Palo Alto's 2023-2031 Housing Element Certified
Published on August 20, 2024
The State notified the City of Palo Alto today, that the City’s 2023-2031 Housing Element is certified. This is a key milestone following several years of Council, City Commissions and Staff leadership and community engagement. The Housing Element will help guide future housing production and housing related programs and policies. Palo Alto has long been a leader in the production of affordable housing and has the second highest inventory of affordable housing for incorporated jurisdictions within Santa Clara County (as a percentage of total housing stock). With this recent milestone, City staff will work to implement the Housing Element policies and programs that advance the City Council’s 2024 Priority: Housing for Social & Economic Balance.
As noted in the City’s Housing Element: “Since 2017, the City has contributed or pledged $52 million from its affordable housing fund or land value in support of the construction of 218 affordable and workforce housing units, 108 emergency shelter rooms anticipated to be completed in 2023 and the preservation of 117 units at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park. As part of a development agreement with Stanford University an additional 70 affordable housing units were built in 2017. More recently, in November 2022, Wilton Court, a 59-unit affordable development was occupied. The City granted land use approval for Mitchell Park Place, located at 525 E. Charleston Road, for 50 affordable units with half the units serving persons with disabilities. The City is also partnering with the County for the project at 231 Grant Avenue, where the County has donated the land and funding for teacher and school district employee housing. A non-profit housing organization filed an application in 2022 for 129 affordable housing units on El Camino Real and the City is reviewing another application that includes a development agreement with the Sobrato Organization for the dedication of approximately 1 acre of land to the City for the purpose of building an affordable housing project next to a future two-acre park. The City is poised to release a request for information for a private/public partnership for the redevelopment of one or more City surface parking lots near University Avenue for the purpose of adding affordable housing units downtown. Meanwhile the City continues to explore ways to increase revenue for affordable housing. It recently adjusted its affordable housing impact fees on commercial development and its residents approved an initiative on the November 2022 ballot for a business tax; a portion of which is to support a variety of affordable housing interests.”
Learn more about the City’s housing policies and programs at www.cityofpaloalto.org/housing.
Read the HCD letter.(PDF, 159KB)