Strategies to Increase Residential Capacity
The following approaches have been used by localities to increase their total residential development capacity:
- Up-zone existing residential areas at appropriate densities to facilitate development of housing.
- Increase maximum allowable residential densities in existing residential, commercial, and mixed-use zones and modify development standards, such as height limitations to ensure maximum density can be achieved.
- Pre-zone and annex land suitable for residential use.
- Establish minimum densities — Designate minimum densities of development to ensure that existing available land is not underutilized.
- Allow and encourage mixed-use zoning — Permit housing in certain nonresidential zones either as part of a mixed-use project or as a standalone residential use.
- Rezone underutilized land from nonresidential to residential to expand the supply of available residential land.
- Institute flexible zoning — Allow various residential uses within existing nonresidential zones without requiring rezoning or conditional approvals.
- Redevelop and/or recycle underutilized existing land to more intensive uses.
- Convert obsolete, older public/institutional/commercial/industrial buildings to residential use through adaptive reuse and/or historic preservation.
- Over-zone — Create a surplus of land for residential development during the current planning period of at least 20 percent more than the locality’s share of the regional housing need. Over-zoning compensates for urban land left vacant due to ownership and development constraints and creates a real surplus. A sufficient supply of land beyond the time frame of the housing element helps prevent land shortages from bidding up land costs.
- Allow and promote small- and irregular-size lot development.
- Consolidate lots — Facilitate combining small residential lots into larger lots to accommodate higher-density development.
- Increase height limitations — At a minimum, allow three stories in multifamily zones.
- Increase Floor Area Ratios — Allow for larger buildings on smaller lots and/or more units per lot by reducing the floor area ratio (total lot area divided by the total building area).
Appropriate Development Standards
Appropriate zoning and development standards facilitate the location, siting, capacity, and price of residential development in order to meet identified housing needs, particularly new construction for lower-income households. These include establishing minimum densities and minimum floor areas; increasing maximum lot coverage; allowing minimum building-, rear-, and side-yard setbacks; reducing parking and amenities requirements; and other controls such as streamlined architectural and design review standards.
State zoning law requires localities to zone sufficient vacant land for residential use with appropriate standards to meet the housing needs as identified in the general plan. Appropriate standards are requirements that contribute significantly to the economic feasibility of producing housing at the lowest possible cost.
In regulating subdivisions, Government Code Section 65913.2 provides that a local government may not impose design criteria for the purpose of rendering an affordable housing development infeasible. A community may not impose standards and criteria for public improvements (e.g. streets, sewers, schools, or parks) that exceed those imposed on other developments in similar zones. Additionally, the effect of a community’s ordinances and actions on accommodating the housing needs of the region must be considered.
Encouraging Development of Underutilized Sites for Housing
Identification of underutilized land and opportunities for mixed uses must be accompanied by programs that encourage their development and/or reuse. Such programs could include actions to initiate any necessary rezoning, establish appropriate regulatory and/or financial incentives, relax development standards (design criteria, parking, building height, setback requirements, etc.), support more compact and higher-density residential developments, and facilitate the new construction of multifamily rental and owner-occupied units. Such developments are often located in urban core areas, adjacent to existing neighborhoods, close to transit centers, and near established businesses and services.
Strategies to Encourage Adequate Sites for a Variety of Housing Types
While the sites inventory may identify sufficient sites to accommodate the locality’s total share of the regional housing need, the element must also include policies and programs to promote development on identified sties. Localities have developed various strategies and development incentives to encourage a variety of housing types for all income levels, including:
- Up-zone existing neighborhoods in areas of opportunity or in high quality neighborhood transit areas at appropriate densities to facilitate development of housing.
- Increase maximum allowable residential densities in existing residential, commercial, and mixed-use zones and modify development standards, such as height limitations to ensure maximum density can be achieved.
- Establish minimum densities — Designate minimum densities of development to ensure that existing available land is not underutilized.
- Rezone underutilized land from nonresidential to residential to expand the supply of available residential land.
- Institute flexible zoning — Allow various residential uses within existing nonresidential zones without requiring rezoning or conditional approvals.
- Redevelop and/or recycle underutilized existing land to more intensive uses.
- Convert obsolete, older public/institutional/commercial/industrial buildings to residential use through adaptive reuse and/or historic preservation.
- Over-zone — Create a surplus of land for residential development during the current planning period of at least 20 percent more than the locality’s share of the regional housing need. Over-zoning compensates for urban land left vacant due to ownership and development constraints and creates a real surplus. A sufficient supply of land beyond the time frame of the housing element helps prevent land shortages from bidding up land costs.
- Zoning sites for mobilehomes and mobilehome park use.
