1.5 Overview of Planning Efforts

This section provides an overview of planning and legislative efforts that provide context for the development of the 6th Cycle Housing Element.

Effectiveness of Previous Housing Element

The 2015 Housing Element identified a Regional Housing Needs Allocation of 16 housing units in Belvedere between 2015 and 2023. The RHNA was divided into the following income categories:

4 units affordable to extremely low- and very low-income households;

3 units affordable to low-income households;

4 units affordable to moderate-income households; and

5 units affordable to above moderate-income households.

Belvedere has had little success in meeting its housing needs. In the last housing element cycle (2015 to 2023), for example, the City built five (5) housing units, which represented 31 percent of its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) (16 new housing units). Of the units built, 80 percent (4 units) was affordable to lower- and moderate-income households, and 20 percent (1 unit) was affordable to above moderate-income households. Since 2000, Belvedere has only added 29 housing units out of 1,060 total units in the city—less than three percent of the city’s total housing stock.

All of this indicates that residential growth for low-income households was slower than anticipated, which may be in part due to the COVID pandemic, the cost of land, and the overall lack of support for new affordable housing development in the community. As a result, housing costs continued to increase substantially due to low supply, and affordability became more elusive.

The goals, objectives, policies, and actions in the 2015 Housing Element complied with State Housing Law and provided proper guidance for housing development in the City. In the 2023 Housing Element update, objectives for each of the goals will be modified as appropriate to more specifically respond to the housing environment in Belvedere from 2023 to 2031. Policies will also be modified as needed to respond to current Housing Element Law and existing and anticipated residential development conditions. See Appendix E for a complete review and analysis of Belvedere’s 5th Cycle Housing Element (2015-2023).

New State Laws Affecting Housing

While the City has taken steps throughout the 5th cycle to increase housing production locally, the State passed numerous laws to address California’s housing crisis during the same period. As the State passes new legislation in the remainder of the 5th cycle and during the 6th cycle, the City will continue to amend the Municipal Code; to monitor and evaluate policies and programs designed to meet State requirements; and to proactively implement new policies and programs to help increase housing production citywide.

In 2019, several bills were signed into law that include requirements for local density bonus programs, the Housing Element, surplus lands, accessory dwelling unit (ADU) streamlining, and removing local barriers to housing production. The City will implement changes required by State law, likely through amendments to the Belvedere Municipal Code. The following is a summary of recent legislation and proposed City activities that will further the City’s efforts to increase housing production during the 6th cycle. Please see the section above for a discussion of AB 686 (Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing).

Incentives for Accessory Dwelling Units

AB 68, AB 587, AB 671, AB 881, and SB 13 further incentivize the development of ADUs, through streamlined permits, reduced setback requirements, increased allowable square footage, reduced parking requirements, and reduced fees. The City adopted standards for Junior Accessory Dwelling Units (JADU) in 2016, which were updated in 2018 and 2020. The City also created a webpage that provides information on State Laws and city regulations and streamlined application processes for developing ADUs and JADUs. Using SB 2 Grant Funding, the City coordinated with the MCPD Housing Working Group to developed an interactive website http://www.adumarin.org, which provides residents and property owners information on designing, financing, and constructing ADUs and JADUs. The program also includes downloadable materials.

Low-Barrier Navigation Centers

AB 101 requires jurisdictions to allow “low-barrier navigation centers” by-right in areas zoned for mixed uses and in nonresidential zones permitting multifamily uses, if the center meets specified requirements.

Surplus Public Land

AB 1255 and AB 1486 seek to identify and prioritize state and local surplus lands available for housing development affordable to lower-income households. In addition, in 2019 Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to identify State owned sites to help address the California housing crisis.

Accelerated Housing Production

AB 2162 and SB 2 address various methods and funding sources that jurisdictions may use to accelerate housing production.

Priority Processing

SB 330 enacts changes to local development policies, permitting, and processes that will be in effect through January 1, 2025. SB 330 places new criteria on the application requirements and processing times for housing developments; prevents localities from decreasing the housing capacity of any site, such as through downzoning or increasing open space requirements, if such a decrease would preclude the jurisdiction from meeting its RHNA housing targets; prevents localities from establishing non-objective standards; and requires that any proposed demolition of housing units be accompanied by a project that would replace or exceed the total number of units demolished. Additionally, any demolished units that were occupied by lower-income households must be replaced with new units affordable to households with those same income levels.

Housing and Public Safety

Finally, in response to SB 379 and other recent state legislation, local jurisdictions must update their safety element to comprehensively address climate adaptation and resilience (SB 379) and SB 1035 (2018) and identify evacuation routes (SB 99 and AB 747). These updates are triggered by the 6th Cycle housing element update. This housing element contains an evaluation of the existing safety element and contains programming actions to update the safety element to satisfy the new state requirements. Also, as sites are identified and analyzed for inclusion in the City’s housing site inventory, special attention will be paid to the risk of wildfire and the need for evacuation routes. In this way, the City will coordinate updates to all three elements (land-use, housing, and safety), so that it can direct future development into areas that avoid or reduce unreasonable risks while also providing needed housing and maintaining other community planning goals.

Disadvantaged Communities

In 2011, the Governor signed SB 244 which requires local governments to make determinations regarding “disadvantaged unincorporated communities,” defined as a community with an annual median income that is less than 80 percent of the statewide annual median household income. The City has determined that there are no unincorporated islands or fringe or legacy communities that qualify as disadvantaged communities inside or near its boundaries.

Consistency with General Plan

The Belvedere City Council adopted Belvedere General Plan 2030 update in 2010. The general plan is a long-range planning document that serves as the “blueprint” for development for local jurisdictions in California. All development-related decisions in the city must be consistent with the General Plan, and if a development proposal is not consistent with the plan, then it must be revised or the plan itself must be amended.

State law requires a community’s general plan to be internally consistent. This means that the housing element, although subject to special requirements and a different schedule of updates, must function as an integral part of the overall general plan, with consistency between it and the other general plan elements. From an overall standpoint, the development projected under this housing element is consistent with the other elements in the City’s current general plan.

Many housing needs can only be addressed on a comprehensive basis in concert with other community concerns such as infill development or mixed-use incentives, for example, which must consider land use, traffic, parking, design and other concerns as well.

Belvedere’s housing element is being updated at this time in conformance with the 2023-2031 update cycle for jurisdictions in the ABAG region. The housing element builds upon the other general plan elements and contains policies to ensure that it is consistent with other elements of the general plan. As portions of the general plan are amended in the future, the plan (including the housing element) will be reviewed to ensure that internal consistency is maintained.