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15 Attachment 6 - November 15, 2023, Planning Commission Verbatim MinutesLOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A P P E A R A N C E S: Los Gatos Planning Commissioners: Jeffrey Barnett, Chair Steve Raspe, Vice Chair Susan Burnett Melanie Hanssen Kathryn Janoff Emily Thomas Town Manager: Laurel Prevetti Community Development Director: Joel Paulson Town Attorney: Gabrielle Whelan Transcribed by: Vicki L. Blandin (619) 541-3405 ATTACHMENT 6 LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 P R O C E E D I N G S: CHAIR BARNETT: Under Verbal Communications, we’re having the public speak only on our Agenda Item 1 tonight in which we are asked to consider and make a recommendation to the Town Council on the Draft Revised 2023-2031 Housing Element. Location is Town-wide, General Plan Amendment Application is GP-22-003, and we’ll start with a request to Staff for a presentation. ERIN WALTERS: Good evening. The primary purpose of this item this evening is to ask questions of Staff and the Town’s housing consultant, Veronica Tam, who is available on Zoom this evening, on the revised Draft Housing Element that was submitted to HCD on October 2nd. Then also to discuss potential modifications based on the preliminary feedback that was provided by the Town’s HCD reviewer and provided in the addendum report. In parallel with this discussion this evening Town Staff and the consultant continue to work on implementing the modifications based on the preliminary draft comments and matrix that also is provided in the addendum. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Staff expects to have the Draft Revised Housing Element and additional modifications completed for a future special Planning Commission, which at that time the Planning Commission will review, deliberate, and make recommendations to Town Council on whether to adopt the Draft Revised Housing Element with additional modifications. As required by Assembly Bill 215 the Draft Revised Housing Element must be available to the public for a seven-day review period prior to resubmittal to HCD. Staff does expect this seven-day period to start on Friday, November 17th, and it will run through Monday, November 27th. The Town expects to receive a comment letter from HCD on the Draft Revised Housing Element on December 1st. That completes Staff’s presentation. We are available for questions, and as I stated, the Town’s housing consultant, Veronica Tam, is available for questions as well. Thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for that, Ms. Walters, and I wanted to commence the meeting by thanking the Staff and the consultant for their hard work on this difficult project. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I’m going to begin by asking Staff to provide us some guidance regarding the method of proceeding with the meeting tonight. Thank you. JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question, Chair. As presented by the project planner, the intent of this evening’s meeting really is going to be to discuss the Housing Element, ask questions of Staff and the consultant, and hear public comment. Because we did receive those preliminary comments from HCD last week and are in the process of putting together some revisions in response, we do recommend that today’s discussion really be a discussion and asking questions, that a future meeting would be the time then to go through how the Town is responding to each of those questions one at a time, so it wouldn’t necessarily be the organized kind of topic-by-topic discussion that, for example, the Housing Element Advisory Board has had in the past when we were looking at responses to comments from the State. Hopefully that is helpful for understanding the purpose of the meeting, but we’d be happy to answer any more questions. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you. Are there any questions of Staff by Commissioners at this time? Commissioner Hanssen. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I understand that we’re supposed to be talking about the topics in the Housing Element, but I did have a general question about timing, and I did receive the letter that we received from the Town Attorney trying to explain this whole timing thing. I understand HCD is going to respond formerly on December 1st and that this is sort of an evolving document in that you already met with them in the preliminary review, you’re making some changes, but they’re going to issue their full review on December 1st. I’m just trying to understand what the urgency is of the Planning Commission meeting again on the 29th when it’s two days later that we would know exactly where we stand with HCD in terms of their view versus doing it after. JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question. The direction that Staff has been given is to try to make sure that the Housing Element is available to Town Council as soon as possible for them to consider it, and one of the things that are required prior to that is for the Planning Commission to make a recommendation. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 The thought behind Staff’s recommendation that the second special meeting of the Planning Commission be on the 29th is that we will have, with the assistance of our consultant, prepared responses to these preliminary, kind of interim comments. As you could see in that chart a lot of the previous comments have already been addressed, and so this has given us a kind of interim option to respond to the remaining outstanding issues as identified by the preliminary comments. Our goal is to be able to provide a revised draft that is substantially in conformance and fully responding to those outstanding issues, while also giving you an opportunity to make a recommendation the Town Council can then review. If there were significant additional comments that were still outstanding, it might be that we would return to Planning Commission to review another draft if needed. This goal really was just to move it forward as quickly as we could. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: So Staff feels confident with the revisions that you’re making that we should be largely there when we meet again on the 29th? JENNIFER ARMER: Correct. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Otherwise we will push it out. If you don’t mind, Chair, one more follow up question. