REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Public Hearing: Action on Amendment to the City of Santa Clara General Plan-Re-Adoption of the 2023-2031 Housing Element with Revisions
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Promote and Enhance Economic, Housing and Transportation Development
BACKGROUND
The Housing Element, one of the required elements of the City’s General Plan, includes policies and programs intended to help the City meet the housing needs of all current and future Santa Clara residents. State law requires that local jurisdictions update their Housing Element every eight years and that the Housing Element be reviewed by the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Housing Elements are then certified by HCD if found to be in substantial compliance with State Housing law.
For Bay Area towns, cities, and counties, the statutory due date for submittal of an adopted Housing Element, covering the years 2023-2031 (6th housing cycle), was January 31, 2023. Consistent with this deadline, on January 31, 2023, the City Council adopted Santa Clara’s 2023-2031 (6th Cycle) Housing Element and submitted it to HCD for their 60-day review. On March 28, 2023, the City received HCDs findings/comment letter (Attachment 1). HCD determined that the City’s Adopted Housing Element addresses many statutory requirements but identified additional revisions that in their view were necessary for HCD to certify the City’s Housing Element as fully compliant with State Housing Element law. Staff met with HCD on April 20, 2023 to discuss those comments and on June 2, 2023 to discuss staff’s draft revisions to the adopted Housing Element to address those comments.
State leadership continues to identify efforts to address the State’s housing crisis as a top priority for both legislative and administrative efforts. As a result, the State has significantly increased the requirements placed upon each jurisdiction as they update their local Housing Elements and added more stringent State oversight for the review and approval of each Housing Element.
The lack of a certified Housing Element can reduce the ability of a local jurisdiction to regulate new housing development and reduce access to State funds for as long as the jurisdiction remains out of compliance.
City staff has been diligently working with HCD and the City’s consultant (MIG, Inc.) to complete revisions necessary to receive HCD’s certification.
State (HCD) Review
On March 28, 2023, the City received HCD’s findings/comment letter (Attachment 1) on the City’s Adopted Housing Element. HCD identified revisions necessary to receive HCD’s certification of compliance in the following areas:
A. Housing Needs, Resources, and Constraints
B. Housing Programs
D. Quantified Objectives
E. Public Participation
F. Consistency with General Plan
The draft Housing Element prepared for re-adoption addresses the topics raised by HCD as discussed in the Planning Commission staff report (Attachment #3).
DISCUSSION
The Planning Commission hearing on this item took place on June 14, 2023 (continued from May 24, 2023). Staff provided a presentation (Attachment 2) highlighting the changes made to the Housing Element in response to comments from HCD, including:
• additional programs in the Housing Plan that will help to provide a variety of housing types through a streamlined, by-right process;
• deletion of a number of occupied sites proposed in the first draft that may be unlikely to convert to housing during the 6th cycle;
• added sites along the El Camino Real to maintain an adequate buffer for the sites inventory; and
• more in-depth analysis of how the Housing Element complies with the requirement to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH), with data showing that more than 80% of the City’s proposed sites are in High or the Highest Resource areas of the City.
The Commission commended staff on the additional work on the Housing Element and asked how the impacts to transportation had been analyzed for the new sites along El Camino, and whether the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) had been coordinated with regarding additional bus service. Staff responded that the impacts of the land use changes to El Camino Real were analyzed in the 2010 General Plan EIR, and that the proposed rezoning of these sites would result in residential densities consistent with that analysis. Staff also confirmed that the City had coordinated with VTA during the 2010 General Plan Update process, and that VTA would continue to be a partner in the City’s ongoing work on the El Camino Real Specific Plan.
Two members of the Carpenters’ Union spoke in favor of adding a policy to the Housing Element to promote hiring local labor, hiring from or contributing to apprenticeship programs, and providing a living wage. The two representatives added that apprenticeship programs, including programs for Veterans, can pull people out of poverty, and that the Carpenters’ Union offers health care benefits to their members.
Commissioner Biagini made a motion (Bouza seconding) to recommend City Council adoption of the updated Housing Element, with the addition of policy language to the Housing Element to encourage developers and contractors to evaluate hiring local labor, hiring from or contributing to apprenticeship programs, increasing resources for labor compliance, and providing a living wage. The Commission voted unanimously (7-0-0) in favor the motion. The Planning Commission recommendation was added as Alternative 2 to this report. Alternative 3 was added to provide more specificity than Alternative 2 regarding the City’s involvement with developers and contractors in their decision to utilize local labor and associated programs.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The City prepared an Addendum to the 2010-2035 General Plan Environmental Impact Report (Attachment 6) for the 6th Cycle (2023-2031) Housing Element, which concluded that there is no substantial change to the General Plan that would require major revisions to the previous EIR; that there is no substantial change in circumstances as a result of modifications to the General Plan that would cause new or substantially more severe significant impacts; and, that there is no new information of substantial importance that identifies new or more intense significant impacts than those identified in the General Plan EIR.
