San Mateo’s revised housing element guiding its future housing plans is now available for public feedback, with updates to how many housing units are allocated at the Hillsdale Shopping Center site as part of its site inventory.
The housing element is a state-mandated plan for how the city will accommodate 7,015 new housing units over the next eight years and includes policies for how it will address housing needs. The city received state feedback Sept. 28 with calls for more analysis about the feasibility of future housing sites listed, fair housing policy, housing programs and removing city zoning constraints to building housing.
Deputy Director of Community Development Zach Dahl said the city refined its site inventory, a list of sites where redevelopment could create future housing. The city reduced its total projected unit capacity and removed a couple of sites. The current site inventory dropped from around 10,800 to 9,934 new housing units over eight years, which still represents a significant buffer to accommodate the 7,015 unit minimum the state requires of the city. Around 2,000 units were initially called for at the Hillsdale Shopping Center, where property owner Bohannon Companies is interested in redeveloping from a commercial into a mixed-use site with more office and housing. The new site inventory now only calls for 1,200 units. Dahl said discussions with Bohannon made it clear the ownership group believes current city zoning density and height limits around Measure Y make it infeasible to achieve 2,000 units on the site. The 2020 public initiative limits new residential building heights and densities to 55 feet tall and 50 dwelling units per acre. The site is 47 acres total, of which 33 are in the site inventory.
“We still feel its feasible to get 2,000 units there, but the goal of the site inventory was to build in very conservative options, so it gives us the best chance of hitting the target for any one of these sites,” Dahl said.
The revised document also provides more details about how the city is meeting housing needs through city projects and addressing affordable and middle-income housing, like the Kiku Crossing development downtown, which will provide 225 affordable homes for families. Dahl said this cycle has more uncertainty because of so many new California laws on the books, with the California Housing and Community Development having more discretion in how it applies them.
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“We knew this was going to be a challenge,” Dahl said.
The city will have a public review period until Jan. 9, with a Planning Commission hearing scheduled for Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. A council meeting on the issue will occur during the week of Jan. 23. City staff will submit it to the state after council approval for a second review. The city submitted its first draft to the state in May.
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