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State laws make it easier, faster to build housing and in more places than before. Gauging the effect on housing shortages, sales prices and rents will take time.
Council members spar over dubious RHNA presentation
Enander
The majority of the Los Altos City Council accused Vice Mayor Anita Enander and Councilmember Lynette Lee Eng of doing an end-around at Tuesday’s meeting by presenting a housing analysis from a nonprofit policy group that three council members had already rejected as controversial.
Mayor Neysa Fligor and fellow council members Jonathan Weinberg and Sally Meadows were clearly exasperated over what was intended to be a presentation from Enander about crafting a city response to the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) numbers. RHNA determines housing goals for each city, with targets set by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) per direction of the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development. Los Altos current target is 477 new units by 2023, ballooning to 1,948 units by 2031.
Los Altos council talks RHNA data, disagrees on housing report Written by Eric He
In a debate that could signify a divide in the Los Altos City Council’s approach to housing, the council last week was split on whether to invite representatives from a group that penned a report suggesting state-mandated housing allocation figures in response to the affordable housing crisis are based on faulty data to a future council meeting – sparking an exchange between the mayor and vice mayor.
Toward the end of the Jan. 26 council meeting, Vice Mayor Anita Enander asked Mayor Neysa Fligor if they could bring in someone from the Palo Alto-based Embarcadero Institute to discuss the institute’s report, which accuses the state of using incorrect data from vacancy rates and also “double counting,” leading to legislation that exaggerated the number of housing units required in the Bay Area and other regions across the state.