FAQs on Affordable Housing in Portola Valley

State law requires that all municipalities adopt a plan to address regional housing needs every five to eight years in a document called the “Housing Element”. State law mandates that the Housing Element contain several parts, including an identification and analysis of existing and projected housing needs and a statement of goals, policies, quantified objectives, financial resources, and scheduled programs for the preservation, improvement, and development of housing. Most importantly, the Housing Element must plan for a certain number of housing units that are assigned to the Town as its housing need.

For each Housing Element planning period, the State assigns a certain amount of housing to the Bay Area as a whole. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) then allocates housing to each jurisdiction within the Bay Area through a complex process that is related to future growth. Information about the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process is available at http://www.abag.ca.gov/housing-top.html.

The State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) reviews all Housing Elements to determine if local agencies are substantially in compliance with the law and have in place goals, quantified objectives, policies and a schedule of actions to meet their allocation of housing units (both market rate and affordable housing). If HCD determines that the Housing Element is in substantial compliance with the law, HCD certifies the Housing Element.

Without a certified housing element, the Town could be open to a legal challenge and face potentially significant penalties. For example, the Town could be prohibited from issuing any building permits or planning approvals, may be required to allow development at a density of 20 units per acre, or be required to pay attorneys’ fees. Honoring the commitments made in the current Housing Element will help the Town continue to have a certified Housing Element.

A Housing Element certified by the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) entitles municipalities to qualify for certain State and Federal funds, such as the Community Development Block Grant Program. Furthermore, as land use and transportation become more closely linked, certain types of transportation funding are beginning to require a certified Housing Element.

The Town’s current Housing Element was officially adopted by the Town Council in December 2009 and certified by the state in early 2010. The next Housing Element is due in October 2014.

To comply with the Town’s current Housing Element, the eight for-sale moderate income units that were originally planned for the Blue Oaks lots need to be accommodated elsewhere in Town to meet the minimum number of moderate income units required by the State. Failure to comply with the commitments contained in the current Housing Element may make it more difficult to obtain certification of the next Housing Element.

No. The Town is not required to build affordable housing units. However, pursuant to State law, the Town is required to undertake all necessary actions to encourage, promote and facilitate the development of housing. In practice, this means that the Town needs to demonstrate that the number of units planned for in each income category in the Housing Element could realistically be expected to be built during the years covered by the Housing Element.

For communities like Portola Valley with low density residential development, high property values and strong zoning regulations, the development of affordable housing has been a very challenging State mandate. The most common approach to fulfilling the housing mandate is to encourage the construction of second units. Another common approach is to work with schools to provide housing for staff and teachers on the school grounds, like Portola Valley does with the Priory School. If those two approaches don’t provide enough housing, then other methods need to be developed. For example, during the last Housing Element cycle, the Town of Hillsborough proposed to meet some of its housing needs by annexing new land.

For the last Housing Element cycle, Portola Valley was assigned an overall total need of 74 units, Hillsborough was assigned 86 units, Atherton was assigned 106 units, and Woodside was assigned 65 units. For the 2014 – 2022 Housing Element cycle, the proposed sub-regional allocation for Portola Valley is 64 units.

The State’s overall goal is to ensure that enough housing is built to accommodate projected future growth. State law says that the “availability of housing is of vital statewide importance and…is a priority of the highest order.” As a result, for as long as the State projects that additional housing is needed in the Bay area, the Town will likely be expected to provide some of that housing.

In addition to any other Town meetings to discuss affordable housing, community members will have opportunities to influence a project throughout the public review process. If the zoning and general plan designations for a property need to be changed, public hearings before both the Planning Commission and the Town Council would be required. If a rezoning is not necessary, then a conditional use permit or planned unit development permit, along with a thorough environmental review, will likely be required, necessitating approval from the Planning Commission, which would hold one or more public hearings on the proposal. Once a developer is chosen for the project, the developer would meet informally with neighbors and concerned members of the community about the design of the project and the proposed project architecture would be considered formally by the ASCC at one or more additional public meetings.

Yes, Program 3 of the Town’s current Housing Element calls for the Town to encourage residents to build more second units/guest houses through several actions. In 2011, the Town amended its zoning ordinance to streamline approval for certain kinds of second units. In addition, the Town developed a second unit manual to help property owners through the process of designing and building a second unit. Through these actions, the Town hopes to see the number of second units increase from an average of 4.9 units per year up to 6 units per year.

If a project moves forward, the Town would solicit proposals from qualified affordable housing developers not only to build the homes but also to manage the initial sale and future changes in ownership to ensure, through deed restrictions, that the homes remain affordable to moderate income households. The Town is not, nor does it want to be, in the business of land development. Therefore, the Town intends to find an entity experienced in affordable housing to undertake that work.

These homes would be available to households with incomes that meet moderate income limits as defined annually for each county by the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). For 2012, moderate incomes for San Mateo County range from $86,500 for a household of one to $123,600 for a household of four. The Town would give preference, in accordance with Town policy, to people who already work or live within the Town limits.

The homes will have deed restrictions ensuring that when one is sold, the house will be affordable to another moderate income household as defined by the State at the time of sale.

The Town is open to considering a new amnesty program in future Housing Elements. How much this would help to address future housing needs would depend on how the State would view the program. In upcoming Housing Element meetings, Town representatives will likely consider further ways to expand the second unit programs, including the possibility of a revised amnesty program in future years.

Housing at the Sequoias are existing dwelling units already accounted for in the Town’s Housing Element. State law requires that the Town adopt a Housing Element every 4 to 8 years that addresses the need to provide for new affordable housing units in accordance with the Regional Housing Needs Allocation numbers developed by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). Therefore, any new units that may be permitted at The Sequoias would be considered in future Housing Element calculations.

Second units are counted towards meeting the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) numbers assigned to the Town by the State, and in fact, most of Portola Valley’s housing need is met through second units. In the past two years, the Town has changed its second unit regulations and developed a second unit manual to help encourage homeowners to build second units. The Town is also open to looking at a new second unit amnesty program and other ways to expand the second unit program in future Housing Elements.

State law requires that the Town meet its affordable housing obligations with new, permanent housing. Therefore, caretaking or renting an existing home would not count as helping to meet the Town’s housing need. However, a similar approach is already discussed in the Housing Element under Program 5, and that program could potentially be expanded to address caretaking in the next Housing Element.