Planning commissioners reject Housing Element

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Toward the end of a process that began more than four years ago, the San Benito County Planning Commission voted on Nov. 19 to recommend that the San Benito County Board of Supervisors reject the Housing Element, one of California’s key housing requirements, and start over from scratch. 

Without a state-approved housing plan, the county could face lawsuits, loss of state funding and unbridled development.  

To earn state certification, the county must plan for more than 700 new units in its unincorporated areas and rezone specific parcels to accommodate them. That rezoning plan was approved by planning commissioners and supervisors six months ago, but several landowners whose properties are on the list now say they were never notified.

Commissioner Robert Gibson argued that those owners should have been informed more than two years ago, during the first public discussions of the Housing Element.

“I was under the assumption that these people were notified at the time that we started discussing these particular parcels because to me that’s basic decency,” he said. “At this point, I’m not comfortable going forward, and it’s unfortunate that we’re at the 11th hour and the 59th second, but it’s unacceptable.”

Under California law, every city and county must show, every eight years, how they will meet their residents’ housing needs. The Housing Element is the only part of the county’s General Plan that must be regularly updated to reflect changes in the housing market and demonstrate a jurisdiction’s ability to plan for future growth.

San Benito County was supposed to submit its new Housing Element by December 2023, but missed that deadline. Today, it’s one of the few remaining jurisdictions in California without state certification; only 73 of the state’s 539 jurisdictions remain out of compliance.

An updated Housing Element was originally approved by both the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission in the spring. That triggered the rezoning of 12 parcels, which changed them from agricultural or rural to residential use and increased the allowed density from 20 units per acre to 45. 

To complete the certification, those rezonings had to be finalized, and the county spent the last six months preparing the environmental impact report needed to move them forward.

During the meeting, three residents said they were never informed that the county had plans to rezone their properties. Senior Planner Stephanie Reck told the board that letters were sent to residents living within 300 feet of the chosen parcels.

Reck added that she had spoken with “a few” property owners in recent weeks and explained that the “action is just to rezone, that development is not being forced upon anyone, and the property owners still maintain their property rights.”

Commissioner Robert Scagliotti said he owned a property “within 60 feet” of one of the parcels, and was never informed. 

“So you didn’t do your job,” he told both Reck and Bryant de la Torre, a Kimley-Horn consultant who worked on the Housing Element plan. 

All three residents who spoke at the meeting denied receiving any letter.

“I mean, it would be quite shocking if you found out that the county is going to redesignate your land,” Commissioner Vincent Ringheden said.

De la Torre warned the supervisors that remaining out of compliance comes with huge risks: the county could lose state funding, face lawsuits, and in his view, the “worst” consequence, remain vulnerable to what’s known as the “builder’s remedy.” 

When imposed, the builder’s remedy limits the county’s ability to reject developments that provide affordable housing, even if they go against local zoning rules.

Today, San Benito County’s lack of a certified Housing Element has enabled the planning of more than 2,300 units on land designated as rural or agricultural, according to county planning records.

Richard Way was the only commissioner to vote against recommending the rejection of the Housing Element. 

“We’ve put so much time and effort into this,” he said. “It is so crucial that we get this done. We have to do what’s best for the county even when certain individual property owners are obviously going to be disadvantaged. There’s nothing you can do that’s going to satisfy everybody.”

The other four commissioners voted to recommend rejecting the Housing Element and to pass the hot potato to the Board of Supervisors, which is expected to discuss the issue on Dec. 16.

“I think we need to put it in the hands of the board,” Gibson said. “Ultimately, it’s their decision, and if they want to do what they think is right, then they can find the money to start over.”

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