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City Council
Staff Report
From: City Manager
Report Type: ACTION ITEMS
Lead Department: Planning and Development Services
Meeting Date: February 12, 2024
Report #:2402-2574
TITLE
Adopt a Resolution Modifying the City’s Objective Design Standards for SB 9 Projects.
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends Council adopt the attached Resolution (Attachment A) modifying the objective design standards for development pursuant to California Senate Bill 9 (SB 9).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report transmits a resolution that refines the City’s SB 9 objective design standards. The standards were first introduced in late 2021 and quickly prepared in response to changes in state law. Council previously directed staff to include review of the SB 9 regulations in the work plans of the Architectural Review Board (ARB) and Planning and Transportation Commission (PTC) and return with updated standards based on application of the standards to projects. The City’s Architectural Review Board reviewed the standards over several meetings and supports the recommended revisions. Staff also met with local architects to receive input on the subject design standards. The proposed changes reduce the overall number of requirements, due in part to elimination of redundant provisions or overlapping regulations and improve overall clarity for staff and applicants.
BACKGROUND
The Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency (HOME) Act, or SB 9, was enacted by the state legislature and signed into law by Governor Newsom in 2021 and became effective January 1, 2022. This law generally allows single family zoned properties to add an additional dwelling unit that can be combined with a junior and/or accessory dwelling unit (J/ADU), or subdivide an existing single family zoned lot into two lots (also referred to as an urban lot split). This law essentially allows for up to four units on existing single family zoned lots or split across newly created lots.
In late 2021 and early 2022, the City Council enacted interim ordinances (#5538, #5542, and #5546) to amend the zoning code to respond to SB 9, including standards for urban lot splits.
The City Council adopted a set of objective design standards for the ministerial processing of SB
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9 projects in December 2021. These design standards were modeled after the Single-Family Individual Review (IR) Guidelines focused on privacy, massing and streetscape for two story home developments approved through the City’s discretionary IR application process.1 As ministerial projects, SB 9 projects do not require review by the ARB or PTC; these are processed administratively by PDS staff.
Staff returned to Council to codify the interim ordinance, which is essentially a restatement of the state requirements, in May/June 2023. Council also previously directed staff to return with refined objective design standards and include feedback from the Architectural Review Board (ARB). This effort to update the objective design standards is the focus of the subject report and Council action.
Architectural Review Board
The ARB held three meetings in Spring 2023 to review the objective design standards. The Board’s initial review found that:
• Some of the design standards were overly restrictive
• Multiple standards intersected with other standards creating overlapping regulations • The standards lacked flexibility or design options for certain details, such as window different types of window trims or window configuration • The privacy standards seemed adequate
The ARB asked staff to engage a focus group to provide additional feedback before returning back to the Board with recommended changes.
Staff met with local architects and individuals who had filed or expressed an interest in filing an SB 9 application. Each of these individuals was familiar with the zoning code and the City’s processes. Over the course of several weeks in late Summer and early Fall, the focus group reviewed the objective standards and the ARB’s comments. The summary of the focus group input is described in the November 16, 2023 ARB staff report. The group concurred with the ARB and expressed an interest in simplifying the requirements and making clear which standards were applicable to different project types (two story homes and homes in Eichler tracts).
Toward the end of 2023, staff returned to the ARB, which held three additional meetings reviewing and providing feedback on the subject objective design standards. This effort resulted in changes that reduced the overall number of objective standards from 64 to 19 for all 1 The IR process is a discretionary process, where the Director’s decisions are appealable to City Council; the program is in place for two-story homes and second floor additions. More about the IR process is viewable at this link: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/Departments/Planning-Development-Services/Current-Planning/Forms- Applications
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projects and an additional 20 that apply to some projects; changes to improve administration, improve clarity and better convey design intent; and allow design flexibility to address a wider range of architectural styles.
A ‘crosswalk’ showing how the existing standards are proposed to be modified is provided in Attachment B.
The ARB unanimously supported improving the objective standards for SB9 projects.
Prior ARB staff reports and video recordings are available online.2
DISCUSSION
SB 9 is one of many state initiatives intended to promote greater housing production. The City’s initial response to SB 9 was to minimally address the requirements of state law and develop standards that reasonably reflected the type of projects being built through the City’s Individual Review (IR) process, including privacy related concerns with increased density in single family zones. The City staff focused its limited time in late 2021 to develop the standards based on the IR program guidelines, with the help of the IR program architect. There was no time to share the standards with the ARB and PTC prior to Council’s urgency ordinance adoption of the standards in 2021. Accordingly, the Council directed staff to bring the standards to the ARB and PTC for review.
The attached resolution updates the initial objective design standards. Through the ARB’s work and engagement with stakeholders, the new standards are easier to apply to projects and are anticipated to result in additional SB 9 applications being filed. To date, the City has received six SB 9 applications and approved one. Staff are still reviewing the other five applications, and regularly have conversations with other prospective applicants.
The City’s adopted Housing Element includes a program to increase the permitted floor area for certain SB 9 units from state-minimum 800 square feet to allow up to 1,200 square feet.
Increasing the size of these units beyond 800 square feet is expected to improve the feasibility of the projects, introduce more two-bedroom homes and potentially create more financially accessible ownership units. With this program, the City projects it would add an additional 40 2 Link to most recent ARB online minutes for the SB 9 project: November 16, 2023:
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/v/1/agendas-minutes-reports/agendas-minutes/architectural- review-board/2024/arb-draft-minutes-11-16-23.pdf
Links to the Spring 2023 ARB Staff Reports and minutes for ARB meetings of March 16, April 20, and May 18 are available at this link: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/City-Hall/Boards-Commissions/Architectural-Review-Board ARB Staff Report, dated November 16, 2023: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/v/1/agendas- minutes-reports/agendas-minutes/architectural-review-board/2023/arb-11.16-sb9-standards.pdf ARB Video Recording, from December 7, 2023: https://midpenmedia.org/architectural-review-board-77-1272023/ ARB Video Recording, from December 21: https://midpenmedia.org/architectural-review-board-77-12212023/ 3 1
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units (not including J/ADU units) over the eight year housing cycle. This change is not reflected in the attached resolution and would require a text amendment to the municipal code. This effort to increase SB 9 floor area is expected to be initiated in 2025.
Staff also anticipates additional changes to state law concerning SB 9-related projects. Senate Bill 450 is being considered by the state legislature and may introduce more streamlining initiatives, timelines for review, restrictions on certain development standards or enforcement provisions later this year. Accordingly, staff anticipates revisions to the SB 9 objective design standards or ordinance may be a recurring effort over the next few years, similar to the refinements made to the state J/ADU requirements.
SB9 Objective Design Standards
The SB 9 objective design standards seek to regulate the design of SB 9 projects by maintaining and making objective key elements from the IR Guidelines and Palo Alto Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines3. The SB 9 objective design standards address privacy, height, massing, streetscape, and neighborhood context.
In addition to the City’s ministerial SB 9 application review process, the City also allows an applicant to seek modification to the objective design standards by opting into a discretionary individual review process. This existing application processing option is intended to give a property owner the choice to design a project consistent with the City’s objective standards or seek relief through a process that would involve notification to adjacent property owners. This process does not allow for an increase in unit floor area and may result in reasonable conditions being imposed on the project.
FISCAL/RESOURCE IMPACT
The recommendation in this report does not have any significant fiscal impact; all work has been absorbed through existing department budgets and resources.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The recommendation in this report improves the application review process by refining the objective design standards to eliminate redundant provisions and improve clarity for SB 9 projects. The changes are informed by the City’s ARB and consultation with individuals seeking to advance such projects. The proposed changes do not weaken or substantially reduce or eliminate standards that promote consistency with the neighborhood character of single family zones or privacy. The City Council and community should anticipate further state law changes related to SB 9 projects. Moreover, the City Council, through its adopted Housing Element, has 3 Link to Eichler Neighborhood Design Guidelines: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/v/1/planning- amp-development-services/eichler-neighood-design-guidelines/2018-04-02_palo-alto-eichler-design- guidelines_adopted-design-guidelines.pdf
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signaled its support to expand opportunities for SB 9 production in Palo Alto through a program that will allow for increases in SB 9 unit size.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
As noted, the public had the opportunity to comment on the SB 9 objective design standards during the six ARB meetings. Additionally, a focus group of architects were consulted to solicit feedback on the design standards. Notice of the subject meeting was made available online with the agenda posting at least 10 days in advance of the meeting and posted on the City’s message board on King Plaza.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
The refinement of the City’s objective design standards for SB 9 projects does not result in any significant impact on the environment in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3). Moreover, future projects developed under SB9 are ministerial and therefore exempt from environmental review consistent with CEQA Guidelines Section 15268.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A: Resolution Adopting Revised SB 9 Objective Design Standards with Exhibit 1 Proposed Revised SB 9 Objective Design Standards (no annotations) Attachment B: SB 9 Objective Design Standards Revision Crosswalk APPROVED BY:
Jonathan Lait, Planning and Development Services Director