City of San Mateo
City Council Meeting
POST PACKET
PUBLIC COMMENT
As of March 17, 2025, at 4:00 PM
March 16, 2025
City Council, City of San Mateo
330 W 20th Ave.
San Mateo, CA 94403
To the honorable San Mateo City Council,
HLC supports the implementation of San Mateo’s housing element policy commitments and the Measure T general plan update, all of which will facilitate housing for the entire community.
Regarding the staff report for item 13, we would like the city council to:
1. Approve both ordinances drafted by staff, with one amendment to the housing element implementation ordinance: Increase the threshold for zoning administrator approval of housing projects from 50 units to 150 units, as recommended by the planning commission. Increasing this threshold will streamline the development process and save city resources while allowing staff and council to focus more time on larger developments.
2. Direct staff to undergo a comprehensive zoning ordinance update in six months, not two years as suggested will be necessary in the staff report. The city can meaningfully engage the community on its zoning updates at normal planning commission and council meetings while letting its expert staff focus on cleaning up minutiae that are not accessible to the vast majority of the public.
HLC supports both of the proposed ordinances proposed in the staff report, though with one main amendment to the housing element implementation ordinance: We agree with the Planning Commission’s recommendation to raise “ the threshold for [zoning administrator approval of] residential development projects that are in compliance with the City’s adopted Objective Design Standards from the existing 25-unit limit to 150 units,” or even 200 units.
The council can ensure developments meet local needs by creating effective rules reflecting those needs. When developers meet those needs, the city will save substantial staff time, money, and resources by allowing most developments to be approved on a streamlined process. A 150- or 200-unit threshold for project approval by the zoning administrator will ensure most projects can move quickly while ensuring the council and staff have ample time to review large projects like the Hillsdale Mall redevelopment plan.
While HLC also supports the interim zoning amendments proposed to implement Measure T in the short term, the city can complete its comprehensive zoning update and realize the benefits
of the general plan much faster than staff propose. San Mateo should aim to complete its comprehensive zoning update in six months, not two years as suggested in the staff report. A faster timeline will ultimately achieve more meaningful public input and a more effective zoning code long term.
San Mateo already underwent a six-year general plan update process in which it heard from a huge range of residents. The outcome of that process, Measure T, passed by an almost 20-point margin. One thing is clear: An overwhelming majority of San Mateo residents want a zoning code that works to facilitate new development reflecting the heights and densities of Measure T.
Everything else about the zoning code is arcane, with little benefit to a drawn out public input process. Standard planning commission and council meetings already provide a platform for passionate residents to make their voices heard. The overwhelming majority of residents do not have a strong opinion about the length of setbacks or the number of feet in a story or the definition of an allowable use or the hundreds of other details in San Mateo’s code. Hosting extensive public input processes on minutiae won’t lead to meaningful community engagement, it will empower a small minority to have an outsized voice.
San Mateo has one of the most unnecessarily complex zoning codes in the Bay Area. I pdf’ed a copy and it runs 472 pages. It is filled with circular logic, contradictory internal references, and arbitrary rules. Staff know this, they’ve said so themselves.
Asking for extensive public input on the zoning code is like asking the general public about how to write a tax code or a building code. Consider some examples of the complexity and minutiae of the zoning regulations: These rules include minimum lot widths and parcel areas mandating a certain amount of lot area per home, directly increasing the cost of housing by tying it to parcel size…
… as well as rules requiring street-facing sides of buildings to be shorter than half the width of an adjacent street…
… and yet more rules govering the maximum length of the diagonal line from one corner of an apartment building to the other.