- Promoting multifamily rental housing built above ground-floor commercial uses (referred to as “mixed-use” development) by permitting apartment uses in office/commercial areas (allows office space revenue to offset rental costs and act as an internal project subsidy) or as a standalone residential use.
- Compiling and maintaining an inventory of public surplus lands and land owned by other entities (such as school districts, public utilities, etc.) to identify sites suitable for development of low- and moderate-income housing. Facilitating the acquisition of surplus public lands and other identified land for affordable housing development.
- Zoning for housing types typically occupied by renter households.
- Ensuring zoning encourages single-room occupancy units and establishing ordinances with written and objective standards.
- Offering development incentives (e.g., land write-downs, fee waivers, and below market-rate financing) negotiated through developer agreements to increase multifamily densities in selected areas.
- Reducing multifamily development standards (e.g. number of required covered parking spaces, setback and building height requirements, etc.).
- Establishing ordinances or guidelines to promote small-lot and irregular-size lot development
- Establishing “no net loss” policies and procedures to rezone equal amounts of land to replace any residential land used for other than its intended residential use.
Sample Program Format
Description of the specific actions, jurisdiction’s specific role in implementation and demonstration of commitment to implement
Objectives: (Quantified, where possible)
Responsible Agency:
Timeline:
Funding Source(s): (Where appropriate)
Sample Programs
Sample Program 1: By-Right
To accommodate the remaining lower-income RHNA of 89 units, the City of X will identify and rezone a minimum of 4.5 acres of vacant land to the R3 zoning district, allowing exclusively residential uses and a minimum of 20 units per acre to a maximum of 30 units per acre by June 30, 2024. Rezoned sites will permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily uses by right pursuant to Government Code section 65583.2(i) for developments in which 20 percent or more of the units are affordable to lower income households and will be selected from sites 20 through 30 in the parcel listing (Appendix A). As reflected in Appendix A, each site has the capacity to accommodate at least 16 units and will be available for development in the planning period where water, sewer, and dry utilities can be provided.
Objective: Create opportunity for at least 89 units of multifamily housing for lower income households
Responsible Agency: Community Development Department
Timeline: Sites rezoned by June 30, 2024
Funding Source(s): General fund
Sample Program 2: Rezone Program on Mixed-use Sites
To accommodate the remaining lower-income RHNA of 150 units, the City will identify and rezone 8 acres of sites within the MU-30 zoning district, allowing owner-occupied and rental multifamily residential uses “by-right”, at a minimum of 20 units per acre by June 30, 2017. Sites will allow projects to be 100 percent residential by-right but shall require residential uses to occupy at least 50 percent of the total floor area of the mixed-use project. Rezoned sites will permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily uses by right pursuant to Government Code section 65583.2(i) for developments in which 20 percent or more of the units are affordable to lower income households and will be selected from sites 15 through 30 in the parcel listing (Appendix A), and have the capacity for at least 16 units per site.
Responsibility: Community Development Department
Timing: Sites rezoned by June 30, 2024
Funding: General Fund
Objective: Create opportunity for at least 150 units of rental housing for lower income households
Sample Program 3: Replacement Unit Program
The City will adopt a policy and will require replacement housing units subject to the requirements of Government Code section 65915, subdivision (c)(3) on sites identified in the site inventory when any new development (residential, mixed-use or nonresidential) occurs on a site that is identified in the inventory meeting the following conditions:
- currently has residential uses or within the past five years has had residential uses that have been vacated or demolished, and
- was subject to a recorded covenant, ordinance, or law that restricts rents to levels affordable to persons and families of low or very low-income, or
- subject to any other form of rent or price control through a public entity’s valid exercise of its police power, or
- occupied by low or very low-income households
Funding: General Fund
Responsibility: Planning and Community Development Department
Objectives: In order to mitigate the loss of affordable housing units, require new housing developments to replace all affordable housing units lost due to new development.
Timeframes: The replacement requirement will be implemented immediately and applied as applications on identified sites are received and processed, and local policy shall be adopted by June 30, 2024.
Sample Program 4: Previously Identified Nonvacant and Vacant Sites
The City will rezone to allow developments by right pursuant to Government Code section 65583.2(i) when 20 percent or more of the units are affordable to lower income households on sites identified in Table A to accommodate the lower income RHNA that was previously identified in past housing elements. Specifically, the City will rezone the nonvacant sites identified on Table A previously identified in the 5th cycle housing element, and the vacant sites identified on Table A as previously identified for both the 5th and 4th cycle housing elements.
Objective: Create opportunity for at least X units of rental housing for lower income households.
Responsible Agency: Community Development Department
Timeline: Sites rezoned by (a specific date, no more than three years from the beginning of the planning period)
Funding: General Fund