San Bruno plans for more housing

San Bruno will need to allow for 3,165 new homes between 2023 and 2031 to comply with state law, potentially expanding the city’s current stock of roughly 15,000 housing units by more than 20%.

The City Council plans to submit an outline by the end of the year indicating how it plans to satisfy the law, called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, or RHNA, which requires Bay Area cities to build more housing in hopes of alleviating affordability issues.

“It’s a little overwhelming where we need to get and how we’re going to get there,” Vice Mayor Linda Mason said of the requirement. The figures are allocated in eight-year segments and, despite the city’s current cycle ending this year requiring just 1,155 units, to date the city has issued permits for only 203 units.

Councilmembers discussed how they could meet the upcoming goal by updating the housing element of the city’s general plan. A housing element found to be insufficient by the state could spur financial penalties and a loss of some local land use control.

City staff identified nearly 3,500 units that could be built within the cycle at various locations. Of the estimate, 686 units are already in the works. Others are in various stages of the planning process and some are purely conceptual.

A potential 1,000 units of housing proposed along with other development types last year to replace the Shops at Tanforan would provide the largest bump. Another 400 units could be ushered in as part of the Bayhill YouTube expansion, and a project planned to begin construction this year at Mills Park Center will bring another 427 units. A 136-unit building proposed last year on El Camino Real is also factored.

City planning staff estimated an additional 442 largely single-family units would be produced via development of the former Crestmoor High School campus along with the former Engvall Middle School site. Another 354 units could come as accessory dwelling units given an average of 50 such units added per year in recent years, according to the city.

While those units would satisfy the law, the council decided more opportunities for development should be explored to provide a larger buffer given the possibility not all units would be realized. State law suggests a minimum 15% buffer; a recommendation the council indicated it would like to follow. Additional units could be planned for by allowing housing within the Towne Center shopping area or by increasing allowable building heights on the part of El Camino Real where the current cap is three stories.

Councilmember Marty Medina, pointing to the city’s jobs to housing imbalance, suggested current low-density commercial or industrial land uses could be repurposed for housing.

“I think it’s fair to say that we need more housing than office space, but so many cities are continuing to build more and more office space,” he said.

Proactively identifying more space for housing would be critical also for the city to meet the law’s affordability goals, he said.

Within the required housing, 704 units will need to be available to “very low” income residents, 405 to those with “low” income and 573 to “moderate” income residents, the rest can be market rate. Given the county median income, a one-bedroom unit in each category would need to be offered at $1,713, $2,741 and $3,426, respectively.

Responding to Medina, City Manager Jovan Grogan noted the city’s ability to subsidize housing comes largely from fees paid to the city by commercial developers. Grogan said also it would be prudent for the city to leave some developable space for RHNA cycles beyond 2031, describing the city as already “nearly built out.”

San Bruno is home to the global headquarters of YouTube and Walmart.com. The city has added thousands of jobs in recent years and is on track to continue the trend. YouTube expansions alone are slated to add 400 jobs annually in coming years. The county is estimated to have added 11 times as many jobs as it did housing over the last decade, pushing median home prices to nearly $2 million.

The council will continue discussion on the housing element in future meetings. The city plans to submit the plan by December for review by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

corey@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200, ext. 105