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Playing devil’s advocate on this, back in January the Planning Commission made a communication to adopt the Housing Element as it stood then, and so what are we doing on top of that? Since we’ve already made a recommendation to adopt it, what are we doing now? Adopting this version of it? I would like to clearly understand the timeline. JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you. The discussion tonight will be of the current draft, but we would be coming back recommending that the Planning Commission consider and make a recommendation on a slightly revised draft in the hope that that gets it very close to whatever the final version the State says can be certified. It may be that the Town Attorney has something to add to that as well. ATTORNEY WHELAN: It’s very similar, but ultimately we’re looking for a recommendation to the Town Council to adopt and amended the Housing Element, and so in a nutshell that’s what Staff is recommending. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: That’s what I was looking for. So it’s the amended Housing Element, okay. CHAIR BARNETT: Other questions at this time from Commissioners? Otherwise, we’ll open the public portion of the meeting and ask if members of the public wish to speak LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 on Agenda Item 1 for up to three minutes? I don’t have any cards, but you’re welcome to come forward, please. JIM ZANARDI: My name is Jim Zanardi; I’ve been a resident in Los Gatos my whole life, 74 years. I have just a couple of questions. According to what I’ve read, the Town of Los Gatos is above the State requirements in the RHNA numbers of 1,993 and a buffer of 15%. Right now we have 2,700 units with a buffer of 57%. Councilman Hudes in November brought up a question about removing 322 units, Alberto Way, Los Gatos Lodge, etc., from the inventory. By removing these sites we would bring our buffer down from 57% to 48%. It looks to me like we could even remove more sites. The fact is we can always add additional sites, therefore why add more units now for our town to bear? Once you put them on, you can’t take them off. Why not put them on as you need them? Common sense says why not do that? The second question is a big concern regarding environmental studies for any additional sites. Will this be done? What I’ve been reading is California has been losing 250,000 to 350,000 people a year leaving the State. What are we doing building so many houses throughout the State? It doesn’t make any sense. Common sense would say we LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 don’t need the housing. What are we going to do, sell them to the homeless? I don’t think so. They’re not going to be able to afford any of these, so who is going to be in these houses if people are leaving the State? It doesn’t make any sense, not zero. That’s all I have to say. Thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for the comments. Let’s see if any Commissioners have questions for you. I am not seeing any. Thank you for coming down and presenting your comments. Ms. Quintana, whenever you’re ready. LEE QUINTANA: Thank you. Before I make a statement, I want to ask a question. Since there’s going to be new information provided at the next Planning Commission meeting, will the public be able to comment even if they commented today? ATTORNEY WHELAN: Yes. LEE QUINTANA: Thank you. The only comment I’m going to make today is based on the question of is it better to have an oversupply of identified sites, or eliminate sites and then in the end probably have to add sites? The question I have is that if sites need to be added, does that mean that the whole process of going through HDC is initiated again, or if we have sufficient buffer sites, then that process will not be necessary and it will be a faster, smoother process overall? LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Can I add that I would like Staff to answer that question, or through the Commission answer that question, now. CHAIR BARNETT: I think that’s appropriate, and maybe we can answer Mr. Zanardi’s question as well. ERIN WALTERS: We’re going to wait until the housing consultant rejoins us on Zoom to answer that question. CHAIR BARNETT: When is that expected? JENNIFER ARMER: It looks like there may be some issues with Zoom with things connecting, so she is working to reconnect; she dropped off for a moment. JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair, we might as well see if there are any other public comments, and then we can close the public hearing and come back to answer those questions. CHAIR BARNETT: Right, so does anyone who is present here wish to be heard on the Agenda Item 1? I don’t see any. Do we have anyone on Zoom? JOEL PAULSON: Thank you, Chair. If you’re interested in speaking on this item, please raise your hand if you’re on Zoom. There are no hands raised, Chair. CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you. I’ll now invite discussion by the Commissioners on Agenda Item 1, keeping LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 11 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 in mind Staff’s suggestion as to the scope of our remarks, and we’ll begin with someone who raises their hand first. Commissioner Thomas. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I think that we can start with one of the questions from the first speaker, and that was just like an overview of what types of projects will require environmental review per CEQA? Someone from Staff can probably help with that. JOEL PAULSON: I’m happy to jump in on that question. Right now we have the Housing Element. These sites have been in the Housing Element for months. We’re not proposing to remove sites for future projects. Most of these projects are by-right projects because they were either in the previous Housing Element and/or they required rezoning, which has been done by Town Council; the adoption will be next week. So those will be by-right, and we can still do Architecture and Site review, but because they are by-right they generally will not require CEQA. Additionally, the number of units that were studied in the General Plan EIR far exceeds the number of units in this study. I’ll jump into Ms. Quintana’s question as well. I think the goal is to get the Housing Element certified. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Once we get to the no net loss issues that we envision down the road, then those sites do have to be approved by HCD. We would use the same methodology for the sites that are currently in the Housing Element, and if any environmental study is necessary at that time, we’ll make that determination. CHAIR BARNETT: I might add, if you could comment on the indication that the buffer is in a range of 50% rather than the 15%? JOEL PAULSON: Yes, thank you. The current surplus is 58%. Given the comments that we received from our preliminary review from the reviewer from HCD, we envision that a number of those units are going to be removed, either because of additional information provided by our reviewer that indicates we may not be able to count them, and/or from a timing perspective the analysis for some of those units may take far longer and it’s going to be quicker and more expeditious to just remove those units and still maintain the buffer, but the buffer will ultimately be less than it is currently is what we’re currently envisioning, and we’ll know that for sure by Friday. CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for that. Commissioner Hanssen. