The affluent Northern California town of Portola Valley announced last week the state’s housing department decertified its mandated plan for housing leaving the small town of about 4,200 residents vulnerable, for the time being, to what’s known as builder’s remedy.
Such allows developers to ignore certain local zoning rules for proposed developments that include a portion for affordable units.
According to a February letter from the state’s Housing and Community Development Department to Portola Valley officials, although the town received approval of its housing plan showing locations that could be rezoned on January 30, it had only until the next day to officially redesignate them from single-family residential to mixed-use and multi-family housing zones.
The short deadline was because the town missed the initial deadline to turn in its housing plan by Jan. 31, 2023, which requires the actual change of zoning paperwork and approvals be completed in one year.
City officials said the lengthy and detailed process of receiving approval was to blame for the delay.
The rezones would facilitate the construction of 50 very low-income apartments and 10 lower-income ones, sold below market rate as well as one site for 272 residential units.
According to a recent report in the Mercury News, Portola Valley “historically” hasn’t allowed multifamily housing. Its median household income is $250,000 and 75 percent of the population is white, according to 2022 American Community Survey Census Data.
Two planning commission meetings are scheduled for later this month and two Town Council meetings in May to review and adopt the needed rezones, according to a recent statement posted on the town’s website.
A member of the Town Council didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
Mayor Sarah Wernikoff told a reporter for the local newspaper and online site The Almanac that the state’s decertification is “extremely frustrating.”
“[The state’s housing department’s] one-size-fits-all approach makes compliance nearly impossible for a town the size of Portola Valley,” she told the news site.
