On April 8, 2024, the City Council adopted the 6th Cycle Housing Element, which covers 2023-2031. The City is responsible to plan for 349 new housing units by 2031.
On April 25, 2024, the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) certified the City's Housing Element. Two city-owned sites, Vista Lobos and Sunset Center, were included as potential affordable housing sites to achieve certification (Housing Element Program 1.1.B: City-Owned Sites).
On July 9, 2024, in response to concerns regarding the redevelopment of the city-owned sites, the City Council passed Resolution 2024-062 (Attachment 1) directing staff to begin work immediately exploring and developing alternative affordable housing sites and programs to submit a formal general plan housing element amendment that provides alternative affordable housing opportunities and removes the need for housing units at Vista Lobos and Sunset Center. Additionally, staff were directed to return to the City Council in September and October with updates on progress.
On September 10, 2024, and October 1, 2024, the City Council received updates on the joint efforts of the Affordable Housing Alternatives (AHA) community group and City staff to explore four strategies to provide lower-income housing in lieu of developing city-owned sites.
December Update
City Council Resolution 2024-062 directed staff to return at the October 2024 meeting with a rough draft of an amendment that would ultimately be submitted to the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). Three months was not enough time to prepare an amendment that contains the level of detail required for consideration by HCD. To present alternative sites that can satisfy lower-income housing requirements, additional research and analysis is needed. City staff and the AHA community group continue to meet with the consultant weekly to refine four viable strategies: Accessory Dwelling Units, Downtown sites, Hotel-to-Residential conversion, and Church sites.
What is our goal?
The goal of pursuing an amendment to the adopted Housing Element is to identify alternative sites (i.e., private property) to accommodate the very-low, low, and moderate-income units currently planned for Vista Lobos and the north and south parking lots of Sunset Center. Below is a breakdown of units by income category for each site.
Table 1. City-Owned Sites
The four strategies that are currently being pursued are:
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Accessory Dwelling Units & Junior Accessory Dwelling Units (Housing Element Program 1.3.C).
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The adopted Housing Element projects 34 new ADUs/JADUs by 2031. The city is projected to meet and possibly exceed this target based on the number of ADUs constructed and currently under construction. The proposed Housing Element amendment seeks to establish a higher projected number based on current trends in new unit production. The City’s consultant, Veronica Tam, is working on amending the annual progress reports submitted during the 5th cycle housing element to reflect the number of ADUs permitted more accurately. This effort will support a higher projection as part of the 6th cycle amendment currently being explored. Initial estimates projected an additional 14 ADUs; however, more recent estimates suggest that an additional 30 ADUs could be included in the 6th cycle projections.
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The proposed amendment also includes an analysis of the type and size of ADUs produced to date and whether smaller units could be deemed “affordable by design,” satisfying a portion of the lower-income housing need without the requirement for deed restrictions. A survey will be sent out before the end of the year to property owners who created an ADU on their property since 2017. The results of the survey will be used to inform the analysis. To further incentivize the use of ADUs as rental housing, the Council might also consider allocating water credits in exchange for a limited term deed restriction (e.g., 5-10 years).
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In collaboration with the ADU subcommittee of the AHA community group, City staff released a resource guide for homeowners that includes important information they need to know when exploring adding an ADU or JADU to their property (Attachment 3). The guide was distributed in the City Administrator’s Friday letter on November 8th and posted to the City’s website (https://ci.carmel.ca.us/post/housing-resources).
City staff continue to monitor and collect data on accessory dwelling units as they go through the city’s permitting process. A few interesting data points include,
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Hotel-to-Residential Conversions (Housing Element Program 1.3.B).
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Several smaller, older, lower-performing hotels are being evaluated as potential sites for conversion to residential. In some cases, these sites were apartments before being converted to hotel rooms and may still retain kitchens.
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The Hotel subcommittee of the AHA community group has coordinated meetings with local developers to discuss refinements to the program which would “supercharge” it above what was already planned to be implemented in the Housing Element. The interest in this program has been strong, so the City’s consultant is working on language and producing data that would reinforce how the projected number of units should be increased as part of an amendment.
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Housing on Church Sites (Housing Element Program 1.1.D).
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On November 19, 2024, the AHA community group hosted a forum with representatives from the faith community, local architects, City staff, and affordable housing advocates to discuss housing opportunities and constraints on church sites. The meeting was well attended and included an engaging discussion.
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Downtown Housing Opportunities (various Housing Element programs).
City staff and the AHA community group continue to meet weekly. Consultant Veronica Tam also attends a portion of the weekly meetings. Additionally, the four subcommittees meet weekly, with staff and the consultant attending on an as-needed basis.
Next Steps/Project Timeline:
The current project timeline anticipates that a first draft of Housing Element Amendment will be available for public review in February, 2025. This would be the first formal draft, and would include redlines of the Housing Element and recalculated unit counts on the City owned sites. If this schedule holds, then it would be expected to receive HCD comments on the draft in March, 2025. Subsequent to HCD comments, and assuming no major roadblocks, the Planning Commission and City Council would be considering the Housing Element amendment for adoption in in June and July of 2025, respectively.