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Follow up question on what was just discussed. When we originally put together the site inventory it was intended to be approximately 15% over the buffer, and then there was another version where we added a couple of sites, so we were at I want to say around 25% buffer, and then the new consultant came in. I’m just recounting my recollection; there’s a question in there. The consultant came in and we were able to count some sites that we didn’t know. Is it those sites that might be coming back out, or sites that are actually in the original site inventory? JOEL PAULSON: Thank you for that question. Yes, we envision that the majority, if not all, of those permitted entitled sites, which was approximately 250, I believe, most, if not all of those, will be removed. We’re still doing the research, but we think the majority of those have already been reported to the Department of Finance, which is a trigger that our reviewer brought up that was not brought up before. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: Still waiting for the consultant? JENNIFER ARMER: No, we do now have Veronica Tam available if there are questions from the Commission. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Hannsen. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Something that I’ve been wondering all along, and the three of us have been on the Housing Element the whole time, is about this AFFH, and the lion’s share of the preliminary comments were on AFFH, and if I’m reading the matrix that came in the addendum it looks like they’re still saying no on a few of the items, even after we had policy research do a lot of additional analysis and we reviewed it at the Housing Element Advisory Board. There clearly was much more detail than was originally provided, but now they’re still saying no on some of these items, so I’m just trying to understand where are we really on this and is there some standard that we can hold up to that we know about? Because it seems like they keep pushing back and asking for more details. Is my question making sense? I’m looking for like where is the end of this? Because you can do an infinite amount of analysis on the trends, and they do make some references in here about what are we going to do in reaction to that, but does it ever end that we’re in compliance with AFFH? Like where does it end? JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question. I think that is going to be a great first one for our consultant, Veronica Tam, to speak on to talk about how those outstanding comments maybe are different, or what LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 15 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 remains on those comments, and what we anticipate doing to respond. VERONICA TAM: Thank you, and I apologize. I was having some computer problems, so I wasn’t able to hear the whole conversation. I was able to have video but not audio. My understanding is that certainly the Town is concerned that there are iterations of changes, and this is actually a pretty common process that most jurisdictions have to take in order to get the Housing Element through. But I think based on the preliminary comments that we just got from HCD last week, the additional changes are pretty technical in nature, and I think the revisions that we have planned and have done so far will get us very, very close to the Housing Element certification. Now, certainly we cannot guarantee it, but I would say that based on my experience and having worked on probably close to 60 Housing Elements so far in this cycle, that yours is very close to getting there, and I think that is what is indicated to us by the State as well. What is likely going to happen is that when we resubmit the revisions to the State by the end of the week they would be able to incorporate the majority of the revisions that we have made and dismiss most of the concerns. It may have some remnants of comments that we LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 16 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 would see on December 1st and when we get the letter. That would maybe give us a little bit of time before we go to Council adoption to make the revisions at that time, but I think you are probably 95% there. CHAIR BARNETT: Does that answer your question? COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Could you comment specifically on the AFFH? I understand what you’re saying about the overall process, but since you’ve worked on 60 Housing Elements, which is quite a bit and we appreciate you doing all this work, could you comment specifically on the AFFH comments? Because this is a new law that we didn’t have the last time in the fifth cycle. VERONICA TAM: I think so far the State has looked at the analysis already, and they have provided additional comments, mostly in the area of local knowledge. The State doesn’t want us to just primarily rely on data statistics to talk about the Town’s fails and issues, but mostly we have to supplement that with local knowledge. My team, Jamie, has been working on that as well with Town Staff to get more about the character, the history, and the constraints that the Town may have regarding housing. Now, the other topic that they want us to beef up on, I believe, is the racially concentrated areas of LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 17 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 affluence, because you are a fairly higher-income community, and this is also very typical. When we work with ABAG communities there are some fairly high-income communities that we deal with and we do have to go through all that discussion as well. I think generally what’s important to the State is to make sure that you have a range of sites that are distributed throughout the Town, and that you have actions to address existing gaps or discrepancies among neighborhoods. And again, we are working on like making that kind of response more prominent. You do have a lot of actions and programs within your Housing Element that have beneficial impacts to fair housing but is kind of distributed throughout the Housing Element plan section, so as part of the response to the State’s comments we are creating a matrix that shows exactly which Housing Element action would respond to fair housing and would have beneficial impacts. I think, like I said, a lot of your housing policies and programs do have beneficial impacts, they’re just not labeled as fair housing programs, so what we’re trying to do is to provide a summary in matrix of all the actions. I think once we’ve done that it would be clearer to the State how the Town is responding with their housing. