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The town of Atherton will continue to look at becoming a charter city, but with less hope than when the endeavor first surfaced.
Atherton originally sought to explore becoming a charter city after a group of residents, the Atherton Housing Coalition, suggested it could help exempt the town from some zoning and land use rules.
It was especially of interest in light of a court ruling in Southern California that exempted charter cities from Senate Bill 9, a state law that allows property owners to split their lots and build up to two new homes. However, after a town subcommittee explored the issue, some councilmembers have doubts about any benefits.
Charter cities are exempt from issues that are “municipal affairs” but are still subject to laws of statewide importance.
A staff report from City Manager George Rodericks said that in the SB9 case, the court implied that the Legislature could rewrite the bill to apply to charter cities. In other cases, courts have ruled laws to increase affordable housing can apply to charter cities as they address the statewide housing crisis and the lack of affordable housing.
Even if becoming a charter city could help Atherton avoid some housing requirements, some councilmembers are likely to be skeptical.
“I feel Atherton has an obligation to participate with the greater region in providing affordable housing,” said councilmember Bill Widmer. “Many of us are parents and our children can’t live in the town. They have high paying jobs yet they can’t afford to move into the area.”
Atherton is among the nation’s priciest cities with a median home price of $8.9 million in 2024.
Other councilmembers framed the potential change as an issue of local control.
“We have seen the state of California exercise authority based on certain high falutin’ goals that don’t relate to the local needs and concerns and character of the jurisdictions that are impacted. I’m not just talking about housing… we’re a unique community and we need to have as much control over our community as we can,” said councilmember Rick DeGolia, a member of the charter city subcommittee.
There are other areas where Atherton could get more control besides housing; in particular, Atherton would be able to use more types of taxes and could have a lower threshold to pass certain taxes.
The main benefit councilmember Stacy Holland, the other member of the charter subcommittee, sees is increasing the town’s ability to tax. But even then, she emphasized that it does not give the city “carte blanche” to tax residents. While a parcel tax requires a two-thirds majority of residents to approve, a real estate transfer tax would only require a simple majority of residents.
“If we snapped our fingers right now and became a charter city, there would be no difference,” Holland said. “It would change nothing about what we need to do for housing and housing is why the public requested we look into becoming a charter city.
“In some ways, I view this as an earthquake preparedness kit: we’d be happy if we have it and need it but it might never get used,” she said. “I keep going back and forth on whether this is worth it.”
While councilmembers discussed the ability to tax, none advocated for proposing a tax. The town previously considered becoming a charter city in 2012 and again in 2015 in order to gain the ability to levy a real estate transfer tax to plug a hole in the town’s budget but did not pursue it after opposition from residents.
Councilmember Diana Hawkins-Manuelian said becoming a charter city is a waste of time and money. DeGolia countered that a narrowly tailored charter would not be resource intensive.
“I’m still not convinced that becoming a charter city will serve the small town of Atherton… (The potential campaign for a ballot measure) puts ice in my veins. That campaign would be distracting to what we need to do to keep the town running,” said Mayor Elizabeth Lewis. “I am not opposed to the committee continuing their work and coming back to council to review.”
DeGolia was the only councilmember who was outright supportive of becoming a charter city. While most had doubts on becoming a charter city, Lewis, Holland and Widmer supported allowing the subcommittee to draft a charter for the council to review. Hawkins-Manuelian was opposed to the subcommittee continuing.
