Affordable second living units may be coming again to Los Altos.
The Los Altos Planning Commissioners unanimously agreed to recommend to the city council that the city's affordable second living unit ordinance, which expired in April 1997, be extended.
"We have turned away several applicants in the past year," said senior planner Jim Mackenzie at the Thursday meeting, "who would have created an affordable second living unit for a family member."
The ordinance would allow second living units on lots of 10,000 square feet or more if the units are used as affordable, meaning below market rate housing. The current income limit for a two-person lower income household in Santa Clara County is $35,000.
The city first adopted the ordinance in April 1995 as one part of meeting the state affordable housing requirements and upholding the state's certification of the city's housing element.
The housing element is one of seven state-mandated items of a municipality general plan,
The city staff "is concerned that not extending the ASLU regulations could be detrimental to the city retaining state approval of the housing element and perhaps expose the city to a refiling of the earlier lawsuit by affordable housing advocates," Mackenzie wrote in a staff report.
During the two years the ordinance was in place, the city approved four affordable second units and four that were for market rate.
The planning commissioners also recommended that some changes be considered with the ordinance.
Most of the commissioners would like to see all second units, not just those on smaller lots, be affordable. Currently another ordinance OKs granny units at market rate rents on lots of 15,000 square feet or larger.
The commissioners will also recommend to the council that as a lot size increases, the square-footage of the second unit be allowed to increase on some type of sliding scale. Currently no second living unit may be larger that 640 square feet.
And the commissioners agreed to keeping all parking on site for the second units and that the entry for the second unit and the main house be from the same point.
Los Altos resident Ruth Polata, longtime housing activist, told council she supported extending the ordinance. For her, the question was, "Do we intend to comply with state law?" The state requires each city to supply some affordable housing.
This item is scheduled to come before the city council on May 12.