At their public hearing on January 26, 2023, the Planning Commission adopted Resolution No. 23-004 recommending the City Council adopt the Addendum to the General Plan EIR, for adoption of the 6th Cycle Housing Element.
With the adoption of Resolution No. 23-9188 (Attachment 4) at a public hearing on January 31, 2023, the City Council approved the Addendum to the General Plan EIR for adoption of the 6th Cycle Housing Element. Although the proposed action is to make additional revisions to the Housing Element and General Plan, there are no new policies proposed that would generate new or substantially more significant environmental impacts; moreover, the revised inventory identifies slightly fewer sites than in the January element, and so any impacts are likely to be slightly reduced. As such, the General Plan EIR and Addendum remain sufficient for the environmental analysis of the proposed Housing Element.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report. On January 25, 2022, the City Council approved a consultant agreement with MIG, Inc. to update the City’s Housing Element and accepted $499,150 in reimbursable grant funding from the State’s Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) grant program. Of this grant funding, $289,868 will be used to fund MIGs work and the remaining $209,282 will be used to fund City staff expenses. All grant funds must be expended on or before December 31, 2023.
Adoption of the Housing Element, as drafted, includes new and revised City programs to implement the Housing Element goals and policies in conformance with State requirements. The potential implementation of these programs will require future City Council review, including and analysis of their potential fiscal impacts.
COORDINATION
This report was coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting the Commission agenda on the City’s official-notice bulletin board outside City Hall Council Chambers. A complete agenda packet is available on the City’s website and in the City Clerk’s Office at least 72 hours prior to a Regular Meeting and 24 hours prior to a Special Meeting. A hard copy of any agenda report may be requested by contacting the City Clerk’s Office at (408) 615-2220, email clerk@santaclaraca.gov <mailto:clerk@santaclaraca.gov> or at the public information desk at any City of Santa Clara public library.
On April 20, 2023, pursuant to Government Code Section 65352(a), the City mailed referral letters to tribes and outside agencies advising them of the City’s intent to take action on a General Plan Amendment to adopt revisions to the 2023-2031 Housing Element. The referral letters also included notice of the proposed Planning Commission and City Council hearings.
On May 10, 2023, pursuant to Government Code Sections 65353 and 65355, a notice of public hearing was published in The Weekly, a newspaper of general circulation, regarding the Planning Commission and City Council public hearings.
On May 18, 2023, a GovDelivery bulletin was emailed to the City’s 1,875 Housing Element Update topic subscribers to let them know of the continuance of the Planning Commission and City Council hearings from May 24, 2023 and June 6, 2023, respectively, with the updated hearing schedule (also posted on the Housing Element Update page).
On June 7, 2023, a GovDelivery bulletin was emailed to the City’s 1,899 Housing Element Update topic subscribers to let them know the availability of the draft revisions to the Adopted Housing Element on the Housing Element Update page.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Adopt a Resolution to amend the General Plan by re-adopting the Housing Element for the 2023-2031 Cycle.
2. Adopt a Resolution to amend the General Plan by re-adopting the Housing Element for the 2023-2031 Cycle with the incorporation of language in the Housing Element to encourage developers and contractors to evaluate hiring local labor, hiring from or contributing to apprenticeship programs and providing a living wage.
3. Adopt a Resolution to amend the General Plan by re-adopting the Housing Element for the 2023-2031 Cycle with the incorporation of language in the Housing Element to engage with developers regarding the benefits of hiring local labor, hiring from or contributing to apprenticeship programs, increasing resources for labor compliance, and providing living wages.
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Alternative: 1
1. Adopt a Resolution to amend the General Plan by re-adopting the Housing Element for the 2023-2031 Cycle.
Staff
Reviewed by: Andrew Crabtree, Director of Community Development
Approved by: Jōvan Grogan, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS
1. HCD Findings/Comment Letter on Adopted Housing Element
2. Planning Commission Presentation
3. Planning Commission Staff Report
4. Resolution No. 23-9188
5. Revisions to Adopted Housing Element (clean)
6. Revisions to Adopted Housing Element (redlined)
7. HCD Comments/Response Matrix
8. Summary of Proposed Amendments to the Housing Element
9. Addendum
10. General Plan Amendment Resolution