Title
Public Hearing to Consider a Resolution Recommending that the City Council Approve Zoning Map and General Plan Land Use Diagram Amendments for Seven Sites listed in the Draft General Plan Housing Element Site Inventory to Accommodate the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the Period 2023-2031, Affirmatively Further Fair Housing, and Maintain Consistency between State Law, the General Plan Housing Element, the General Plan Land Use Element, and the Alameda Municipal Code Zoning Map CEQA: Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15162 and 15163, none of the circumstances necessitating further CEQA review or preparation of a new EIR are present with respect to the proposed changes to the General Plan Land Use Diagram and Zoning Map
Body
To: Honorable President and
Members of the Planning Board
From: Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda (City) has completed a draft update to the Housing Element of the General Plan and a comprehensive set of zoning amendments to affirmatively further fair housing and accommodate the 5,353 unit Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the 2023-2031 Housing Element cycle. Both documents are available for public review at www.alameda2040.org <http://www.alameda2040.org> and www.alamedaca.gov <http://www.alamedaca.gov>.
On August 25, 2022, the State of California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) found that the draft Housing Element is in substantial compliance with State Housing Law. HCD also referenced the proposed zoning amendments, and emphasized that they are critical to compliance.
On September 26, 2022, the Planning Board conducted a public hearing and adopted a resolution recommending that the City Council approve the General Plan Housing Element and associated zoning text amendments.
In additional to the citywide text amendments, the Housing Element site inventory relies on seven sites that require zoning map and/or General Plan Land Use Diagram amendments. Staff is recommending that the Planning Board approve the draft resolution recommending City Council approval of the zoning map and General Plan Land Use Diagram amendments for those seven sites listed in the draft General Plan Housing Element site inventory to accommodate the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the period 2023-2031, affirmatively further fair housing, and maintain consistency with State Law.
BACKGROUND
State Housing Element Law (Article 10.6 of the Government Code) requires that the City update its General Plan Housing Element every eight (8) years. The 2023-2031 Draft Housing Element was prepared with the benefit of community, advisory board, and City Council input and discussion at 25 public workshops over the course of the two year preparation period. The Planning Board alone held approximately seventeen (17) public workshops. In addition, workshops on the draft Housing Element were held by the City Council, the Commission on Persons with Disabilities, the Transportation Commission, and the Historical Advisory Board. Guidance was also provided by HCD throughout the process and in a November 2021 letter addressing the conflicts between State Fair Housing Law and Article 26 of the City Charter.
On May 25, 2022, the City submitted the draft Housing Element to HCD for its review. In July, HCD reached out to the City with a number of questions about the draft Housing Element. Based upon those questions, staff revised the draft Housing Element to include additional information and analysis. On August 12, 2022, the City published the changes on the City website and requested public comment on those changes. The City received three comment letters during the public review period, and based upon those comments, staff made additional minor changes to the Housing Element and zoning amendments, which were discussed in the September 12, 2022 and September 26, 2022 Planning Board staff reports.
On September 26, 2022, the Planning Board conducted a public hearing and adopted a resolution recommending that the City Council approve the General Plan Housing Element and associated zoning text amendments.
DISCUSSION
The objective of the Housing Element update and accompanying zoning amendments is to ensure that the Housing Element and Zoning Ordinance comply with State Law, which will enable the City to avoid the consequences of non-compliance. Failure by the City to comply with State Housing Element Law subjects the City to the risk of:
• Loss of local land use control and approval of housing projects by the State (e.g., Gov. Code, §§ 65589(d)(5)(B), 65750 et seq; Camp v. Mendocino (1981) 123 Cal.App.3d 334);
• Loss of State funding for open space, transportation, and affordable housing;
• State mandated fines, which escalate in size, until the City adopts a conforming Housing Element (Gov. Code, §§ 65589.5(k)(1)(B) and 65589.5(l); and
• Lawsuits against the City for failure to comply with State law.
To avoid the consequences of non-compliance, the Housing Element and zoning ordinance amendments must:
• Accommodate the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) by ensuring that the General Plan Housing Element and zoning ordinance enable construction of 5,353 housing units over the next 8 year Housing Element cycle; and
• Affirmatively further fair housing by removing regulatory barriers that serve to segregate the community or impose barriers to access to certain types of housing. (Gov. Code, § 65583(c)(5).)
A Balanced Compromise Plan. The Housing Element and zoning amendments achieve a balance between the requirements of State Law to accommodate the RHNA and affirmatively further fair housing and the goals of the Alameda community as articulated at the Housing Element public workshops.
• NAS Alameda Priority Development Area - 39%. In response to community desires to maximize the use of Alameda Point and the former Naval lands to accommodate the RHNA, approximately 39% of the RHNA is accommodated in the City’s NAS Alameda Priority Development Area (PDA), which includes 24% of the units at Alameda Point and 15% at other surplus federal lands in the PDA such as the Housing Authority’s North Housing Project, the Habitat for Humanity project, and Carmel’s project adjacent to Coast Guard housing on Singleton Avenue.
• Northern Waterfront PDA - 24%. Vacant and underutilized lands in the Northern Waterfront PDA accommodates approximately 24% of the RHNA on sites such as Encinal Terminals, Alameda Marina, the former Pennzoil Site, the Housing Authority site on Eagle Street at Tilden Avenue, and underutilized sites on Clement Avenue and Mariner Square Drive.
• Shopping Centers, Park Street and Webster Street Commercial Corridors - 27%. Shopping center sites, such as South Shore Center, Harbor Bay, and Alameda Landing accommodate 19% of the RHNA, and the Park Street District and Webster Street District commercial corridors accommodate approximately 8% of the RHNA.
• Residential Districts - 10%. In response to community desires to minimize development within existing neighborhoods, only 10% of the RHNA is accommodated through in-fill development in the R-1 through R-6 Districts on existing residential properties. Approximately 7% of that in-fill is provided by the existing accessory dwelling unit program (approximately 50 units per year). The additional 3% is accommodated by zoning amendments to allow residential property owners to add additional units within existing residential buildings. The residential districts include over 16,000 parcels on over 2,500 acres or residentially zoned land.
A Fair Housing Plan. Fair housing requirements require that the City affirmatively further fair housing by taking meaningful actions that overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity. To affirmatively further fair housing, the draft Housing Element and zoning amendments include:
• Form Based Regulations. Emphasize and reinforce form based regulations (e.g. height limits, lot coverage limits, etc.) and remove provisions that act to create barriers to access to housing for lower income and middle income households or to individuals that may require daily assistance or a specific housing type.
• Equal Regulation. Apply the form-based requirements (e.g. height, lot coverage, and setback) equally to all housing types in each zoning district. Likewise, housing types (e.g. single family housing, multifamily housing, shared housing, transitional housing, supportive housing, and assisted living housing) are regulated equally.
• Remove Barriers to Affordable Housing. Remove regulations that prohibit the most affordable housing types, such as the prohibition of construction of multifamily housing (three or more units in a building) and the citywide density limitation on residential densities over 21 units per acre (three or more units on a 5,000 square foot lot). These prohibited housing types are the most affordable housing types. Prohibiting them creates a barrier to access to housing in Alameda for households with lower incomes. (For more information, see Exhibit 2, November 2021 letter from HCD.)
Zoning Map and General Plan Land Use Diagram Amendments
The draft Housing Element includes Appendix E Housing Site Inventory. As described in Appendix E, the City of Alameda is able to meet the RHNA on a number of sites throughout Alameda. Seven of the sites require zoning map and/or General Plan Land Use Diagram amendments to ensure consistency between the Housing Element, the Land Use Diagram, and the Alameda Municipal Code Zoning Map. The seven sites include:
4 Shopping Centers Sites: Adding the CMU, Community Mixed Use Combining District zoning designation to four (4) shopping center sites: the Alameda Landing Shopping Center (approx. 25 acres of real property located between Fifth Street, Willie Stargell Avenue, Mariner Square Drive, and Mitchell Avenue); the Harbor Bay Shopping Center (approx. 10 acres located between Island Drive, Mecartney Road and the lagoons); the South Shore Shopping Center and adjacent shoreline properties (approx. 53 acres located between Shore Line Drive, Park Street, and Otis Drive; and the Marina Village Shopping Center (approximately 13 acres located along Marina Village Parkway);
2 Northern Waterfront Sites. Adding the MF, Multifamily Residential Combining District zoning designation to two northern waterfront sites: 2363-2433 Mariner Square Loop & Drive (approx. 2.3 acres) and 2199 Clement Avenue (approx. 4.7 acres); and changing the General Plan Land Use Diagram designation for the property on Mariner Square Drive from Business and Employment to Mixed Use; and
One Webster Street Site. Changing the zoning designation from M Manufacturing to CC Community Commercial and changing the Land Use Diagram designation from Medium Density Residential to Community Mixed Use for the Webster Street Plaza property (approx. 2.3 acres) located at Webster Street and Atlantic Avenue.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
On November 30, 2021, the Alameda City Council approved the 2021 General Plan Update, and the City Council approved Resolution No. 15841 certifying a Final Environmental Impact Report for the Alameda 2040 General Plan Update (State Clearinghouse No. 2021030563) in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act, and adopted written findings, a Statement of Overriding Considerations, and a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.
The General Plan Update approved by the City Council included, and the General Plan EIR evaluated, the environmental impacts of the Housing Element update, which was well underway by 2020 when work on the EIR began. The EIR transportation, air quality, greenhouse gas, housing and population, and historical resource analysis evaluated the environmental impacts of:
• 12,000 additional housing units in Alameda over 20 years, including 5,353 housing units to accommodate the RHNA between 2023 through 2031.
• Placing approximately 64% of the 5,353 units at Alameda’s two PDAs at Alameda Point and the Northern Waterfront as proposed by the Housing Element.
• Placing approximately 27% of the units along Park Street and Webster Street commercial corridors and at shopping centers, as proposed by the Housing Element.
• Placing approximately 10% of the units in the residential districts, as proposed by the Housing Element.
The General Plan EIR concludes that adoption of housing supportive policies and increasing the supply of housing in Alameda will not result in displacement that would require construction of significant new replacement housing.
The General Plan EIR also concludes that adoption of housing supportive policies and increasing the supply of housing in Alameda will not result in significant impacts on historic resources due to the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance, which requires a Certificate of Approval to demolish a historic building. The Housing Element and zoning amendments do not remove or alter the Historic Preservation Ordinance.
Pursuant to CEQA Guidelines sections 15162 and 15163, none of the circumstances necessitating further CEQA review or preparation of a new EIR are present with respect to the General Plan EIR and the Housing Element General Plan amendment and associated zoning changes. The proposed project to amend the Housing Element and amend the AMC to implement the policies and goals of the Housing Element of the General Plan would not require major revisions to the General Plan EIR due to new significant impacts or due to a substantial increase in the severity of the significant environmental effects. There have been no substantial changes with respect to the circumstances under which the project would be undertaken that would require major revisions of the General Plan EIR due to new or substantially increased significant environmental effects. Further, there has been no discovery of new information of substantial importance that would trigger or require major revisions to the General Plan EIR due to new or substantially increased significant environmental effects. No further environmental review with respect to the General Plan EIR is required.
CLIMATE IMPACT
Accommodating the RHNA supports the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A decision by the City to not meet the RHNA would likely have a negative impact on the region’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
RECOMMENDATION
Hold a public hearing and approve Draft Resolution recommending that the City Council approve Zoning Map and General Plan Land Use Diagram amendments for seven sites listed in the draft General Plan Housing Element site inventory to accommodate the City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) for the period 2023-2031, affirmatively further fair housing, and maintain consistency between State Law, the General Plan Housing Element, the General Plan Land Use Element, and the Alameda Municipal Code Zoning Map.
Respectfully submitted,
Andrew Thomas, Planning, Building and Transportation Director
Allen Tai, City Planner
Henry Dong, Planner III
Brian McGuire, Planner II
Exhibits:
1. Draft Resolution recommending approval of Zoning Map and General Plan Land Use Diagram Amendments