Saratoga mayor: City ‘being forced to address’ Housing Element requirements
The city had to plan for 1,700 housing units to be built over the next eight years.
Even as the Saratoga City Council as councilmembers made their final revisions to the state-mandated Housing Element Wednesday evening, Mayor TIna Walia said councilmembers have not been supportive of the number of units required under the Regional Housing Needs Allocation.
“Saratoga is being forced to address that,” she added. “We don’t have a choice.”
Saratoga had to plan for the development of more than 1,700 residential units over the next eight years. The task sparked concerns among residents about losing Saratoga’s character and the potential drain on infrastructure and resources.
As city staff worked to develop its plan over the past two years, they heard from an unprecedented number of residents and had record-setting turnout to public hearings on the matter, which drew as many as 600.
The state submitted feedback on Saratoga’s plan on Oct. 26 in a 14-page letter, which required revisions and clarifications on everything from affordable housing incentives to the Fire Hazard Severity Zone Map.
Council approved those revisions at the Wednesday meeting and authorized staff to send in the updated document later this month after posting it online for public review.
However, since the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development has 60 days to review any revisions and provide feedback, it is unlikely that Saratoga’s plans — nor those of most Bay Area cities — will be approved by the Jan. 31, 2023 deadline. That means Saratoga could be vulnerable to “builder’s remedy” housing developments, which the city would have to approve if they met certain criteria.
“The consequences could be anything ranging from lawsuits to losing local control on building matters, and limited discretion in project review and penalties, and limited access to state funding,” Walia said.
Saratoga’s revised Housing Element includes incentives for the lot consolidations program and for affordable housing development.
Staff found the Fire Hazard Severity Zones map adopted by CalFire and Santa Clara County Fire Department was different than Saratoga’s map. After talking with the Saratoga Fire District Commissioner Emie Kraule, staff green-lit revising the boundary to match county maps.
The state also required the Housing Element to include a program to assist in the development of housing for all special needs households, like the elderly, homeless, farmworkers, people with disabilities and female-headed households.
Councilmember Mary-Lynne Bernald said cities across the state are facing similarly impossible tasks, like the farming community of Soledad, which is mandated to build 2,400 units on farmland.
“Saratoga is not the only one that is going to be seeing humongous changes that are going to tax the systems throughout our state,” Bernald said.
The final housing allocations are as follows:
