M EMQRAN OLJ M City of Poway
ADDITIONA L MATERIALS
(Agenda Related Writings/Documents provided to City Council or Staff after distribution of the Agenda Packet for the March 17, 2026 Regular City Council Meeting) DATE:
TO:
FROM:
CONTACT:
March 17, 2026
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
Carrie Gallagher, City Clerk ~
(858) 668-4535 or [email protected]
SUBJECT: Item 3 -General Plan Implementation Annual Progress Report for 2025 Attached please find correspondence received after the agenda posting deadline.
Reviewed/Approved By:
Assistant City Manager
1 of 7
Reviewed By:
Alan Fenstermacher
City Attorney
Approved By:
Jf lfiL" ris aze tine
City Manager
March 17, 2026, Item #3
From:
To:
Subject:
Date:
Attachments:
chris cruse
Qly__Qer!s; Steve Vaus: Jenny Maeda: Peter De Hoff: Chris Pikus 3/17/26 council meeting #3
Monday, March 16, 2026 10:36:58 AM
Poway Voices letter #3.docx
EXTERNAL EMAIL
2of7 March 17, 2026, Item #3
March 15, 2026
Re: 3/17/26 Council Meeting,
#3 Annual Report, Implementation of the General Plan 2025 Dear Mayor and Councilmembers,
The housing portion of the staff report for #3, Implementation of the General Plan, 2025 shows that there were O low and Overy low housing units produced in 2025. Six years into the 6th cycle, 453 of 468 very low income allocated units and 200 of 268 low income allocated units remain to be built.
Even with the Monte Vista project that is now moving forward, Poway is still way behind in building the allocated low and very low income RHNA units for this cycle.
• For the current Housing Element Cycle (6'11 Cycle), SAN DAG has allocated a total of 1,319 l1ousing units for Poway distributed into each income category. The breakdown of units allocated for the different affordability levels is shown below with the amount of units remaining to be permitted in tl1e current Housing Element Cycle Table 1: RHNA Allocation for Poway, 61h Cycle (2020-2029) Housing Income Categories, 11Hl,JA Allocation Units Remaining Percentage by /1nnual Median Units ProclucecJ in Income (AM I) (6111 Cycle) 2025 (6111 Cycle)
Very Low (30-50%) 468 0 453
Low (50-80%) 268 0 200
Moderate (80-1 20%) 241 36 61
AIJove Morlerate {>120%) 342 52 (60)
Total 1319 88 654
As part of the General Plan Annual Report, HCD requires an update on the City's efforis to implement its housing programs. Implementation programs from the adopted 2020-2029 Housing Element Update have been in effect. The City's completed Annual General Plan Progress Report for Housing Element Implementation is included as Attachment B of this report. 3 of7 March 17, 2026, Item #3
Note: There appears to be an error in total number of units remaining to build.
It should be 714.
The report also noted that several of Poway's housing programs are no longer operational, due to "lack of funds".
In March, 2025, Poway Voices submitted information to the City Council (April 1st, 2025 Council Meeting) summarizing the in-lieu fees for several neighboring jurisdictions and requested that, "you consider raising the in-lieu fees to the extent that they are comparable to cities of a similar size and, ideally, not be so low that they provide developers an incentive not to build inclusionary housing"
News reports (Voice of San Diego, June 26th, 2025) following that meeting claimed (specifically, "Poway city leaders will hire an outside consultant to study whether the fee should be updated. Once the study is complete, the City Council will decide whether to raise the fee") that the City would soon have a study done regarding the in-lieu fee.
We are pleased to see it noted in the report, that there are funds in the budget for a study of the in-lieu fees, but we wonder why the study has not yet happened. If Poway's in-lieu fee was closer to what other San Diego cities charge, there would be millions more dollars in Poway's housing fund right now. Some of the programs that were shut down could have been revived, and maybe some affordable units could have been funded, and possibly, some market rate developers might have built some affordable inclusionary units, which would also count towards Poway's RHNA units.
We encourage the City to request bids for the in-lieu fee study as soon as possible, and to consider the results of the study in the most expedient way possible.
4 of7 March 17, 2026, Item #3
Poway's lack of progress in building the low and very low RHNA units likely means that Poway will be given extra low and very low allotments as an "equity adjustment" during the 7th housing cycle. We are disappointed that the City is spending money to hire a consultant to "find" more land to zone to higher densities, rather than making the effort to incentivize building (or de incentivize not building) the low and very low RHNA units as part of the Poway Road Specific Plan.
Since all of the moderate, low and very low income RHNA units are rentals, it is also important that the numbers in the report reflect actual units which are available for rent. The City committed to a policy of "discouraging short term rentals of one or more rooms as well as whole homes" in Poway's housing element. Since Poway does not have a short-term rental ordinance, exactly how does the City "discourage short term rentals of one or more rooms as well as whole homes?"
It is easy to find short term rentals in Poway on various websites. Data from airdna.co shows that 146 short term rentals were available in Poway on Airbnb and /or Vrbo on March 1st, 2026.
Poway's code prohibits using ADUs for short term rentals. Nevertheless, there are listings for "guest homes" and rooms that could easily be ADUs. Or JADUs.
Non-deed restricted ADUs account for the entire RHNA allocation for moderate income housing in Poway, in this housing cycle, and they are the only affordable housing available in north Poway. Thus, including any short term rentals in this income category may misrepresent Poway's number of fulfilled RHNA units.
5 of7 March 17, 2026, Item #3
3:49PM Sun M.ir 1
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New state legislation (SB 346) allows cities to enact an ordinance that would force Airbnb, VRBO and other short term rental facilitators to share information about short term rentals operating within the City. This would provide critical data to gauge the number of ADUs that are being rented out as short term rentals. It would also provide data on whether Poway's efforts to discourage short-term rentals of houses and rooms have been successful or not. Perhaps, a more inclusive short term rental ordinance will be necessary to preserve the availability of existing housing for renters.
We support the City's goal of ensuring a housing supply for all income levels in Poway. We encourage the City to have an in-lieu fee study done as soon as possible and look forward to hearing about the City's efforts to discourage short term rentals.
6of7 March 17, 2026, Item #3
Sincerely,
Nick Carruthers, Chris Cruse, Jana Johnson and Eric Weller 7of7 March 17, 2026, Item #3