Thread by @PaloAltoYimby

At #PAmtg for a joint study session with the Palo Alto City Council and Planning and Transportation Commission.

Follow along!

Zoom: cityofpaloalto.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

Preview of the meeting special meeting next Tuesday: Microstudios! Wellesley! Appealing RHNA!

This should be a fun one.

This will be a 2-part meeting. First a study session with both the PTC and the City Council and then a discussion of the Council alone.

Tim Wong is the staffer project managing the Housing Element update, plugs the website paloaltohousingelement.com

They'll be a community meeting on Saturday at 10AM. Show up and say you want to see more homes in every neighborhood!

cityofpaloalto.zoom.us/j/91425260230

Rincon consultants are doing the presentation and explain what a housing element is.

Consultant reviews the consequences of failure to adopt a compliant housing element. Given comments from the Mayor and council majority, this is the path we're heading down. #pamtg

Now they're going into quite a bit of detail on how we got our RHNA allocation (which at 6k new homes by 2031 is definitely too low).

The YIMBY guide to RHNA (w/@alfred_twu illustrations!) is here is English: dropbox.com/s/gu2dm6fj08bf…

And here in Spanish: yimbyaction.org/wp-content/upl…

The consultant says they'll look at multifamily and commercial BEFORE single family, but doesn't say single family can be off the table for future sites for housing.

Where will the middle-density housing go?

The best part of the presentation: A review of new laws aimed at making the Housing Element process actually result in housing production. #pamtg

The timeline for the housing element is here. Looking to submit to HCD in June next year. There will be 3 touchpoints with PTC and City Council during the update process.

Kathy, a member of the Housing Element Committee cites the Embarcadero Institute "double counting" and population loss.

Jeremy is mad we're spending so much time on this. Wants to know why we're spending so much on a consultant for this.

Jeffrey wants to know if climate change was taken into account with RHNA. "Doesn't make sense to be planning for more people when water is becoming more scarce"

"Plan for a reduced population then addressing questions of equity"

@RebeccaEisenbe4 explains that building more housing in Palo Alto IS climate action. Encourages supporting transit over cars.

Kelsey and @s_damerdji hit home on the pain of the housing crisis and talk about the need to affirmatively further fair housing.

@cafedujord calls out fake think tanks and ecofascism.

Former Planning Commissioner and Council candidate Arthur Keller, also on the Housing Working Group, says we need low-income housing, not market-rate.

Moderate-income people are apparently unwelcome in future Palo Alto.

And now a break before questions/comments from the group.

If you'd like to go back and watch the public comments, Palo Alto livestreams on youtube, which is nice. Cupertino does this as well. The NIMBYest places at least have easily accessible meetings.

And we're back. We're starting with the Planning Commission and my favorite commissioner, Doria Summa. mercurynews.com/2009/01/07/pal…

Commissioner Summa clarifies the deadline of January 2023.

Fellow slow-growther Commissioner Lauing expresses concern about the timeline for the update process. Wants to have "fudge factors" built into the timeline.

Commissioner Alcheck says that this is a bigger challenge than previous site selections. Warns that we don't want the Housing Element committee to turn into the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, where a majority of the group ends up in favor of an untenable option.

Commissioner Hechtman (a land-use attorney) expresses concern about using a supplemental EIR instead of a subsequent EIR, which is a more intensive process. Encourages staff to take another look.

Councilmember Cormack asked about training for Housing Element working group members. Clarifies how ad-hoc committee will work.

Tim Wong explains that the ad-hoc will review the work of the working group every 2 months. Staff will present information to the working group.

New Commissioner @brynachang comments that we should focus on how to get more funding for affordable housing.

There is affordable housing funding available right now through the county that Palo Altans are already paying for. Let's find a measure A site! sccgov.org/sites/osh/Hous…

Commissioner @cariforcouncil asks whether housing needs to be distributed throughout the city or if it's up to the working group.

The consultant explains that @California_HCD is going to be looking for housing to be distributed throughout the community.

Cari seconds Michael Alcheck's concerns about this process going the way of the NVCAP. Staff says that they're using learning from that process.

Commissioner Roohparvar asks about appeals. Who would we appeal to and how would the appeal impact our timeline?

Staff explains that they will continue the process regardless of appeal. They'll dive deeper on how appeals work next Tuesday.

Dubois is also concerned about a compressed timeline at the end of this process. Asks about whether we'll be able to exchange RHNA allocations.

Mayor asks if factoring in likelihood of development means we shouldn't site housing in "neighborhoods" because that's unlikely to be developed.

It is indeed unlikely if you make it illegal.

Mayor cites current housing element "The city is nearly built out with only .5% of the developable land vacant."

Challenges us to think out of the box--Not "our neighborhoods" but places like the Stanford Research park, shopping center. Suggests we should consider annexing land.

Greer Stone seconds the comments of the Mayor and Commissioner Lauing. Wants more meetings.

https://twitter.com/yimbyaction/status/1377627106562166792?s=20

Vice Mayor Burt also expresses concerns about a truncated process toward the end. Asks about eligibility for a grace period. Planning Director Lait discourages planning to use a grace period. Tim Wong says that conversations with HCD will guide policy parameters.

Pat Burt asks about missing-middle-income housing as impossible to achieve in a high land value city like Palo Alto. Questions whether moderate-density and scale is actually missing middle housing.

Burt asks how ADUs will be treated under the housing element.

The consultant explains that your 2020 ADU production can be assumed going forward.

Burt suggests we haven't promoted JADUs sufficiently and could get our numbers up if we promoted them.

Lydia Kou asks if we can use AFFH to force builders to create inclusionary units of the same size as market rate. Rachel Tanner explains that Palo Alto already has this policy.

Kou criticizes no net loss policy is not incorporating affordability. Says it doesn't protect tenants

Rachel Tanner notes SB330 protections and suggests that Palo Alto could adopt additional anti-displacement policies as part of the housing element.

Kou asks if contaminated sites can be used. Director Lait said we can use sites if we do mitigation. Consultant says maybe.

Commissioner Alcheck suggested that we learn from Carlsbad in terms of how to demonstrate the feasibility of previously used sites.

Said that even for land use attorneys, this is totally new territory.

Burt is concerned that the process counts microunits the same as a townhome. Says that this incentivizes cities to have small units and not a "demographic balance."

Staff says a plan for all microunits would not likely be approved by HCD.

Burt keeps says "balanced demographics" is not supported by top-down mandates.

Greer Stone continues on Burt's talking points. Stone asks if there have been any measures to fund housing. Tanner says there is a state housing bond and money for housing in the budget and County $.

Greer Stone asks if staff has prioritized seeking funding. Staff explains that funds are project-based.

Stone praises AFFH requirements. Wondering how this squares with his defense of single-family zoning. Says we need to be honest about need for "truly affordable housing."

Filseth says cities are incentivized to build office-heavy mixed-use, citing Redwood City housing production alongside office, which is something you can't do in Palo Alto due to the office cap.

Cormack asks whether seeking funding is part of the HE update. Staff says no.

Mayor wants to keep exploring whether we can trade our allocation. He would like to see an anti-displacement policy. He wants to envision an entirely new neighborhood in the research park and evaluate use of open space.😳

Dubois asks if we'd get credit for an anti-Airbnb policy. Answer: no

Dubois moves staff motion. Burt wants to make sure we get #onemoremeeting for the Ad-hoc (which will be Filseth, Dubois, and Stone 🤦).

The Housing Element process is officially underway! So far so bad.