September 15, 2005

City planners draft parameters for secondary-unit pilot program

Test to issue 100 permits or for one year

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Housing and planning officials have finished drafting parameters for a secondary-unit pilot program that will issue 100 permits for the dwellings throughout the city or for one year, whichever occurs sooner.

The proposed program will be heard by the Building Strong Neighborhoods Committee and by the Driving a Strong Economy Committee at their October meetings.

The Building Strong Neighborhoods Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 17, in City Hall room W119. The Driving a Strong Economy Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m., Oct. 24, in room W118. The program will most likely be heard by the Planning Commission in late October and by the council in early November, before it can be implemented in January of 2006.

Officials are recommending a cap on the number of permits and an ending date so the program can be evaluated in a timely manner, according to a Sept. 13 staff report.

Under new guidelines, the units have been severely restricted. They can only be 600 square feet, must have a bedroom, a full kitchen and one on-site parking space.

They will also be allowed in so-called R-1 zoning districts and any planned development district or cluster subdivision subject to R-1 single-family district standards. They must also be built with identical materials used by the primary dwelling unit such as the roofing, siding, windows and doors.

According to the new parameters, the minimum lot sizes for attached and detached secondary units are 6,000 and 8,000 square feet, respectively.

Those applying for the permits will also be required to certify that they reside in the primary dwelling unit.

With regard to existing illegal secondary units, the report recommends the city allow existing units that could meet the proposed parameters to become legal through the secondary-unit permit process.

Secondary-unit permit applicants will also pay a smaller fee to build the units to avoid creating a financial burden on them and not limit the development of this type of affordable housing, the new rules state.

The units will also be subject to the setback requirements of primary dwelling units. Detached secondary units will have to be located behind the primary unit and must be at least six feet away from the main residence. They will also be one story and be no more than 16 feet high. Their front doors cannot be visible from the street.

Council districts 9, 1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 have the largest amounts of 6,000-square-foot parcels. District 10, which includes Almaden and Blossom valleys, has 6,907 lots in that category.

The report also shows that districts 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10 also have the most 8,000-square-foot parcels. District 10 has a little more than 1,000 such lots.

Phyllis Ward, president of the Affordable Housing Network of Santa Clara County, welcomed the program saying low-income housing advocates have been working on this issue for more than a decade to get city officials to lift the 1984 ban on secondary units. State law requires cities to either have a ministerial process to approve the controversial units, also called granny units or mother-in-law quarters or to make findings of adverse impact precluding them. Several municipalities in the county have already approved secondary units to alleviate the area’s affordable housing shortage.

“Finally we have gotten this far and we support this proposal to get it started,” Ward said. “We’re hoping we’ll get 100 units right away. It won’t solve the housing crisis we have here but it will help. Every unit helps.”

Ward said the city needs more than 50,000 affordable housing units. “We have single people and families in desperate need of affordable housing. We’re not counting those living doubled or tripled up in overcrowded housing now or the people who live outside the city and commute to work because they can’t find an affordable place to live,” Ward said. “Businesses are complaining, too, because people are exhausted by the time they come to work after having driven for a couple of hours. It’s a very difficult situation.”

Last May, the San Jose City Council approved by 6-4 vote researching parameters for the program. District 10 Councilwoman Nancy Pyle voted against the move.

“I fail to understand why we are reinventing a wheel that does not work. Of course there should be some exceptions, but research shows that secondary units create a stress on our neighborhoods,” Pyle said this week. “I spoke with many passionate residents on this issue in the spring when it came before council. A majority of residents were against it.”

Many homeowners in Almaden Valley, including Pyle, have argued that allowing the units breaks an implied contract between the R-1 homeowner and the city. Past meetings with former Vice Mayor Pat Dando revealed a majority of residents in the community are against the units.

Other organizations such as the Santa Clara County Collaborative on Housing and Homeless Issues and the city’s Housing Advisory Commission have supported the program.

To view the staff report on the proposed pilot program please log onto www.sanjoseca.gov/planning.