Score: -1 (2/11/3)
Santa Clara County Grand Jury • 2017-2018 • Agency Response
Response to: Town of Los Gatos

Office of the Town Manager Civic Center 110 E. Main Street*

Published: September 06, 2018 7 pages
Ver PDF original

Findings and Recommendations 4 findings

F6 Page 5
In-lieu fees, when offered as an option, are too low to produce the needed number of BMR units and delay their creation. Response: Partially agree. The costs of housing construction may not be keeping pace with established in-lieu fees.
No recommendations for this finding
F7 Page 5
NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) opposition adversely affects the supply of BMR housing units. Response: Partially agree. NIMBY is only one of many factors affecting the production of BMR units. . . . . . . -
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Page 6
A task force to communicate the value and importance of each city meeting its RHNA objectives for BMR housing should be created and funded by the County and all 15 cities, by June 30, 2019. Response: Will not be implemented. This recommendation will not be implemented because the County has responded to this report stating that it will not implement this recommendation because it is not warranted. However, if a task force is formed the Town will consider participating in that effort.
F8 Page 6
It is unnecessarily difficult to confirm how many BMR units are constructed in a particular year or RHNA cycle because cities and the County only report permitted units. Response: Partially agree. State law requires all jurisdictions to prepare an annual report of their Housing Elements following the guidance of the California Department of Housing and Community Development. This guidance requires reporting of Building Permit issuance since it is a reliable metric of actual housing production.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
Page 6
All 15 cities and the County should annually publish the number of constructed BMR units, starting in April 2019. Response: Has not been implemented, but will be implemented in the future. The Town will make information available regarding Building Permits Finaled/Certificates of Occupancy issued (i.e., construction complete) on the Town's website before June 30, 2019. 5
F9 Page 7
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) offer a prime opportunity for cities with low housing density and limited developable land to produce more BMR units. Response: Agree.
Related Recommendations (2)
R9a
Page 7
ADU creation should be encouraged by decreasing minimum lot size requirements and increasing the allowed unit maximum square footage to that prescribed by state law, Response: Has been implemented. In February 2018, the Town Council adopted a revised ADU ordinance that does not contain a minimum lot size requirement. Additionally, the revised ADU ordinance increased the allowable floor area ration by 10 percent to allow larger ADUs.
R9b
Page 7
Increasing BMR unit creation by incentivizing long-term affordability through deed restrictions for ADUs should be adopted, Response: Has been implemented. As an incentive for long-term ADU affordability the Town pays the ADU planning application fee for property owners who are willing to record a deed restriction. The incentive requires the unit to be rented as a low-income BMR unit if the unit is occupied by someone other than a member of the household occupying the primary unit. 6

Agency Responses 3

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

No Responses Found 1

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

County of Santa Clara Agency

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.