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The San Ramon Planning Commission is gearing up for a special meeting that will focus on two hot-button issues impacting the near future of housing in the city — the Housing Element Update process and the proposed Marketplace mixed-use development, the latter of which has been met with particularly significant community opposition.
Commissioners are poised to consider a vote approving the Housing Element update and recommending it to the City Council, after a public discussion at the Jan. 12 meeting, and following a seven-day public review process of the most recent Housing Element update draft from Dec. 21-27.
The revised draft was submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development on Dec. 28.
The latest Housing Element update is intended to lay out the growing city’s vision for housing increasing numbers of residents, and seeking to forecast the needs and wants of future residents from 2023 through 2031.
Specifically though, in the wake of recently implemented state affordable housing laws, city staff and officials are tasked with developing a planned housing site inventory that can accommodate more than 5,000 new housing units, of which more than 3,000 must be affordable to moderate and lower income households.
The upcoming discussion is set to be the third required public hearing on the topic before commissioners can recommend the proposed update to the City Council for approval. If approved, the City Council would then hold another public hearing before considering adoption of the proposed update, then submitting it for certification by HCD before putting it into effect.
The current Housing Element expires on Jan. 31, which marks the statutory deadline for approving the update. Should officials fail to approve an update by then, the city would be subject to the “Builder’s Remedy” under the Housing Accountability Act, which allows developers to submit applications for projects that aren’t required to conform with the city’s general plan under certain conditions.
“Until such time that the City has adopted a Housing Element, the City is subject to the Housing Accountability Act’s ‘Builder’s Remedy’ provision and the City is at risk for losing state Funding,” senior planner Cindy Yee said in a staff report.
“‘Builder’s Remedy’ is a streamlining tool that provides developers the option to file an application for a housing development project with at least 20% lower income housing or 100% moderate income housing that is not in conformance with a jurisdiction’s zoning or General Plan so long as the development is residential units, mixed (use) developments with at least 2/3rd designated for residential use, or transitional/supportive housing,” Yee added.
“The City has very limited ability to deny a qualifying housing development project under Builder’s Remedy and thereby,greatly reduces local control on where and what residential development can be built in San Ramon,” she said.
The San Ramon Planning Commission’s special meeting is scheduled for Thursday (Jan. 12) at 7 p.m. The agenda is available here.
In other business
* Commissioners are set to hold a public hearing on the proposed Marketplace mixed use development, with discussions continuing at a future meeting.
The proposed development would result in the demolition of 3.91 acres of the Marketplace shopping center that currently house commercial tenants, and the former home of grocery store Nob Hill Foods, which was closed last year.
The proposed mixed-use plan would consist of 40 single-family detached condominium units, as well as four accessory dwelling units (ADUs), with a mixed-use designation that would accommodate the existing Starbucks on the site and proposed landscaping plans.
Staff are recommending that the Commission extend the public hearing to their Feb. 7 meeting. The upcoming hearing and the Feb. 7 hearing would count for two of the maximum of five allowed meetings on the proposal under the Housing Accountability Act.
