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East Palo Alto City council members are pushing to accelerate a revision of the city’s of its inclusionary-housing ordinance, a policy that requires developers to build a certain amount of affordable housing units.
The council already voted in late October to dedicate $85,000 to a San Mateo County-wide study on affordable housing policies, which aims to make “development feasible in the city while meeting the city’s affordable housing needs,” according to East Palo Alto Housing Project Manager Yahira Morales.
The study is set to be completed in November 2026, and East Palo Alto staff anticipated the city could make changes to its ordinance in the six months following the research, but Council member Webster Lincoln wants quicker results.
“One thing I wanted to request is that we have a study session on our Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, based upon the last meeting,” Lincoln said at a Nov. 4 council meeting. “It was proposed that we wouldn’t be updating that for another year and a half.”
The request contradicts the City’s decision to contribute funds to the County-wide study, which would allow the council to gather solid evidence on how to properly change its affordable housing policies, Council member Ruben Abrica said in a message to this publication.
“It’s up to the agenda committee to honor his request or not, whether to put it on the agenda ahead of the timeline presented by staff to finish the regional study,” Abrica said. “If they put it on, it will be contradictory and confusing with no solid data and misleading to the public.”
The agenda-setting committee is composed of Mayor Martha Barragan and Vice Mayor Mark Dinan.
In the year that they’ve been on the dais, Lincoln and Dinan have pushed for changes to the City’s affordable housing policies, making it a city priority for 2025-26 year.
“Our current IH policy is a failure and is blocking market rate housing production,” Dinan said in a message to this publication.
Currently, the policy requires developers to make at least 20% of its units affordable for “very low income” renters and make for-sale properties accessible to “moderate income” residents. Developers who do not follow these requirements must pay a fee that changes every fiscal year.
The fees are based on the price of the city constructing its own affordable housing units and the money goes toward the city’s affordable housing fund.
This year, Dinan and Lincoln denied a staff-recommended fee increase for new rental developments that do not meet the city’s requirements for producing affordable housing and voted to allow major developer Sand Hill Property Company to omit units for very low-income households and build fewer affordable townhomes for purchase.
“East Palo Alto already leads the region in producing deeply affordable housing,” Lincoln said in a previous statement. “But if we don’t also build for middle-income families, we risk losing the very people who keep our schools, services, and economy running. This is not about reducing our commitment to affordability, it’s about ensuring projects get built and housing is delivered across the spectrum.”
