On September 14, 2023, Planning Department staff met with California Coastal Commission staff to discuss the relationship between the city’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) and the processing ADUs to ensure the ordinance takes the correct approach with regard to the LCP amendment. With this understanding, workshop of the first draft of the ADU ordinance of the scheduled with the Planning Commission.
A first draft of the ordinance (Attachment 5) was presented to the Planning Commission in workshop format on November 15, 2023. Following that meeting, Staff met with the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on February 1, 2024 to review the draft ordinance and receive general feedback and direction from HCD. Shortly thereafter, at the request of city staff, HCD staff completed an informal review (refer to Attachment 4) of the 1st draft of the ordinance (i.e. the version presented to the Planning Commission at the November 15th workshop) so that staff could incorporate the comments from the Commission and HCD into a revised 2nd draft.
On October 22, 2024, city staff again met with Coastal Commission staff and shared a working version of the revised draft 2nd including the supplemental findings to support where the LCP does not align with the state statue but is required for consistency with the Coastal Act (refer to Attachment 3). While Commission staff has not yet provided any written comments on the proposed ordinance, Commission staff voiced their support of the city’s position based on the discussion at the October 22nd meeting.
On November 5, 2024, city staff met with HCD staff to share updates made to the ordinance since their review of the first draft, provide updates regarding the meeting with the Coastal Commission, and receive general direction regarding the next steps. HCD staff was provided with a copy of a draft ordinance and has offered to provide comments on the revised ordinance. Staff continues to work with HCD regarding the unique situation of the city being entirely located within the coastal zone, however, HCD staff did acknowledge this unique circumstance.
Staff has taken the feedback from the workshop and comments from HCD and has prepared a 2nd draft of the proposed ordinance (refer to Attachments 1 & 2). As part of the response to the HCD’s comments, staff also provided a separate response including substantial evidence and clarification of how deviations from the ADU statute are necessary to comply with the Coastal Act and the city’s Local Coastal Program (LCP) in accordance with Government Code Section 66329 (refer to Attachment 3), a matter which was previously discussed at the November 2023 workshop and an October 2024 update to the City Council.
The most notable change to the second draft ordinance is how floor area is treated. In the first draft, ADUs would not be permitted to exceed the allowable floor area as required for strict compliance with the city’s LCP (refer to Attachment 3; “Analysis/Response to Comments” section; Comment #2). The commission found this requirement to be too restrictive and directed staff to explore an alternative which would allow for development of ADUs beyond the base floor area limitation.
The revised draft allows for ADUs, up to 800 square feet above the allowable base floor area for the site, consistent with the state statue. To address the potential impacts on various coastal resources identified in the Local Coastal Program, units exceeding the allowable floor area could be allowed an additional 800 square feet (consistent with the state statute) through a review process similar to the city's standard design study process.
The above example is just one area where the ordinance has been revised, however, staff anticipates this area will warrant the most discussion. As this is a workshop format, all areas of the ordinance are open for discussion and staff encourages review and discussion of the entirety of the ordinance beyond the point noted above.