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Do you think that at this stage we’ve gone far enough to comply with AFFH in our Housing Element? VERONICA TAM: I think so. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I hear what you’re saying, taking the individual programs and tying things together, because it seemed like what they’re looked for was what are you going to do about it, and since we do have all those implementation programs, but do you feel like we do have the kind of implementation programs that will ultimately satisfy them if you can just put it in front of them the right way? VERONICA TAM: I would say that we’re almost there. Again, I can’t guarantee that you are there yet, particularly with AFFH, because that is an area that the State is very, very picky about, but I think based on our assessment you are really close to getting there, but in the next couple of weeks or maybe before the Council adoption, that’s where we’re going to probably have to do a little bit of negotiation with the State with what we think is realistic, what we can do, because we also have to make sure that what the State is asking is realistic, what can happen in the Town that is implementable. So I think there LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 is maybe some back and forth still on the AFFH, but again, I think we’re very close to getting there. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: I have a follow up question on that. In the matrix, under AFFH, HCD requires specific information regarding the Town’s response to the requirement, and the answer provided by the Town was, “Work is in progress by this Staff and the consultant to determine if additional analysis is required that would result in programs to provide stronger Housing Elements.” I was concerned about the word if it’s required or not? It seemed to be questioning the recommendation by HCD, if you understand my question. VERONICA TAM: From the preliminary comments we got it’s not so much about a lot of additional analysis. There is the additional analysis that they did ask for, which is the RCAA racially concentrated areas of affluence, and also on local knowledge. If Jamie is online, maybe she can comment about the additional analysis that you have done. JENNIFER ARMER: No, unfortunately she is not on the Zoom meeting with us this evening. VERONICA TAM: Oh, okay. My apology; I thought she was. Oh, you know what? She is actually in another meeting. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 20 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 But I think the preliminary comments that we got are not so much about a lot of extra analysis. I think we want to make sure that we present our case the best in terms of meaningful actions, and that’s why we’re developing this matrix that (inaudible) issues and problematic actions that maybe people would not label that as fair housing programs or actions, but they really do have beneficial impacts. CHAIR BARNETT: I see. Okay, thank you. Are there other questions? Commissioner Burnett. COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Yes, I have a question, and thank you for answering our questions tonight. I have a question about the ADUs. What is the basis for increasing the very-low-income distribution for ADU to 30% when the ABAG housing technical assistance team actually in September of 2021 reported an affordability of ADUs recommended jurisdictions with fair housing concerns, which Los Gatos does have, to use more conservative assumptions? I noticed our numbers are fairly high considering we should really maybe be only at like 5%; anyway much lower numbers than are showing in our report. VERONICA TAM: I think in general what we are trying to do is in fact (inaudible) all ADUs, like more ADUs in areas that have opportunities for it, which is LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 21 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 high-resource, low-density areas. I think in the future one of the actions probably is going to try to get ADUs to be more affordable, more available, to low-income households. That’s part of the actions that we talked about in promoting use of housing choice vouchers, promoting the whole idea about renting ADUs to low-income households. The goal is to actually make ADUs more affordable to low- and moderate-income households. I think that’s the reason why we switched it. COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Thank you for that. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Hanssen. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I had a couple questions about the matrix relative to the site inventory. It’s on page five. The first one was about the realistic capacity, and they were saying no, their preliminary review said we’re not there, and so that seems to be a pretty big deal to me. Then I looked at their notes. It says, “Program VH must clarify by right definition for use sites.” It says in Staff Response that program AS identifies the RHNA sites, but work is in progress by Staff and the consultants to include the definition of by right development and program AS. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 22 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 So is that something that’s going to be submitted this week, or soon? Because that seems like it’s pretty material to them being satisfied that our site inventory is developable. JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Thank you for the question. That is part of the work that Staff is going to be working on and preparing to have go out for the seven-day review starting on Friday. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Okay, thank you. Then on SB 9, I don't know if I totally understood it, but it looked like they were looking for specific sites. This is on page seven. It’s still pretty new and I think there is education going on. I don't know that we have any sites in the site inventory for SB 9, so what would we do in terms of identifying specific sites? ERIN WALTERS: Thank you for the question. Initially we provided how we were calculating the SB 9 number, but we do not have specific sites that are evaluated. Some communities do have that; the Town does not, so that is something Staff is currently reviewing based on this comment. