State officials deemed Los Altos Hills’ adopted housing element out of compliance as of Friday, according to an online compliance report.
The decision came just two days after the town held a virtual town hall meeting and community Q&A in which town leadership asserted many times that the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) would certainly approve the housing element the town submitted in January.
The state-mandated housing element, part of each city’s general plan, provides a strategy for meeting the community’s housing needs across all income levels through an eight-year cycle, 2023-2031. If HCD fails to approve a city’s housing element, the city could lose decision-making control on land-use issues, expose itself to potential lawsuits from housing developers and advocates, and lose access to state grants.
Los Altos Hills’ housing element was found out of compliance after HCD determined that last-minute revisions made to the plan did not sufficiently address the required changes listed in a Jan. 25 letter from the state agency. Still-needed changes are listed in a March 17 letter from HCD senior program manager Paul McDougall.
Addressing concerns
One area of concern is the lack of interest Foothill College and St. Nicholas Catholic School landowners have shown in building residential housing on their land. Los Altos Hills included both properties on its sites inventory for potential housing. The Jan. 25 letter from HCD stated that “while expressed interest in development is not necessarily required for sites to be used in the Town’s sites inventory, statements made by these property owners seem to indicate that residential development on these sites is highly unlikely in the planning period, especially at the densities and affordability levels indicated in the element.”
The Hills’ most recent housing element aimed to address the property owners’ reluctance by including a letter from Foothill-De Anza Community College District Chancellor Judy Miner recognizing the fact that Foothill College would be upzoned for housing, but that the town would not require that housing be built on campus.
“We understand that the Town’s housing program would create new land use opportu athe Foothill-De Anza Community College District to build any particular number or type of housing,” Miner wrote in September.
Miner’s letter followed another she sent in August in which she said the community college district does “not envision housing on the Foothill College campus at any time in the near future.”
To address the lack of interest in developing the St. Nicholas campus by its owner, the San Jose Diocese, town staff added several examples of faith-based and educational institutions across the state that have pursued lower-income housing developments.
HCD officials said the added documents were not enough to address concerns brought forth in their previous review.
“Regarding owner interest in development, the element indicates owner interest but the documentation does not appear to match or is irrelevant to the element’s conclusion,” the letter reads. “For example, the element includes a letter from the College but the letter does not affirmatively state an interest in development. The element should either provide affirmatively documentation of interest in residential development in the planning period or other analysis demonstrating the potential for redevelopment in the planning period.”
HCD’s six-page letter also cited the lack of a complete site analysis in the adopted housing element and the general lack of information about how the town is encouraging and facilitating housing construction for landowners and developers.
If Los Altos Hills fails to make the appropriate changes by May 31, the town will have to change its zoning ordinances to accommodate its state-assigned Regional Housing Needs Allocation number of 489 units, 197 deemed “affordable,” by 2031.
City manager Peter Pirnejad told the Town Crier that the town had received the letter and is “preparing a response in compliance with state law.”
Builder’s remedy
Some Los Altos Hills residents and housing advocates suspected the state would deny the town’s housing element.
Forrest Linebarger, a developer who has fought to construct homes on his lots on Mora Drive since he purchased them in 2006, has been particularly outspoken about his disappointment in the adopted plan.
“I think it’s time to stop pretending your housing element is compliant,” Linebarger said to city council members at last Thursday’s council meeting.
The situation remains murky for the four “builder’s remedy” applications submitted to the town last month by Linebarger and resident Sasha Zbrozek.
The state’s builder’s remedy enables developers of affordable housing to bypass zoning laws when a jurisdiction’s housing element is deemed out of compliance.
“It clearly increases my odds of success, since the town is now unambiguously out of compliance with state law,” Zbrozek wrote in an email to the Town Crier. “We’re at the stage of the game where lawsuits get filed.”
This story was updated March 22 to reflect Peter Pirnejad’s comment which was received after the Town Crier print deadline.
