Agda Pkt 2025.03.10 Joint SA PFA

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Page 10 of 13 City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org submitted its APR to HCD. However, later in 2024, City staff received clarification from HCD that the City’s contribution in negotiating these community benefits was, in fact, sufficient to meet the RHNA requirements. As a result, in October 2024 HCD approved an amendment to the City’s 2023 APR counting these 64 units towards the City’s RHNA. Additionally, in January 2025 HCD approved another amendment to the City’s 2023 APR to include 5 junior accessory dwelling units that the City inadvertently did not report on its 2023 APR. As a result of these two amendments, the number of housing units that count toward the City’s RHNA has been revised upward by 69 units; this change is reflected in the 2024 RHNA totals (Attachment A, Table B) and in the tables and figures in this staff report. Applicability of SB 35/SB 423 Streamlined Ministerial Approval Process SB 35 went into effect on January 1, 2018, and—as subsequently amended by SB 423—requires local jurisdictions that have not met State-mandated RHNA targets to apply a streamlined, ministerial2 approval process to qualifying multi-family housing projects. Per SB 35/SB 423 requirements, Redwood City currently must apply the Streamlined Ministerial Approval Process (SMAP) to residential development applications in which 50 percent of proposed units are affordable to lower-income households because the City did not achieve the pro-rata (i.e., proportionate) share of its very low- and low-income RHNA for years 5 through 8 of the 2015-2023 RHNA cycle. In practice, the SMAP has not been regularly utilized by residential development projects in Redwood City because projects that are less than 100% affordable have difficulty attracting funding subsidies and are therefore more difficult to finance. To date, the City has had three projects utilize the SMAP, all of which were 100% affordable. HCD will next assess Redwood City’s progress toward meeting the pro-rata share of its 2023-2031 RHNA cycle requirements in 2027 based on years 1 through 4 of the RHNA cycle and make a determination at that time as to whether Redwood City will continue to be subject to the SMAP. Table 3 summarizes Redwood City’s progress toward meeting its pro-rata share of the RHNA across income levels for the first two years of the current RHNA cycle. 2 Ministerial approval is a process by which a development project approval involves no personal judgment and merely ensures the development project meets all the applicable objective standards for the proposed action. Ministerial approval is usually done at a staff level, while discretionary decisions which are generally made by a City advisory or legislative body such as Planning Commission or City Council. 6.A. - Page 10 of 52 19