Less than two years after adopting its housing element and passing a consequential zoning update, San Mateo’s development pipeline has reached 97% of its state-mandated housing goals.
All cities in California must plan and issue permits for a certain number of housing units, as determined by the Department of Housing and Community Development, known as the Regional Housing Needs Assessment. During this current eight-year cycle, which ends in 2031, San Mateo must plan for at least 7,015 units. Its current pipeline, from preliminary applications to those under construction, comprises 6,782 units. About 28% of those are considered below-market-rate units.
The city has seen one of the highest influxes of multifamily residential development applications in the last two years in the county. Much of that is a result of Measure T, which was passed in November 2024 and amended the city’s previous five-story building limit. Now, several parts of the city, including transit-rich corridors like downtown have higher building caps that make it easier for developers to build denser and taller buildings.
“The city’s pipeline is quite robust and as conditions evolve we anticipate that these numbers will really tick up in the coming years,” said Rachel Horst, Housing and Neighborhood Services manager, during the City Council meeting March 16.
However, the majority of those units are in the early phases and are not yet under construction, leaving them vulnerable to an improving but still slow-to-recover lending market, which can subsequently delay projects.
“The total pipeline is nearly 6,800 units, which is coming close to our total RHNA number,” Principal Planner Steve Golden said. “However … we don't get credit for projects that are just in the pipeline. They have to pull a permit within the housing cycle, so this does potentially include projects that will get approval and we’ll see how many of these get permitted.”
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About 800 units are currently entitled, and there are 411 units that are constructed.
At least six new developments have been proposed in just the last couple months in San Mateo, totaling more than 1,100 housing units.
The developments with the most units include the Hillsdale Shopping Center redevelopment, which will replace the mall with 1,670 new housing units and retail and office buildings, as well as the Concar Passage development that will construct 850 new housing units and some commercial space.
Mirroring statewide trends, accessory dwelling unit construction has also been strong.
“ADU construction was higher than anticipated,” Horst said. ”Ninety-two units were issued a building permit in 2025 versus the 55 that were anticipated or projected.”
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