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: So we’re still trying to decide how to respond? LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 JENNIFER ARMER: Yes, we are finalizing that. One of the discussions that we have had is that the way that SB 9 was presented in this current draft is more aligned with the ADUs where we aren’t identifying specific locations of where future ADUs are, but that the estimate for number of new housing units is based on past trends, and so we looked at the number of SB 9 permits that have come in since that ordinance was in place and justified it there, as well as additional justification was prepared by Veronica Tam’s team that put together an analysis of what sites were available in Town that met certain criteria, and based on past practice our understanding was that that was going to be acceptable to HCD. What this preliminary comment indicates is that it may be that they’re not willing to accept that alternative, that they want analysis that is more like our sites inventory where we’re identifying specific sites, and so we will be looking to see how critical those units numbers are for the overall sites inventory calculation buffer, etc., and looking to see what, at this point to expedite this and keep it moving forward, the best course is going to be. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: A follow up question. My understanding was that what was done in the most recent LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 24 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 submission that you had the preliminary review from is that it was basically a funnel, which made a lot of sense to me. When I went to the Planning Commissioners Academy a year ago in 2022 one of the consultants to the State had done basically a funnel and they looked at all the housing in the State and what could possibly be feasible, and what was financially feasible, and so they came up with what was a very low percentage of the total. I thought that was kind of the direction we were going, and now I’m hearing that HCD actually wants you to treat it like site inventory, and then what I heard you say as a follow up, if I heard it correctly, is that we might be taking those sites out. JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair. Joel Paulson, Community Development Director. Yes, this current version that was submitted in October did have kind of that funnel of looking at a parcel size that’s reasonable for two units, looking at all the parcels in town that would allow SB 9 that fit in that bucket, and then paring that down even further to what I think I recall is less than 1% of those parcels. That’s been a method that has been accepted elsewhere previously, but as we’re finding as our region as gone through the process, things that might have been accepted in Southern California are not being accepted any longer, so we’re weighing how quickly we could do that type LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 of analysis, and if we can’t do it quickly enough and if we have enough buffer, then it’s just simpler for us to remove those units from the numbers. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: That makes sense, but it’s a little bit scary in the sense that we’re hopefully close to being done, but then that’s 96 units, but we do have more buffer, so I’m sure you guys will figure that out, but that seems like a bit of a red flag for me, especially since I believe it came from one of our Councilmembers to make sure we included SB 9 sites since that law was put in place. CHAIR BARNETT: Is there any comment from Staff before I take Commissioner Janoff’s question? JOEL PAULSON: It looks like the consultant has some additional comments. VERONICA TAM: I just want to emphasize that it is not uncommon that even HCD would recommend an approach like that, because we are close to getting a certified Housing Element, but we’re not removing the opportunity of SB 9. SB 9 is still being discussed in the Housing Element; it’s still an opportunity for sites, particularly for moderate- and above-moderate-income type of housing, because SB 9 is not likely going to generate units that are lower income. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 26 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 It’s still in the Housing Element, it’s still an opportunity that the Town will continue to pursue, it’s just not being used to count towards the RHNA for adequate site purposes, but when you do build units you do have an SB 9 application processed you do get credits against the RHNA. Getting adequate sites analysis is a little bit different than getting credits for RHNA for accomplishments, so you will get accomplishments when you do have SB 9 applications processed. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Janoff. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you, and thank you for that clarification, Ms. Tam; that was very, very important. I think when Staff said we’ll be taking sites off the inventory to expedite the process, it kind of makes us pause a bit, but this makes very, very good sense. If the hurdle to get these sites on the inventory with the type of analysis that’s been done is prohibitive in terms of the amount of time and we’ve got the buffer, take them off. That’s a very, very simple and elegant solution, so thank you for that clarification. CHAIR BARNETT: Other questions from Commissioners? Vice Chair Raspe. VICE CHAIR RASPE: Thank you, Chair. I notice one of the open issues on our matrix is the story pole LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 27 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 discussion, and I know the Planning Commission had a lengthy hearing on that and provided our comments to Town Council. I’m just curious as to where we are in that process, and if we believe it’s going to be resolved in time for this element to get certified? Thank you. JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question; I can provide an update. We are currently scheduled to go back to Town Council on December 5th for them to continue that discussion, however, based on the discussion that was held by Town Council on August 1st we have been able to draft some additional language for the Housing Element to give more specificity about the motions that were made and approved by a majority of Town Council. So we’ve been able to add that in and draft some language that describes some of the changes that have already been approved by Town Council so that it can provide clarity to the State that that work is already ongoing and that Town Council has already approved some motions for changes. VICE CHAIR RASPE: Thank you so much for that answer. CHAIR BARNETT: I’ll jump in with a question. In my