Elemental housing

First, it is important to note that the housing element does not require a city to actually build homes. After all, most land is privately held, and cities cannot compel owners to redevelop. Rather, the housing element insists that cities identify places where housing might be built and can be built. It is a hypothetical exercise and, frankly, it has resulted in a lot of hypothetical housing over the years. Not so much of the real stuff.

Nevertheless, all cities and counties are required to perform this hypothetical exercise every eight years. Sacramento sensibly broke the deadlines into two: Southern California cities’ plans were due in 2021, and Northern California cities’ plans were due in 2022, ensuring two very busy years for the professional housing consultants who draft these reports for cities. Most cities, like Burlingame, simply do not have staffs big enough to manage the extra workload, so we have to outsource.

Hence the logjam; many Bay Area cities could not hire consultants because they were all still encumbered with Southern California cities. Moreover, this cycle was far more complicated, so the work took longer. Requests for assistance from consultants went unanswered, and already overstretched planning departments — that were doing the actual work of getting projects planned, permitted and built — had to use precious staff time to draft reports on their own. And naturally, they fell behind.

In Burlingame, and in many other cities, we are not waiting for the housing element to get new homes built and families moved in. Our city currently has 13,000 housing units, about half of which are multifamily rentals. In 2019, our council, in conjunction with our community, adopted a bold new general plan that envisioned growing our city’s housing units by at least 20% over 10 years. We did this in collaboration with our residents, engaging our community in a dialogue about what makes Burlingame special. Community members were recruited widely and then participated in numerous pop-up and town hall-style housing meetings to complete our general plan. Although there were definitely people concerned about growth, the overall consensus was that we wanted Burlingame to continue the tradition of offering diverse housing options.

As a result, our 2019 general plan created room for at least 3,000 units of housing near transit via upzoning changes to formerly commercial districts, and this sensible planning has already resulted in significant new housing construction. Our state allocation of housing for the current housing element cycle is 3,257 units. Long before our latest housing element will be finalized, we already have more than 2,000 units of real housing entitled, permitted or under construction. Another 1,000 units are on the drawing boards of real developers. And of those 3,000 units, approximately 600 will be deed-restricted affordable housing.

This is the main reason we are out of compliance with the timing of our state housing element submission. Our small staff has been incredibly busy revising specific plans and approving housing that is actually getting built. In addition, with more than 200 new housing bills and regulations, compliance issues and code changes also under their purview, it is becoming the case that responding to Sacramento’s planning mandates are crowding out the work of actually building housing.

With cranes in the air and construction seemingly everywhere, we are getting the job done. To be characterized as anything but pro-housing reflects an enormous disconnect between facts and reality and does a disservice to both political and community leaders who stood up for greater density. And this is true for many of the cities in San Mateo County and no doubt around the Bay Area.

And by the way, thank you to the dedicated Community Development professionals around the state who are balancing all of these competing priorities and making housing happen. This is the first in a series of two guest perspectives focused on real housing solutions happening in San Mateo County. Stay tuned for the second in which we discuss the strategies being used to increase affordable housing in Burlingame.

Donna Colson is the vice mayor of Burlingame and on the Steering Committee of the San Mateo County Home For All and is a member of the county’s Housing and Community Development Committee. Michael Brownrigg is the mayor of Burlingame and the chairman of the San Mateo County Housing Endowment and Regional Trust.