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Published on 08/17/1998 All articles from this issue

LAH receives approval for housing element

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By Carol Tiegs

Special to the Town Crier

Thanks to what Los Altos Hills Planning Director Curtis Williams termed "a very significant concession" from the California Department of Housing and Community Development, Los Altos Hills will have a state-certified housing element.

"This is a truly historic occasion," said Mayor Bob Johnson, commending the planning staff and Dane Anderson, the town's consultant, on reaching this agreement with the state.

At the council's Aug. 19 meeting, Williams explained that the state was willing to certify the housing element with two proposed changes. The critical concession, Williams said, is that "they (the state) aren't forcing us to limit rental rates on secondary living units. They are saying that if we make an effort to provide a variety of housing, they won't hold us to enforcing rent controls.

"They have been very accommodating," Williams said of the Department of Housing and Community Development. "They have recognized our constraints."

The housing element is one of seven state-mandated items of a municipality general plan, and the only one requiring state certification, Williams said. It evolved in the 1980s from state legislative concerns over the lack of affordable housing.

"(Los Altos Hills) has next to no housing needs and concerns, but it must meet its fair share of the regional housing needs," Anderson said.

Los Altos Hills has looked to second living units as the keystone to satisfying the state's affordable housing requirements and winning housing element certification.

Following extensive and, according to Johnson, "often frustrating" meetings with state representatives, the town council in March adopted an updated housing element and sent it off for state review. The document outlined programs to encourage construction of secondary dwelling units in Los Altos Hills.

The town council unanimously approved the department's proposed changes. One would grant a waiver of the $1,050 housing fee only for those second units that are designated as available to rent. The town would develop a mechanism to monitor rental availability. A further change requires the town to mail brochures on second units to all households in town.

Williams said adoption of the programs to promote second unit construction come into effect between January and March 1999.

The California Government Code requires communities to conduct an assessment of housing needs in various income categories. Regional housing needs in those income categories are determined here by the Association of Bay Area Governments. Local governments must develop programs with five-year schedules of action to achieve housing goals in the income categories - very low, low, moderate and above moderate.

Los Altos Hill's fair share housing allocation, set in 1988, is 34 very-low income residences, 27 low-income, 38 moderate and 125 above-moderate income residences.