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Redwood City this month submitted a revised housing element to the state, one that experts believe aims to bring more affordable housing to the city within a shorter amount of time.
The housing element, which was submitted on Oct. 5 following a two-week public comment period, is a state-mandated blueprint that lays out the city's strategies for boosting its housing supply and identifying potential sites for new residential developments. This draft represents an update to the version published by the city in early September, which addressed feedback from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) asking for more specific analysis of anticipated constraints to housing development and clearer implementation timelines for new goals, policies and programs.
“In the final draft that the city submitted to HCD, they took those roadblocks out of the way,” said Jeremy Levine, policy manager for San Mateo County’s Housing Leadership Council (HLC), a housing advocacy nonprofit. He said the new element addresses “major hold-ups” to building new housing from previous drafts.
The HLC’s endorsement marks a significant shift since earlier this year, when members of the group said the city had failed to acknowledge and propose solutions to significant barriers to building more housing. Stakeholders also criticized the city for poor communication and insufficient outreach to local agencies and other experts.
This public feedback was echoed by HCD, which rejected the city’s first draft housing element in early July. Redwood City was the first in San Mateo County to submit its housing element to the state in April.
The new draft addresses what Levine described as the four key elements for successful housing development: land, financing, development standards and political will. Included in the updated housing element are a program for moving city-owned land into the hands of affordable housing developers and new development standards that reduce parking requirements and that generally “make it easier to build housing in more places,” he said.
Other additions include further analysis of market feasibility for missing middle housing projections and a new policy to encourage private developers to hire local labor and support apprenticeship programs, according to a recent announcement from the city.
Most importantly, Levine said, the revision shows “real political will” with an accelerated timeline for updating the city’s Affordable Housing Ordinance (AHO). Compared with previous drafts, which planned to make changes by 2030, the new version aims to make certain changes by 2023, with a more comprehensive update in 2026. These changes include fast-tracking the development entitlements process and eliminating an outdated unit cap in the city’s Downtown Precise plan that Levine said had allowed affordable housing projects to “languish” indefinitely.
“By 2023, Redwood City will have made it possible for at least three affordable housing projects to move forward,” Levine said. “That’s the kind of date that [demonstrates] that the entire city is committed to unblocking its pipeline and actually building housing that people can live in.”
Revisions to the housing element are the result of additional public outreach efforts conducted by the city, according to Apollo Rojas, a senior city planner and project manager for the plan. The city held open office hours, emailed interested stakeholders, met with the property owners of some housing sites and engaged with housing advocacy organizations, he said.
Some elements of the draft have been met with some criticism, however.
HLC Executive Director Evelyn Stivers took issue with the city for giving preference to locals in the amendment to its affordable housing ordinance. While the Live/Work preference, as it’s called, seeks to protect Redwood City residents and workers from displacement and reduce transit impacts, Stivers said that such a policy precludes county support.
“The county will not fund housing when there’s a local preference—it prevents Measure K funding,” she told the Pulse in August. “They’re putting up numerous obstacles to getting developments in their pipeline built.”
Under the latest amendments to the AHO, which will be adopted by the end of 2023, the local preference will remain in place, however developers will be able to ignore it when necessary to acquire county funding.
Additionally, members of the local advocacy group Faith in Action have called on the city to pass more swift and stringent protections for renters. Dozens of tenants and supporters attended the June 30 council meeting to show support for the city’s new Anti-Displacement Strategy and demand that the city do more to protect its most vulnerable residents. Implementation of the anti-displacement strategy is on a proposed four-year timeframe, with tenant protection amendments expected to go into effect in early 2024.
Addressing the council members in June, Redwood City resident Mary Whitney asked them to approve new regulations by the end of the year.
“We need these protections urgently,” she said. “When you dread having to go to the manager’s office because of sewer leakage or electrical issues, that is putting us in danger—that’s a problem.”
The city is optimistic that this may be the final review, resulting in preliminary certification of the new housing element, according to Rojas who said that the HCD has until Dec. 5 to respond.
“Redwood City was the first city in the [nine-county Association of Bay Area Governments] region to submit for our second draft of the Housing Element, so we are hopeful that this sends a message to HCD about our commitment to complying with state guidelines and meeting deadlines for the housing element update,” Rojas said.
As to whether the new housing element, if approved, would significantly change the future of the city’s affordable housing landscape, Levine offered a qualified yes.
“There are market forces outside the city’s control,” he said. “Change may happen more slowly than if Redwood City had just made these changes 10 years ago.”
However, he added, “I think there’s a good chance that even in a bad financing environment, Redwood City is making it a lot easier to build.”
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