Late last year, the County of San Luis Obispo formed an ad-hoc housing steering committee under the leadership of Supervisors Ortiz-Legg and Paulding. This committee, which includes various stakeholders, including the Chamber, aims to increase the supply of multifamily housing and affordable housing in the unincorporated areas of the county.
A large focus for this committee has been zoning changes and streamlining processes that would encourage multi-family dwellings. After a lot of hard work and thoughtful discussion, County staff and this committee have developed a proposal for the Housing Element Implementation Plan, which includes many action items.
Action Item #1 proposes to update the baseline standard of zoning code to allow for more residential density in unincorporated areas. All updates to the baseline standard aim to make building residential units easier on developers, while still ensuring that affordable housing is a part of the equation.
Feeding off that, Action Item #2 establishes a new Regional Housing Incentive Program. This program is essentially a point system that would allow developers to purchase points for each development standard category, allowing them to buy their way into building the project they want to build. All the funds collected from the Regional Housing Incentive Program would go to a County Housing Trust Fund, which would be distributed to community housing non-profit partners to develop affordable housing.
For example, if a developer wanted to make their building with more density than outlined in the zoning code, they could purchase a point to increase the number of units per acre or increase the maximum height of the building. This is a key part of this plan, because building affordable housing is necessary for the benefit of our community, but the process that goes into the creation of affordable housing is better suited to affordable housing nonprofit organization (like HASLO or People’s Self-Help Housing) than a for-profit developer. These organizations know exactly how to create affordable housing, but are currently lacking funding to do so. The funds that this point system would generate could then be leveraged by these affordable housing nonprofits through state tax programs, which would unlock a new potential for affordable housing in our county.
The SLO Chamber Board reviewed Action Items #1 and #2 and supports both action items. We believe that this is a great step in the right direction for the future of our County’s housing. This will lead to more housing stock for all income levels, and it is important that we approach these changes thoughtfully and ensure market-rate housing and affordable housing will be seamlessly integrated throughout our community. This plan has the potential to make a real difference for housing in our County, and we are excited to see where this goes. The SLO Chamber testified and shared our position on these action items at the County Board of Supervisors meeting on September 23, which were approved for tentative action by the Board of Supervisors. If you want to stay engaged and voice your opinion on these action items, attend and give comment at the Board of Supervisors meeting on October 21, where they will vote on final action.
The next step in this plan is Action Items #7 and #8. Action Item #7 aims to streamline the permitting process by providing a ministerial-level permitting option through participation in Action Item #2, the Regional Housing Incentive Program and specific mitigations. Action Item #8 aims to expand opportunity areas for multi-family dwellings by strategically rezoning in areas that maximize existing services, facilities and infrastructure.
The scoping options included in Action Items #7 and #8 will be introduced at the Board of Supervisors meeting on November 4. For Action Item #7, the Board will give direction on what standards should be established in this streamlined permitting process. For Action Item #8, the Board will give County staff direction on where the scope of Action Item #8 should reach.
We will be providing the SLO Chamber perspective at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, November 4, and we hope you’ll submit public comment via email or join us in person.