that density for that purpose,” she said, noting that those in favor of the amendment didn’t seem to be profit-motivated. 

Several Half Moon Bay residents came to the March 19 City Council meeting to voice support for ADU exemptions, including Rachel Bross, who built and moved into an ADU on her property in 2021. 

“It’ll allow me to age in place. It’ll allow me to have my family move closer to me,” she said. “I hope you make it easy for all citizens to build an ADU on their property.” 

Another resident, Sarah Bueno, said that receiving Measure D certification for development on her property allowed her family to live comfortably and in tandem with her brother’s family within the same unit. 

“We were overjoyed to work with our existing square footage to make it functional for our two families to live comfortably and privately together,” she said. “Getting creative with our existing space made it possible for our dream to become a reality. I hope this option becomes possible for other coastside residents as well.” 

Councilmember Deborah Penrose said she wasn’t sure if it was necessary to amend the downtown map, but was supportive of all efforts to make affordable housing easier to build as well as ADU exemptions. 

“I think anytime anyone’s going to build an affordable unit, go for it and make it as easy as possible,” she said. 

Mayor Joaquin Jimenez added that he felt exempting mobile homes from Measure D certification — which staff warned might have a lessened impact because the Hilltop Mobile Home Park already has Measure D allocations — could nonetheless be an important step for the city. 

“I think we do need to exempt ADUs, we need to exempt low-income housing. We are in an emergency, we have a lot of families that need housing,” he said. “[The] opportunity for moderate- to low-income families to build wealth comes in the form of purchasing a mobile home.”