Los Gatos adopts Housing Element one day shy of deadline
Los Gatos Town Council voted to adopt the town's Housing Element at a special meeting Monday after receiving feedback from the state.
This action came one day before the deadline for all Bay Area cities to adopt their Housing Element and protects Los Gatos from being subjected to immediate builder's remedy projects, which would take away local control over what residential projects get built in town.
While the element was certified Monday, staff will continue to work with the state's Department of Housing and Community Development to make further changes requested by the state in its feedback letter.
“It sounds like staff still feels like this is a defensible path, that we can approve a Housing Element now, knowing full well that we have more work to address,” Los Gatos Mayor Maria Ristow
said at the meeting.
The Housing Element is a state-mandated blueprint of housing units to be built in the next eight years across all income levels.
All California cities are required to create a Housing Element, which is aimed at addressing the state's housing crisis through identifying areas for growth and incentives for developers. Los Gatos was tasked with mapping out 1,993 housing units across low income, market rate and above market rate pricing.
A handful of residents spoke at Monday's meeting and said they were frustrated that the element wasn't 100% complete at the time of adoption.
“This is not a good position to be in, and I don't think we're doing the best for the rest of Los Gatos,” s aidcouncilmember Matthew Hudes, who later voted to approve the element.
Staff said the state's feedback in its Jan. 12 letter was what the town anticipated.
If Los Gatos does not make the changes outlined in the letter, there is a chance the town could be sued by the state attorney general, which would make the town vulnerable to builder's remedy projects, which would require that any housing project be approved as long as at least 20% of the homes are low income or 100% of them are moderate-income.
The town has 30 days from Monday's adoption of the Housing Element to work with the state to make the changes.
“There's a built-in time for the town to continue speaking with” the state Department of Housing and Community Development, town attorney Gabrielle Whelan said. “The builder's remedy kicks in if a town does not have an adopted Housing Element.”
Council voted last month to push the Housing Element through the Planning Commission for approval in time for council to make the final vote ahead of the Jan. 31 deadline.