review of the matrix it appeared to me that the most recent HCD comments were bringing up new material rather LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 than delving further into prior answers. Do you have any sense of that? JENNIFER ARMER: I can jump in, and then we might see if Veronica has something more to add. When we look at the list of comments, these are actually the comments from our last letter, and then there is an additional column that talks about which ones have been resolved and which have not. It appears that almost half of them are marked as resolved, that the work that’s been done is already enough, and that it’s just there’s some more that’s needed to fully resolve the remaining 16 items on this chart. There are some cases where they’re asking for more detail than we thought was needed to resolve the question, but that was one of the benefits of this preliminary conversation in the middle of our 60-day review, that we could touch the base with them and find out where we needed to go further. JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair, as we noted in the Staff responses, we tried to add where we address these comments in the current version. I think this is a pattern that we’ve seen with all of their letters: we provide information and then they come back and say they want additional information or additional analysis. I think this LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 29 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 is just a continuation of that and we’re hopeful that we’re going to get over the hurdle this round. CHAIR BARNETT: So my layman’s analysis that HCD was bringing up new issues doesn’t seem to be founded, they’re just trying to get the additional information to satisfy previous inquiries. JOEL PAULSON: That’s correct. As Ms. Armer mentioned, these are the comments from May that were addressed. CHAIR BARNETT: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Hanssen. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I may come back and ask additional questions on the matrix, but could I ask a procedural question? Since we’ve been at this for several rounds, when we actually get a letter from HCD will it say that we’re done, or are they still going to have lingering questions? What would be normal when we are actually done? JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question. We might actually see if Veronica Tam might tell what those look like for the other communities she has worked for, but my understanding is the goal is done, but most likely there will be a few more back and forth as she was mentioning earlier; there may be a little bit of negotiation that needs to be done to really close it out. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 30 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 VERONICA TAM: The goal is to get to a letter by December 1st that it would say if adopted as revised the Housing Element would comply with State law. It actually reminds me, we are doing the rezoning soon, or there is no rezoning that needs to be done later on, but if there is any kind of rezoning that needs to be done, then the letter will say the Housing Element will be found to be in compliance once the rezoning is done. I would say that in the December 1st letter you will still have some remnants of comments, but I’m confident that with the revisions that we’re doing right now we should be able to dismiss the majority of the 16 items. The other few items are really a negotiation. It’s the art of a review that gives me the reviewing authority to do that type of back and forth, and I think we may have to do a little bit of back and forth, but I think with the revisions that we are working on we should be able to dismiss the majority of the comments because most of them are technical in nature; that shouldn’t have a lot of negotiation. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Janoff. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 31 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you. Could you clarify what that negotiation is? Is that a conversation between you, Staff, and HCD saying no really, it’s in there? Could you explain what negotiation means? VERONICA TAM: I’ll give some examples and hopefully that’s not going to be too frustrating for jurisdictions, and I go through this all the time. There will be some times, and our goal is to do 50 units and affordable units in over eight years or something for a small community, and a city may come back and say we think that you can do a little higher, and so we’ll kind of move back and forth and say realistically we think we can push it up to 80, but that’s all we can do. So that kind of “negotiation” is not so much about… I think that’s the type of things that we should be expecting. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: If I may? So are you saying that these negotiations happen verbally back and forth, or is this a letter to us and a letter back? VERONICA TAM: It would be verbally. What we try to do also is every time before and after we submit a draft to the State we have a meeting with the State and we talk about what they’re looking for, ask them to clarify what exactly are they looking for, and we had that meeting just LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 32 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 recently, I think a couple of days ago, just to clarify what they are looking for. So I think after we resubmit, and I don’t think we would have an opportunity, given the holidays next week, to have a meeting with them, but if possible we should try to get a meeting with them before they issue the letter. But even after they issue the letter we would arrange a meeting to just go over the remnants of comments and what expectations they have. I think definitely the State is in the position of pushing higher. We are holding our ground to see what we can do realistically as well. COMMISSIONER JANOFF: Thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Thomas. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Just as a follow up, when you refer to “we,” you’re referring to yourself and some Town Staff, or is it just your office that will do this negotiation? VERONICA TAM: It would not be just me, because I work for you, but the Town Staff is certainly taking the lead and I’m there to facilitate the discussions. I understand a little bit more about where they’re coming from and maybe between the lines what they are asking, so I’m trying to facilitate those discussions, but definitely LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 33 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Staff takes the lead because only Staff understands the resources and constraints that the Town is facing. