Though cities can always do more to promote housing affordability, many of San Mateo County’s jurisdictions deserve recognition for the changes they are making. Last week, HLC’s newsletter incorrectly claimed “not a single lower-income unit was proposed in the city [of San Carlos] in 2023.” 

In fact, according to San Carlos’s Housing Element Annual Progress Report, more than 300 homes were approved by the San Carlos city council in 2023, 30 low-income and 47 very low-income. Recent work by the city to rezone and change other development standards will make more projects easier to build in the future as well.

A number of factors can influence when building or occupancy permits will be issued, including those like higher interest rates or the timing of development submissions that are outside the city’s control. Understanding what permits a city has issued in a year requires reviewing the full Annual Progress Report. Mea culpa! 

A thoughtful commenter responded to our newsletter that: “I do not live or work in San Carlos, but after so many years of little housing being built there, the change is quite remarkable. They should be complimented on their efforts.” HLC agrees. 

At the same time, cities across San Mateo County can continue working to change what they do control in order to make more development happen faster. Many developments proposed across the Bay Area have stalled because of higher interest rates, inflation and the increasing costs of building material, and the lack of capitol; all of San Mateo County’s jurisdictions saw a steep drop in the rate of building permits. However, cities are not passive actors. For many projects, cities still control most aspects of development, such as approval timelines, the flexibility of development standards, and fees. 

Planning for housing does not only happen in eight-year cycles or 20-year general plans; planning can be a continuous process of revision that responds to prevailing conditions and community needs. To say that cities have no control over housing development in the face of rising interest rates is like saying FEMA has no ability to respond to a hurricane disaster. No, FEMA cannot stop a hurricane, but it can help facilitate recovery. No, cities cannot save every development that has stalled due to bad financing, but they can save many of them and make new developments possible–even in a high interest rate environment–with proactive policy change, both by implementing housing elements and by looking beyond them.

Other cities in California demonstrate housing production is still possible. In 2023, the City of Sacramento (population ~550,000) issued more building permits than all of San Mateo County combined (population >750,000), the vast majority of permits for infill multi-family housing. Both the urban core of Sacramento and bayside San Mateo are largely “built out,” meaning most lots have a structure on them, but Sacramento is redeveloping more parcels at a faster rate than the San Mateo region.  

Caption: A table from Sacramento’s APR staff report

Sacramento makes housing easier to build in a number of ways. The vast majority of housing proposals are approved ministerially, without costly, time-consuming public hearings. The city has a local density bonus program that strongly rewards density, so that even proposals that are technically not zoning compliant can easily receive waivers and still get ministerially approved–and it has more flexible zoning, with more widespread multi-family zoning, to begin with. Furthermore, the city imposes more modest fees, with fee waivers or reductions for lower-income housing. 

Ultimately, entitling projects is only part of the process of building housing. The projects that get entitled need to actually be feasible to build. The things cities control–zoning rules, fee reductions, and fast, predictable timelines for both entitlements and building permits–directly impact development costs, influencing what developers can propose and what they can finance. 

Housing elements for the 6th RHNA cycle, though they include historic new policies leading to historic changes, may be just the beginning of the policy change necessary to enable the housing our communities need.