CITY COUNCIL Staff Report
Meeting: March 15, 2022
Subject
2021 General Plan Annual Report and Housing Element Annual Progress Report (APR) on forms required by HCD Recommended Action
Receive the reports.
Discussion
Background:
State law requires that an annual report, on or before April 1 of each year, be provided to the City Council regarding the status of the General Plan and progress in its implementation, including meeting its share of regional housing needs and local efforts to remove governmental constraints to the maintenance, improvement, and development of housing. The law also requires that the report be sent to the Office of Planning and Research and Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). (Gov. Code, § 65400(a)(2)(A)-(J).) The annual report on the Housing Element must be made using standards, forms, and definitions adopted by HCD and is therefore included as a separate Attachment B. (Gov. Code, § 65400(a)(2)(B).) In addition to satisfying annual reporting requirements, the Annual Report helps the City Council identify Work Program items to facilitate implementation of the General Plan. The Planning Commission reviewed the General Plan to prepare this Annual Report in November 2021 and January 2022.
Analysis:
General Plan Annual Report
The Commission reviewed the General Plan Annual report for the status of the General Plan and its implementation and provided suggestions on formatting and updating the content of the report. Attachment A incorporates the Planning Commission’s suggestions and comments. The list of policies and strategies in Attachment A are color coded to identify action items and indicate progress are as follows:
Items highlighted in green are action items that the City has acted on.
Items in yellow are items that are currently in progress.
Items highlighted in orange are identified as action items, but on which no action has been initiated.
Items highlighted in grey are ongoing implementation of policies/strategies through the City’s Municipal Code, daily activities of staff or City programs.
A high-level time frame (“Immediate” (2019-2022) or “Long Range” (2022-2040)) has been identified for the action items while the ongoing policies and strategies have been identified as being “Continual.” Items with updates for the year 2021 have been identified in bold in the “Comments” column and have been reviewed by the Planning Commission. These also include comments/suggestions from the Commission.
City-wide Development: The City controls development via allocations for commercial, office, hotel and residential development. The available allocations as of 12/31/2021 are:
Development Type
Commercial
Office
Hotel
Residential
Special Areas
Heart of the City
839,994 s.f.
17,113 s.f.
122
218
Vallco Shopping District
1,122,774 s.f.
191
0 Homestead
150
N. De Anza
97 N. Vallco
S. De Anza
Bubb
Monta Vista
4,657 s.f.
13,595 s.f.
47 All Other Areas
Other
68 Major Employer
523,118 s.f.
Total citywide Available
1,967,425 s.f.
553,826 s.f.
313 rooms
580 units
The citywide commercial allocation increased in 2021 due to the demolition of the Oaks Shopping Center. There is primarily office allocation available for major employers to expand buildings in the city. Finally, since the Marina Plaza project expired in 2021, the allocations assigned to that project were added into the development allocation – this included allocation of hotel rooms, residential units and commercial allocation.
The 6th Cycle Housing Element update for the 2023-2031 period is underway. The City’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) is 4,588 units. An increase to the residential allocation may be necessary in conjunction with the Housing Element update to ensure adequate capacity in the General Plan.
General Plan Annual Housing Element Progress Report (APR) The APR is a required report on the status of the City’s housing programs. Pursuant to Government Code Section 65400 local governments must provide each year the annual report for the previous calendar to the legislative body, the Office of Planning and Research (OPR), and HCD. The City submitted the 2021 APR to OPR and HCD on March 7, in advance of the April 1, 2022 deadline.
In past years, the APR focused on building permits issued for new housing units broken down by affordability level, the City’s progress towards meeting its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), and the City’s progress towards implementing its Housing Element programs. However, the reporting requirements significantly increased in 2019 pursuant to Chapter 374 Statutes of 2017 (Assembly Bill 879) and Chapter 366, Statutes of 2017 (Senate Bill 35). This APR includes additional information to meet those requirements. Staff will provide a presentation at the City Council’s March 15 meeting with a summary of the City’s RHNA progress and the updated reporting requirements. The 2021 HCD APR will be presented to Planning Commission on March 23, 2022.
The following provides an overview of the information required in the APR.
Table A- Housing Development Applications Submitted
Includes data on housing units and developments for applications submitted and deemed complete. An “application” is a formal submittal of a project for approval, either for a discretionary entitlement, or where only a ministerial process is required (e.g., zoned by right), the application for a building permit. The City reported one development application for the Coach House Property, a mixed use project with a total of 34 units.
Table A2- Annual Building Activity Report Summary - New Construction, Entitled, Permits and Completed Units This table requires information for very-low, low, moderate and above-moderate income housing and for mixed-income projects. This includes data on net new housing units and developments that have received an entitlement, a building permit or a certificate of occupancy, or other form of readiness.
Table B- RHNA Progress – Permitted Units by Affordability This is an auto-populated summary of prior permitting activity in the current planning cycle, including permitting activity for 2021.
Table C- Sites Identified or Rezoned to Accommodate Shortfall Housing Need Reporting is required when a city or county identified an unaccommodated need of sites from the previous planning period. Cupertino has more than sufficient sites zoned to accommodate RHNA numbers.
Table D- Program Implementation Status
This is detailed information on the status and progress of Housing Element program and policy implementation for all programs described in the Housing Element. Cupertino is currently implementing all 26 programs and policies in the Housing Element.
Table E- Commercial Development Bonus Approved
Reporting is required if jurisdiction has approved any commercial development bonuses during the reporting year. The City did not approve any commercial development bonuses in 2021.
Table F- Units Rehabilitated, Preserved and Acquired for Alternate Adequate Sites This section reports units that have been substantially rehabilitated, converted from non-affordable to affordable by acquisition, and preserved. Projects must be mentioned in Housing Element as a program specific site to be listed. This is not applicable to Cupertino because specific sites are not included in the Housing Element; however, the City has gone beyond the Housing Element and provided $1,400,050 in loans/grants for rehabilitation projects from 2014 – 2021. In 2021, the City provided $222,971.72 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to West Valley Community Services for the Vista Village Rehabilitation Project.
Table G- Locally Owned Lands included in Housing Element Sites Inventory This is a report of sites that are owned by the reporting jurisdiction and have been sold, leased, or otherwise disposed of during the reporting year. Sites must be included in the Housing Element Sites Inventory. No such sites are located within the City of Cupertino.
Table H- Locally Owned Surplus Sites Inventory (NEW)
This is an inventory of surplus lands, and all lands in excess of its foreseeable needs, if any, located in all urbanized areas and urban clusters. This is not applicable to Cupertino, since there are no sites identified as surplus lands within the City.
Fiscal Impacts
None.
Next Steps
The General Plan Annual Report for the calendar year 2021 will be complete upon Council’s receipt of this report. _______________________________________________________________________ Prepared by: Piu Ghosh, Planning Manager
Kerri Heusler, Housing Manager
Reviewed by: Benjamin Fu, Director of Community Development Approved for Submission by: Dianne Thompson, Assistant City Manager Attachments:
A - General Plan Annual Report
B - General Plan Annual Housing Element Progress Report 394\25\2632429.4
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