New Proposals to Implement the City’s Housing Element and Allow More Housing Throughout the City
In May and June the Planning Commission will review proposals for municipal and zoning ordinance and zoning map amendments to implement the recently adopted Housing Element and allow more housing in the Redwood City.
WHAT IS A HOUSING ELEMENT AND WHY IS IT NEEDED?
The State of California has identified housing supply and affordability as a crisis of historic proportions. To aggressively confront this crisis, every eight years the State requires all cities to develop a Housing Element, or housing plan, to guide future residential growth and development. Over the last two years, Redwood City has evaluated and updated its 2023–2031 Housing Element in order to comply with the State’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) obligation for Redwood City, which requires that the City plan for, and revise local zoning, if needed to accommodate at least 4,588 new market rate and affordable housing units by 2031. The table below shows the City’s RHNA obligation as mandated by the State.
Redwood City is seeking to exceed its 2023–2031 RHNA obligation and is setting a housing target 53% percent above the housing obligation in order to increase flexibility to meet the RHNA, to provide housing throughout the City, and promote additional housing opportunities during this housing crisis.
On February 13, 2023, the City Council adopted its new Housing Element and became the first City in San Mateo County to have its housing element adopted and approved by the State for the 2023–2031 planning period.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 10
The housing programs in the Housing Element include recommended and State-mandated actions to implement the City’s housing goals and policies as well as timelines for studying and adopting those actions. On Wednesday, May 10, 2023, the Planning Commission will hold a study session at a special meeting to provide more background information on proposed updates to the Municipal Code, Zoning Code, Affordable Housing Ordinance, and Zoning Maps and in order to gather feedback from the public. Since this is a study session, there will be no formal actions taken by the Planning Commission at the hearing.
The proposed amendments represent the City’s first round of actions to implement the Housing Element since its adoption. Over the coming months and years, City staff will continue to study and bring forth recommendations to implement the Housing Element and support its RHNA obligation.
WHAT ARE THE CODE UPDATES?
Affordable Housing Ordinance Update
The City’s Affordable Housing Ordinance (AHO) applies to both residential and nonresidential development. Large residential projects (20 units or more) are required to build affordable units on their development site at the rate of 20% for a rental development and 15% for an ownership development. Small residential projects (5–19 units) and nonresidential projects are required to pay an affordable housing impact fee, which the City uses to support the construction of affordable housing elsewhere within Redwood City. However, the AHO allows developers to propose alternative methods of providing affordable housing, including construction of affordable units in another location, preservation of existing affordable units elsewhere via a deed restriction, and land donation to the City for future construction of affordable units, among others. In general, the City supports nonresidential developers partnering with affordable housing developers to fulfill their AHO obligation in the form of affordable units rather than collecting the impact fee, which places responsibility on the City to ensure that affordable housing units are built.
To ensure that large developments build the required affordable units, the AHO requires that affordable units be constructed concurrently with the market-rate residential or nonresidential components of the development instead of at the end of project construction. However, many projects in which a nonresidential developer partners with an affordable housing developer to deliver the required affordable units are complex and have prompted requests by developers to amend the AHO to provide greater flexibility given current challenges connected to rising interest rates, financing and investor constraints, and increasingly competitive affordable housing financing opportunities.
Considering this feedback and City affordable housing goals, the proposed amendments to the AHO would update affordable rent definitions, provide additional options to allow land donation, and offer alternatives to the concurrent construction requirements in order to retain safeguards and assurances that required affordable units are built in a timely manner, while offering greater flexibility to developers. This set of proposed amendments are intended to be a targeted update to help advance several key ongoing development projects. A more comprehensive update to the AHO, including a new impact fee study that will determine appropriate fee levels in the future, will be completed by the end of 2026.
Senate Bill (SB) 9
Senate Bill 9 is a State law that requires “ministerial” approval (meaning without judgement or discretion) by local jurisdictions of certain housing development projects allowing up to two dwelling units (i.e., duplexes) on a single-family zoned parcel. The law also requires ministerial approval of a one-time lot split of an existing single-family residential lot into two lots; up to two units can be constructed on the newly created lot. SB 9 applies to the R-1 and RH single-family zoning districts in Redwood City. Although SB 9 went into effect January 1, 2022, the proposed code updates would help ensure the State requirements are clear to the public and that additional housing can be properly implemented under these new rules. The image below shows scenarios on how SB 9 can be utilized to build housing or subdivide single-family lots.
