Hillsborough planning for ADUs

The move comes after the residents rejected a five-story building with between 88 to 123 apartments on Town Hall property at Floribunda Avenue and El Camino Real during a Town Council meeting Sept. 19.

“I am often ashamed to admit that I grew up in Hillsborough because your selfishness in refusing to build more housing is embarrassing,’’ said former resident Lizzie Siegle, who urged officials to turn Town Hall into affordable multifamily housing to better the town and the Bay Area.

Housing elements seek to encourage zoning to meet an area’s jobs-housing balance, and have been more aggressive lately through the Regional Housing Needs Allocation to address a growing need. The RHNA goals through individual housing elements must be approved by the California Department of Housing and Community Development by Jan. 31.

Resident Larry Friedberg said the town exceeded its last RHNA allocation by more than 100% and that’s something of which to be proud.

“I’d like to speak practically about putting our best foot forward, we’ve made a commitment to one another that the HCD plan is right for Hillsborough, its right for the Bay Area, it’s right for California,” Friedberg said, adding that the town “is an incredibly civic minded, caring and conscientious community.”

Joshua Albrektson, a resident of South Pasadena, who participated in the meeting remotely, said his city turned in its housing element in October of 2021, and provided some notes of caution.

“Multiple places here in Southern California try to do what you guys are trying to do and have a 93% ADU housing element, and every single one of them is rejected. You guys can do research and look down here and try to find a housing element like what you’re proposing and you will never find it because the HCD rejected it,” Albrektson said.

Braxton recommended emailing the HCD to see if it would accept their draft.

“When Gavin Newsom signed his housing bills this year he mentioned your city and Atherton, like it was a direct callout of your two cities, as places that are not doing what they are supposed to be doing on housing,” Albrektson said.

The Association of Bay Area Governments affordability housing guidelines says 30% very low income, 30% low income and 30% moderate income for the ADUs, he added.

“Those guidelines are for ABAG as a whole, for a stereotypical jurisdiction in ABAG, you guys are one of the richest jurisdictions, none of your ADUs that are built is going to be going to low-income residents,” Albrektson said. “But you guys are making claims that HCD won’t allow.”

However, resident Ted Ullyot argues that the state agency is drunk with power and overstepping its boundaries by bullying towns like Hillsborough and risking the town’s character. He suggested banding together with other cities that are fighting for approval against the HCD.

“The HCD has reviewed the housing plans of 15 Bay Area jurisdictions and has rejected 14 of them, 14 of 15. That’s more than 93% rejection rate,” Ullyot said.

Among them are Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Redwood City and San Mateo, he added.

Councilmember Laurence May did not support the council’s Sept. 26 recommendation to build ADUs over the town hall multifamily apartment complex.

“My understanding is that this is not just an HCD run amuck, the attorney general is heavily involved and the governor is even more so,” May said.

It wasn’t that long ago when ADUs were the gold standard, Mayor Alvin L. Royse said.

“I don’t know when ADU’s became such a dirty word,” Royse said.

When the governor said that California is the size of 21 states, that struck Royse to think of how states and communities are all different with different needs.

Royse believes listening to the needs of the residents is important and he believes ADUs are what works for the town.

He hopes to have an oral meeting with HCD to explain the case for why ADUs work for Hillsborough.

The Town Council approved the housing element draft 4-1 in favor, with May against. Next steps, the town will update and submit its first draft of the housing element to the HCD and will have 30 days to review the draft to provide additional feedback. The deadline is Jan. 31 to have an adopted housing element.

The consequences if the town doesn’t comply with the RHNA are severe. If the town refuses to adopt a compliant housing element the fines range from a minimum of $10,000 per month up to $600,000 per month. Building and housing permits and zoning changes could also be suspended, according to the staff report.

Note to readers: This story has been changed because it said Lizzie Siegle was a resident and she is a former resident. Also, Joshua Albrektson's name was spelt incorrectly as Braxton.

nick@smdailyjournal.com

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