State OKs Saratoga’s housing element

City has received 20 builder’s remedy applications while waiting for final approval.

After a process stretching back years, the city of Saratoga has received final state approval on its housing element, which outlines all housing to be built in the city over the next eight years.

The city submitted the fifth draft of its housing element to the state’s department of Housing and Community Development, also known as HCD, in March. The state’s final approval on July 8 comes after they told the city in May that its housing element met the statutory requirements of state law but wanted clarification that it would allow for “non-discretionary review” of housing developments with 20% affordable units.

The Saratoga city council unanimously voted to approve that clarification at its July 3 meeting.

Mayor Yan Zhao said the state’s approval reflects the hard work that went into creating the housing element.

“My heartfelt appreciation goes out to everyone involved in making this possible,” she said in an email.

When the city council approved the housing element in March, it self-certified its housing element as being in substantial compliance with state law. The city had previously been vulnerable to “builder’s remedy” applications – housing projects of any size and height that developers can propose in the absence of an approved housing element, as long as those proposals contain 20% affordable housing units. The state’s approval now starts the clock for the city to begin implementing the housing element, and eliminates that vulnerability.

According to the city’s website, which was last updated on June 3, the city has received preliminary applications for 20 builder’s remedy projects that would result in about 672 new housing units. That number could contribute to the total 1,712 housing units the state is requiring the city to plan for in its housing element.

The developers for those projects have 180 days to submit formal applications for those projects. The proposed projects range in size from the 81-room boutique hotel and 250 housing units proposed at the Mountain Winery site to a seven-unit project at 13460 Saraview Drive near Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road.

The projects have resulted in pushback from members of the community, who have been frustrated by what they see as oversized projects in areas that lack infrastructure to support an increased population.

“I do hope that the council does exercise their abilities on the current builder’s remedy projects and also gets through this housing element so that other building planners can’t just copy and paste rectangles on Google maps and make 125 homes,” resident Sahas Munamala said at a March city council meeting.

Along those lines, a proposed development for a 25-unit project in the city’s hillsides has sparked safety concerns from nearby residents who are worried that more residents will result in congestion on the already narrow road that passes through the area.