“Missing” Middle Housing
Missing Middle Housing is a term used to describe duplexes, triplexes, and small apartments that are compatible in scale with single-family homes but have not been commonly constructed in recent decades due to restrictive zoning regulations and is now “missing” from many neighborhoods. The majority of existing middle housing in Redwood City was constructed in the early part of last century and currently over 75% of existing lots are too small or too narrow to allow a duplex under the rules established in the 1960s. The proposed amendments would update development standards to facilitate Middle Housing in multifamily residential zoning districts by removing restrictive lot dimension standards, right-sizing open space requirements, and reducing parking requirements in order to once again allow Middle Housing in these multifamily areas. Additional Middle Housing would allow for expansion of existing properties, more intergenerational living, more diverse housing opportunities, more access to walkable neighborhoods, and more cost-effective homes.
For more info visit www.missingmiddlehousing.com
Mixed Use Districts
The proposed zoning code updates would increase residential heights and the number of allowed units in mixed-use districts. This would primarily affect major corridors such as El Camino Real, Broadway, Veterans Blvd, and Woodside Road. These corridors already have large apartments and transportation resources to accommodate additional housing. Maximum allowable building height would increase 10 -20 feet in some mixed-use areas, see table below.
*click here to see GIS map
Parking Updates
The proposed zoning code amendments would update parking standards in mixed-use districts and multifamily neighborhoods. The updates would remove guest parking requirements in mixed-use neighborhoods primarily along major corridors such as El Camino Real, Broadway, Veterans Blvd, and Woodside Road which already have existing transit services. The updates would also reduce parking requirements in multifamily neighborhoods from two spaces per unit to one space per unit, remove covered parking requirements, remove guest parking requirements, and allow tandem parking. Higher mandatory parking requirements increase the cost to construct and increase the amount of space needed to built new housing. The proposed parking updates are meant to reduce housing costs and help facilitate new infill housing in existing multifamily areas in the City. In addition, there have been recent changes to State law that allow reduced parking or that do not require parking near certain types of transit. In order to address evolving parking needs to build housing and updates in State law, the City will conduct a larger parking study later this year and aims to conduct a complete parking ordinance update to address both residential and commercial parking citywide in 2024.
Rezone Commercial Office to Mixed-Use
The updates would also rezone Commercial Office (CO) zoning districts, which only permits commercial development, to mixed-use in order to allow housing near Veterans Boulevard, as shown in the map below. This would expand areas where housing is allowed and concentrate more homes near Downtown. These areas contain large lots and access to major corridors that can support a mix of uses and provide flexible options for both commercial and residential development.
Update Zoning Along Woodside Road
Woodside Road contains a mixture of medium density residential, neighborhood-serving commercial, and older mixed-use zoned areas. The proposed zoning code changes would rezone areas along Woodside Road roughly between Hess Road and Gordon Street to the Mixed-Use Neighborhood zoning district to make zoning consistent along Woodside Road and to allow for increased housing densities and a more diverse set of land uses along this major corridor. Woodside Road is ideal for upzoning as it already contains large apartments and access to public transit. The rezoning along Woodside Road helps to further the Housing Element’s equity goals and State fair housing mandates, which require new housing in and adjacent to higher resource neighborhoods.
Protect Mobile Home Parks
The City has multiple mobile home parks east of highway US-101 that are currently zoned with an industrial land use designation, which may limit reinvestment in these properties and put existing residents at risk of displacement. The proposed zoning amendments would rezone existing mobile home parks from industrial zoning to Mobile Home (MH) zoning to be consistent with the existing use and to preserve these locations for housing. Mobile homes are an important resource that provide diverse and affordable housing opportunities to Redwood City residents.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE STUDY SESSION?
The May 10th Planning Commission Study Session will provide another opportunity for community members to comment on the proposed municipal and zoning code changes and expand on the feedback that we heard during the Housing Element process over the last 2+ years. City staff will incorporate feedback from the study session into the municipal and zoning code changes, as appropriate. The proposed municipal and zoning code amendments are tentatively scheduled to return to the Planning Commission for formal action on June 6th followed by City Council review on June 26th.
HOW CAN I PROVIDE INPUT?
You can participate in-person or virtually at the Wednesday, May 10 special study session. You can also email us at housingupdates@redwoodcity.org. Don’t forget to connect with us on social media. Please visit www.welcomehomerwc.org for more details.