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Okay, perfect. I do have an additional question. CHAIR BARNETT: Please. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I do think that we had a couple of other questions through public comment that it would be helpful for us to just discuss. I know some of us have sat on the Housing Element Advisory Board for a while, so we’re a little bit familiar with this, but can either Town Staff of Ms. Tam explain why the sites inventory looks as it does with the buffer? I know we kind of covered this already. In addition to that, why is it important to include all of these sites to get it passed versus adding sites later down the road? And then if sites do need to be added, how does that work? JOCELYN SHOOPMAN: Thank you for the question. There have been no changes to the sites inventory; we have not added or removed sites. The discussion of the surplus increasing really is coming from this new bucket of these entitled finaled or permitted units that we didn’t previously include in the January version that was adopted, so that’s approximately 250 units. When you add those LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 34 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 additional units; that has resulted in the increased surplus. It’s not because the Town had added any new sites to the sites inventory. We did receive preliminary feedback in this matrix from HCD about those no additional 250 units, and so that’s part of the work we’re doing this week to review and see if those units have in fact already been reported to the Department of Finance, in which case they would be removed and the surplus would be decreased. CHAIR BARNETT: Follow up? COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Yes. CHAIR BARNETT: Please. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I think that it’s clear why that percentage changed, but from day one we’ve had a lot of comments from the public and concern about the number of sites included and the total number of units, so I was hoping we as a group could very briefly go over the importance of why we need to have all of these sites on our initial list instead of adding more as we go, which I know we’ve discussed, but I think it needs to be addressed again. JOEL PAULSON: Through the Chair, maybe Ms. Tam could respond a little differently to should we be removing sites at this point? This has been predominantly the same LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 as what was adopted in January, so there hasn’t been a change. There have been many comments of concern when we went up to the 25% buffer, but ultimately that was adopted, so that’s where we are. The other bucket that it was added, again, has been discussed, but Ms. Tam, if you would maybe provide comments on what implications there might be if the Planning Commission ultimately wanted to recommend removing some of the existing sites. VERONICA TAM: For one thing, I think everybody has heard enough about SB 166, monitoring of no net loss, which is a new State law that applies to the six-cycle Housing Element that any time when a site in your inventory is developed, if it’s developed with fewer units than projected in the Housing Element, or fewer affordable units by income distribution, you have to do an accounting of whether the remaining sites inventory has the ability to meet the RHNA. Because of your town, the market economics, the majority of the Housing Element sites when they’re developed are not likely to be developed with a lot of affordable units, probably just your inclusionary requirements, that type of project. But for the purpose of doing adequate sites analysis, the State does allow us to LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 36 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 use density as a proxy so that we are allowed to count most of the sites that are higher density as housing sites that are feasible for facilitating lower income, so when actual development happens you are likely going to have a net loss against your sites inventory, so for that reason the State recommends a buffer between 15-30%; that’s in the sites inventory guide book provided by HCD. The higher income area, the more expensive the communities, I think the higher the buffer should be because more likely that you’re going to result in a net loss of affordable units when your sites are being built. Now, can you remove sites right now? I certainly do not recommend it, because removing the sites means that we have to completely redo the AFFH analysis. At the end of AFFH analysis there is an analysis of how your sites inventory is distributed across different neighborhoods, different demographics and characteristics in your community, and therefore conclude whether the sites are promoting fair housing. So if you choose to reduce sites right now, we will have to redo the AFFH analysis, and that would substantially delay the whole Housing Element certification process, because HCD would need to review that whole section again. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 37 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Now, when you run into a net loss situation in the future it only gives you six months to actually identify replacement sites or rezone additional sites to replenish your sites inventory, so having a high enough buffer today would save you trouble as you go down the line, because we all know rezoning and identifying new sites is not an easy task. State law only gives you 180 days to do that, so having a healthy buffer is going to take you a long way when your sites are eventually developed. JOEL PAULSON: And through the Chair, I would add also that since Council has already introduced all but one site for the Housing Element Overlay Zone, we certainly wouldn’t want to be looking at reducing any of those sites. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Thomas. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: My next question is about if that rezoning and the taking out of that one space is going to impact our Housing Element at all, or the certification process of it, and if so, how can we remedy that? JOEL PAULSON: Thank you for the question. Because it’s only 16 units in the Housing Element and they’re all above moderate, it’s not going to have an impact like a parcel or number of parcels that also include LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 38 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 affordable housing as a part of that. So we have looked at that, because that is a potential option as well to bringing that buffer down, or that surplus down, that slight bit more. