San Mateo’s Planning Commission is calling on the city’s draft housing element to include stronger language and clear, specific steps to meet housing goals that reflect the urgency of the housing shortage.
“Can you implement policies that show concrete improvements in neighborhoods that will excite and involve the community? Having policies are great, as long as you have the resources, ability and desire to implement them in a meaningful manner,” Vice Chair John Ebneter said.
The city is working on its 2023-2031 housing element, which provides policies and goals to meet current and future housing needs in San Mateo. Under the housing element, the city must provide the zoning conditions for more than 7,000 housing units as part of its Regional Housing Needs Allocation. The city is pushing for more housing to address its shortage and has highlighted five key goals for its policies and programs. The goals call for producing new housing at all income levels, preserving existing affordable housing, protecting residents from displacement, promoting public education and community outreach about housing, and affirmatively furthering fair housing to address issues of equity and access.
At its May 3 meeting on the draft housing element, the Planning Commission emphasized it wanted policies for new housing to have clear action language to achieve ambitious housing goals. Commissioner Adam Nugent wanted to keep utilizing public funding for low- and moderate-income housing to increase affordable housing production, like using property tax revenue. He called for strengthened goal and policy language to have more precise, actionable steps to meet state directives. Many city housing element policies call for examining or exploring policy steps rather than stating it will.
“[The California Department of Housing and Community Development] wants us to hold ourselves accountable. We should, because lack of accountability is a big problem and a reason for our issues,” Nugent said.
Commissioner Seema Patel asked for measurable milestones throughout the eight-year housing element timeline to reach lofty goals. Bridgepointe, the Hillsdale Train Station, El Camino Real and the Highway 101 and State Route 92 interchange are considered future sites for new housing.
“We should set moonshots, even thinking we might not be able to achieve. Having a big goal we are shooting towards will help ensure we make progress towards that goal,” Patel said.
Ebneter suggested thinking outside the box and incorporating as many constructive tools to increase affordable housing to make a difference.
“I don’t think we’ve been able to do anywhere near what we had hoped we had been able to do. Our affordable housing numbers are exceedingly low compared to what we would like to make,” Ebneter said.
The commission also wanted to adopt a rental registry to track rents and evictions in the city in the next few years to gather information on the extent of landlord abuse. Others wanted a city ordinance put in place to require replacement units to be built for low-income households and affordable housing lost during construction. The commission emphasized increased outreach to those with housing needs like farmworkers feeling the lack of housing options.
“I have hope that the more outreach that we do as the city continues to keep that as a priority, it pays off in small ways here or there,” Chair Margaret Williams said.
The next step is a City Council discussion on the housing element May 16.
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