Belvedere: State poised to accept latest housing plan

Note: This story was updated June 18 to reflect the printed edition.

Belvedere’s fourth attempt at an eight-year housing plan has the tentative green light from Sacramento, local officials say.

The city posted the 479-page revised draft to its website June 11 for the required seven-day public-comment period. It was expected to submit the plan to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for formal 60-day review as soon as week.

The draft makes no changes to the 188-unit site inventory included in the third draft of November 2024 and instead focuses on “sharpening the pencil,” Councilmember Peter Mark said in an interview, as it mostly clarifies and tweaks policies and programs at the state’s request, such as updated rezoning and development incentives.

“Thankfully, (the department) has indicated its informal approval of the proposed revisions, signaling that the changes address all remaining issues,” City Manager Robert Zadnik told the City Council at its June 9 meeting. The most recent updates, he said, were developed in part through informal consultation with housing-agency staff.

Belvedere must plan for at least 160 new housing units — up from 16 in the previous eight-year cycle — as part of California’s goal of 2.5 million new homes by 2030. The city’s share includes 77 for lower incomes, 23 for moderate incomes and 60 for above-moderate incomes. The extra 28 units in the plan are a buffer in case some sites are not developed to projected capacities.

The 2023-2031 housing element was supposed to be in place 2½ years ago, by Jan. 31, 2023. Of 109 Bay Area jurisdictions, Belvedere is among just six that remain out of compliance with state housing law. It is the only noncompliant municipality in Marin.

As a result, the city faces continued penalties including a “builder’s remedy” that requires streamlined approval of certain affordable housing projects regardless of local zoning. That will end with housing element certification. However, under production shortfalls it also faces Senate Bill 423 penalties requiring by-right approval of certain multifamily projects through at least 2027. So far, however, no developers have attempted to use either penalty provision.

The housing agency’s Jan. 14 rejection letter of Belvedere’s third draft contained mostly good news for city planners. The state accepted projections that 32 accessory dwelling units would be created and that 27 new units would be created under Senate Bill 9. That 2022 law allows for two primary units on a single lot or for larger lots to be split and developed further.

However, the state outlined several deficiencies, including whether existing properties would realistically be redeveloped. The revised element says Belvedere will create additional incentives for the Land Co., which owns sites representing 87 potential new units across Beach Road properties and The Boardwalk shopping center. That represents nearly half of all new units.

Those incentives would allow up to 28 units per acre for R-3 zone properties and increase building heights by two feet, allowing a third story, provided 20% of units remain affordable to lower-income households. Other incentives would also increase allowable lot coverage to 45% from 40% and reduce parking and open space requirements.

The collection of incentives targets two clusters of five multifamily lots along Beach Road at Teal and Barn roads, where individual properties are less than a half-acre each. The individual lots are too small for affordable housing under state rules, so the incentives treat adjacent parcels under common ownership as a larger single lot. The Land Co. has long indicated it could add 16 units if the area was rezoned. Though the housing element continues to project 14 would be added, Belvedere has included a new analysis that shows 19 new units could fit as part of the state’s request to prove redevelopment was possible.

The Land Co. has also said it could redevelop The Boardwalk shopping center at five stories for about 130 total units of housing, split across Belvedere’s and Tiburon’s jurisdictions, atop ground-floor commercial uses. The housing agency has already certified Tiburon’s housing element using its share of those same development projections and didn’t seek more details from Belvedere about that project.

Belvedere’s latest draft also addresses the three-bed limit on emergency shelters, which had been rejected by the state. While three-bed shelters are already allowed by right in residential zones, the city plans to rezone to allow up to 10 beds by right in mixed-use zones.

That change would be part of a new citywide rezoning program that will incorporate objective design and development standards into each multifamily zone, instead of having an overlay of checklist standards for projects with streamlined applications, Mark said. The state’s January letter had expressed concerns that inconsistencies between base zoning requirements and objective standards could be a development constraint and create problems for permitting, streamlined approvals and the public-hearing process.

Mark, who sits on subcommittee to design the housing element, said he expects all rezoning will be completed by spring.

Housing agency spokesperson Alicia Murillo last week confirmed that Belvedere cannot be deemed compliant until all necessary rezoning matches the housing element, as the city’s completed element is more than a year overdue. However, Mark and Director of Planning and Building Rebecca Markwick said they anticipate the state will certify the latest draft on the condition the city adopts the revisions and related zoning amendments as submitted. Comments may be submitted to Markwick at rmarkwick@cityofbelvedere.org. Once the local comment period has closed, public comments may be submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development via housingelements@hcd.ca.gov.

Reach Executive Editor Kevin Hessel at 415-435-2652.