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: So then is that site still going to stay in, but just at the current zoning, or will it get removed because it’s not getting rezoned at this point? JOEL PAULSON: I would say that is unknown and it’s really a timing issue, because actually that one site is going back to the Council on December 5th, so in between there we’re looking at options for when we come back on the 29th, if Planning Commissioners are available. Potentially there’s an option to remove that site, but also to include language in any resolution or future action that because it was in before, should the Council choose to rezone that site in the interim in the timing that would accomplish certification, then we could always add that back without having to come back through a full cycle with the Commission. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: Okay, thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: Commissioner Hanssen. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Since it was asked in the public comments I thought we should bring this up, and LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 39 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 because it’s also come up in other meetings as well. The out migration from California to other states that started picking up during the pandemic and hasn’t really changed much, has it had any impact at all on the State’s and HCD’s interest in pursuing all this AFFH? Has it had any tampering of following through on everything that we’re being asked to do? JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question. This is a topic and a question and concern that was brought up actually enough years back that it was part of the General Plan update process, that there were these news articles and discussion of this, and there are different studies on what these numbers are, but at this point it is not changing what the requirements for the State are in terms of the housing capacity that communities need to provide in their Housing Element. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: Thank you. CHAIR BARNETT: I have one question, Ms. Tam, and that is I gather you found HCD to be very responsive in terms of time on these iterations and you expect it to continue to be the case. I assume that they’re overwhelmed, but it sounds like you’re managing. Can you comment on that? LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 40 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 VERONICA TAM: They are definitely overwhelmed, and they are also understaffed; I think that’s probably a fair comment. They do have statutory deadlines to make, and so a lot of times what we do if we want to push them to respond faster is actually do a formal submittal, because then they are bound by a statutory deadline or (inaudible) timeline for you. I do try to engage them in an informal kind of review first, and to the extent I can get them to commit to responding faster through informal review I do try to do that, but informal reviews do run a risk, because they are not obligated to respond in a timely manner for informal review. I think at this stage we want to do formal reviews; that’s why we have submitted for the 60-day review and we’re getting a letter. At this stage the State is also starting their review of Housing Elements in the Monterey Bay and San Joaquin Valley areas, and so I think we run the risk of being pushed behind the line if we don’t commit them to a statutory required timeframe. So at this time I do recommend going through everything formal review, but we all try to have interim conversations with the State during the formal timeframe. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 41 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR BARNETT: So would it be fair to say that you’re in agreement with the Staff in terms of the probable timing for Planning Commission review and Council review? VERONICA TAM: Yes. CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you. Commissioner Burnett. COMMISSIONER BURNETT: Yes, thank you. A question for Staff, a follow up question. What would be the most likely timeline for the certification of the Housing Element if it didn’t happen on December 1st? JENNIFER ARMER: Thank you for that question. As was laid out in the Staff Report, our recommendation is that you continue this discussion until November 29th, and to add to what I was saying earlier with a little specificity, if we want to allow time for the Town Council to consider the Housing Element before the end of the year, their final meeting is on December 19th, and the deadlines for putting an ad in the paper for this item to go to that meeting is actually on November 30th, and so that’s why the 29th is a critical date in that timeline, and we do need to include wording in that ad that reflects what the recommendation from Planning Commission was. So that’s how we got to that timeline. The hope, based on the description that Ms. Tam has shared as well, is that once we have that meeting with LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 42 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Planning Commission and you’ve provided a recommendation based on the additional changes, we then get a formal letter from the State on Friday, December 1st. We hope that at that point either all of the comments have been resolved or it is only a few minor issues, and so that any remaining revisions that need to be done are minor enough that they don’t need to come back to Planning Commission, that your recommendation can stand and can be brought to Town Council on the 19th along with any additional feedback based on the comment letter for December 1st. CHAIR BARNETT: Thank you for those comments. Helpful. I’m not seeing any hands raised, and I don’t have any more questions, so why don’t we move on to the issue of the continuance and see if there’s a motion for a continuance of this hearing to November 29, 2023 at 7:00 o'clock. Commissioner Thomas. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I’m happy to do that, but I do have a clarification question for Staff. So that’s going to be another special meeting on the 29th? JENNIFER ARMER: That is correct, because it’s not a regularly scheduled date for Planning Commission. COMMISSIONER THOMAS: I move to continue this item to a date certain of November 29, 2023 for a special meeting at 7:00pm. LOS GATOS PLANNING COMMISSION 11/15/2023 Item #2, Draft 2023-2031 Housing Element 43 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 CHAIR BARNETT: Is there a second? Commissioner Hanssen. COMMISSIONER HANSSEN: I second the motion. CHAIR BARNETT: I assume there’s no discussion, so I’ll call for a raise of hands of those Commissioners in favor, and that’s unanimous. Thank you very much. (END) This Page Intentionally Left Blank