The California Department of Housing and Community Development asked Menlo Park to revise its housing element for a second time. Housing experts say the city may not have far to go in getting its plan for thousands of new units approved.

Menlo Park got its state-mandated housing element in under the wire, adopting the 2023-2031 housing element on deadline day, Jan. 31. The City Council approved it on a 4-1 vote, with Drew Combs opposed.

The state requires cities to plan for future building with an eye toward balancing jobs and housing in a document known as a housing element. Menlo Park's housing target, also known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), says the city must plan for close to 3,800 new housing units by 2031.

The city's current housing element plans for 7,185 units, 3,518 of which are designated as affordable. The previous RHNA cycle required planning for 2,946 units of housing.

While the housing element requires another try, Jeremy Levine, the policy manager for the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County (HLC) said that the city is on the right track.

"I wouldn't say something went wrong so much as there are more steps to be taken," Levine said. "Instead of like, raking Menlo Park over the coals, they made progress."

Levine pointed to the 345 affordable units on city-owned parking lots and the tenant protections outlined in the housing element as signs of the significant progress that the Menlo Park City Council made before turning in the second version.

At the April 26 meeting, Council member Cecilia Taylor said she wanted the city to take another look at its below market-rate (BMR) formula. She said monthly rent for a BMR unit runs anywhere from $2,900 to $3,500 and she wants to try to make them more affordable.

"Is there ... something that we can use within our tool house to make these units that are not affordable, more affordable," Taylor said.

Levine said that the city needs to reexamine its policies in order to make building more appealing and feasible, particularly rules that require at least a 20,000 square foot lot to build, even in areas where properties of that size don't exist.

"You can't build anything there anymore," Levine said. "They've just banned housing along large portion of that area; they should be getting rid of that stuff."

When it comes to repercussions, Levine said that builder's remedy was too experimental to really know what to expect. Levine said that he didn't see builder's remedy applications becoming a problem, but it was more likely that a city would end up being sued for non-compliance. Menlo Park, however, is unlikely to face that risk.

"(A lawsuit) is unlikely to happen in Menlo Park, as long as the city continues to keep working on putting really good policies into the housing element, then moving in the right direction," Levine said. "I think Menlo Park has been moving in the right direction, and the best way to avoid getting sued is working to get a housing element in good faith."

Menlo Park has scheduled to review the latest version of the housing element in mid-June and resubmit the element to the state following a public review period in late June. n