Council revises zoning policies for housing law
"Nothing we do tonight will remove SB 9. We will be bound by SB 9."
— Janelle Kellman, vice mayor
The Sausalito City Council has approved temporary updates to the zoning code to comply with a state housing law that goes into effect within weeks.
Senate Bill 9, which modifies single-family zoning rules, allows up to four residences to be built on a property zoned for only a single house. It goes into effect Jan 1.
The city resolution, adopted unanimously on Nov. 16, was characterized as a temporary measure to bring the city in compliance with the law before a more permanent ordinance could be established.
“We’re subject to SB 9 whether the council takes action now or later,” said City Attorney Mary Wagner.
A staff document said there was insufficient time to develop and implement an ordinance for consideration by the Planning Commission and City Council by the new year, necessitating the passage of interim guidelines.
The guidelines said a proposed housing development containing no more than two residences be ministerially approved without a review or hearing. The development must meet certain limitations, which involve protection of moderate- and low-income housing and tenant protections. City staff also noted the developments could not be included in historic districts or in high-fire severity zones.
SB 9 also provides for ministerial approval of urban lot splits without a review or hearing. Neither parcel can be smaller than 1,200 square feet and must meet similar protections to the residential guidelines.
SB 9 requires a minimum of 800 feet per residence and a minimum of 4-foot setbacks. The two-dwelling properties must be located in urbanized areas, not a historically designated property or in a historic zone, or in a high-fire severity zone. They must be considered long-term rentals, meaning longer than 30 days.
Interim Community Development Director Heidi Scoble said there was no single-family zoning allowed in the historic district. She said that 30 properties there are included on state or national registers.
Wagner said there are 5,134 residences in the city and 30% are designated single-family dwellings.
Sausalito has three single-family residential zoning districts. Accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs or in-law apartments, and junior ADUs are allowed in all three.
Public commenters at the council meeting were critical of the mandates placed on the city. However, Vice Mayor Janelle Kellman argued that the guidelines would ultimately give cities local control on how they chose to meet those requirements.
“Nothing we do tonight will remove SB 9. We will be bound by SB 9,” she said.
She further noted that the mandates created new housing stock, but did not mandate affordability.
Councilmember Susan
Cleveland-Knowles said the SB 9 rules provided an incremental approach to slowly add new housing in Sausalito.
“While I understand a lot of people do not like it and are not in favor of it, it is a tool and it’s a tool that we have whether we wanted it or not,” Cleveland-Knowles said.
Mayor Jill Hoffman said the city intended to have development consistent with “our small-town coastal heritage.”
She said the city is restrained by hillsides and its 2-square-mile size.
Like other municipalities in the Bay Area, Sausalito is required to prove it can develop
a certain amount of new housing between 2023 and 2031. Sausalito must show it can develop 725 residences.
Hoffman said the requirement is 816% larger than the city’s housing requirement on the previous cycle, which required 79 residences.
“The new RHNA requirement also fails to address the physical limitations of Sausalito’s basic geography regarding availability of land suitable for urban development, it fails to account for steep hillsides susceptible to liquefaction, limited street capacity in areas with steep slopes and high wildland fire potential
and sea-level rise,” she said of the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, the state mandate.
The city appealed the mandate to the state in October, but the appeal was rejected.
Hoffman said the city must develop a revised update to the housing element of its general plan by Jan. 31, 2023.
The plan will show the city has taken steps to meet the housing mandates.
The city has contracted with the De Novo Planning Group, a land use planning, design, and environmental firm based in El Dorado Hills, to help develop the housing element update.