Redwood City slightly behind in housing progress


In 2025, Redwood City issued building permits to yield 490 units. Of those, 82% are a part of two developments, and 56% are deed-restricted for extremely or very low-income, low-income and moderate-income households, Principal Planner John Francis said.

In the first three years of the 2023-31 housing cycle, the city has issued building permits for 1,321 units. To keep on track with its overall goal, the city should be averaging approximately 574 units each year, or 1,719 by the third year, Francis said.

“This isn’t the best news, but Redwood City does have a deep pipeline of residential projects in the works,” Francis said.

Also, Redwood City has made progress on developing units for low-income households at a rate ahead of schedule. The remaining obligations the city must meet by 2031 include 826 extremely-low-income or very-low-income units, 340 low-income units, 713 moderate-income units and 1,388 market-rate units.

Units are only counted toward the city’s Regional Housing Needs Assessment obligation when building permits are issued. There are approximately 750 housing units that have been approved by the city, but developers have yet to seek building permits, Francis said. Another 650 units have been proposed and are under review by city staff.

City staff are noticing developers of larger housing projects are “waiting longer to build or are even letting entitlements expire,” a staff report reads. Francis said many reasons could cause these delays, but market conditions remain impactful on how quickly developments are moving.

To incentivize development, the City Council has passed a temporary Affordable Housing Ordinance Incentive Program which allows certain projects to have affordability requirements relaxed if building permits are pulled quickly. This could help move 791 other units to be counted toward the city’s goals by 2027, Francis said.

“We’re trying to do what we can from the city's side to make things go faster, but we can only do so much,” Francis said. “We don’t build and develop the housing ourselves.”

Commissioner Kimberly Koch applauded the city’s efforts to move any and all housing developments forward.

“I think we’re doing an outrageous job,” Koch said. “We may have to wait a while to shake loose some of the projects we've already approved, but I think, as a city, we’re doing everything we can to do that.”

In a statement after the commission's meeting, Commissioner Maggie Cornejo said the “only way” to achieve the city’s regional housing goals is “by working in partnership with the development community.”

“Through strong collaboration, we can overcome the financial and regulatory barriers that too often stand in the way of getting housing built,” Cornejo said.

The Housing Element progress report also noted significant housing construction activity in 2025, including the commencement of 178 affordable rental units at 112 Vera Avenue and the continued progress at 1401/1501 Broadway that will yield 518 units in total. Certificates of occupancy for the latter are anticipated this year, according to a staff report.

The progress report was recommended for City Council approval, which will in turn be submitted for an annual state review.