Certifying for the Wrong Reasons

San Anselmo’s draft housing element (p.133) would “allow[] missing middle housing types in all residential districts.” 

San Anselmo’s draft housing element was not certified by HCD.

Sausalito’s housing element wasn’t yet written when the city voted to adopt it. (They wanted to beat a deadline.) State law requires the city to upzone, but instead, the city will be asking its voters to upzone.

Sausalito’s housing element was certified by HCD.

Now comes Los Altos Hills, bragging that HCD’s recent certification “protects us from [housing] under [the] Builder Remedy.” Like Sausalito, the town council didn’t vote on its final housing element, which claims (p.6) that “non-substantive changes” made after the vote by staff made the difference in certification.

It isn’t hard to tell when a city wants to welcome new neighbors. San Anselmo does, and an administrative agency sent them back to the drawing board. Sausalito and Los Altos Hills don’t, and they’ve been certified.

Housing matters more than housing elements. Too bad the law has its priorities reversed.