On May 9, the City of Sausalito hosted its second virtual town hall meeting about the City's
2023-31 Housing Element Update. The meeting provided an opportunity for City staff and the City's consulting team to brief community members on the status of the Housing Element and receive feedback on the list of potential sites for new housing that is being drafted by the
Housing Element Advisory Committee (HEAC).
The challenges facing the City were outlined in introductory presentations by Heidi Scoble of the Community Development Department and Beth Thompson of De Novo Planning Group:
- By state mandate, Sausalito is required to identify sites that could generate 724 new housing units under four income categories by 2031.
- Staff has thus far identified 199 units that could be created without any changes to the City's zoning ordinance. Many of these sites were identified via a survey of property owners about their interest in adding new housing units to their property.
- Staff recommends that a 25% buffer be incorporated into the list of housing opportunity sites with the expectation that some sites will be rejected by the state; instead of 525 remaining units to identify, the number is more like 650.
- To reach 650 new housing units, staff estimate that a total of six to 11 acres of land within City limits must be rezoned for multifamily or mixed-use housing to accommodate housing in the lower income categories. Approximately 20 acres of land must be rezoned to accommodate households in the moderate and above-moderate income categories.
The remainder of the meeting focused on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood review of sites under consideration and provided the approximately 120 attendees with the opportunity to indicate their preference for development of specific sites. Seventeen community members spoke during the public comment period at the end of the meeting.
On May 10, Scoble and Thompson also provided a Housing Element Update status report to the City Council and answered questions from councilmembers. Mayor Janelle Kellman and Councilmember Susan Cleveland-Knowles were tapped to work with staff to facilitate the development of resources to support the work of HEAC.
As next steps, HEAC will incorporate community feedback and additional research on prospective sites into an updated list of housing opportunity sites. The next HEAC meeting will be held on Monday, May 23. The next virtual town hall meeting will be held in July or August.
Sausalito's 2023-31 Housing Element must be adopted by the City Council and submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development no later than January 31, 2023.
Any questions about the Housing Element Update may be directed to Heidi Scoble at hscoble@sausalito.gov or (415) 289-4134. Comments about housing opportunity sites may be sent to the Housing Element Advisory Committee at heac@sausalito.gov.
