Laserfiche WebLink
Page 2 of 17 <br />City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org <br />BACKGROUND <br />The Redwood City Zoning Code is one of the primary legislative tools for regulating the City’s built <br />environment. The Zoning Code works in conjunction with the Municipal Code, which is the overarching <br />document that regulates all other functions in the City. The respective codes have been drafted in sections <br />and amended frequently over the course of decades in response to changing needs at the local, regional, <br />and national level, such as the evolution of public policy and the advancement of technology. <br />Amendments to the Zoning Code (also sometimes referred to as the “Zoning Ordinance”) and Municipal <br />Code (also sometimes referred to as the “City Code”) are required from time to time to update sections <br />of the code that may become outdated, internally inconsistent, and/or no longer consistent with current <br />policy directives. The current proposal recommends a broad update to the Zoning Code, and more focused <br />amendments to the Municipal Code, and Engineering Standards (i.e., “Code Maintenance”) to address <br />various issues that have been identified during the normal course of Staff’s work and to ensure <br />consistency with State law. <br />Additionally, staff proposes to continue the important work of implementing the City’s current General <br />Plan Housing Element, which was adopted by City Council in February 2023. The State-certified Housing <br />Element requires the implementation of 40 programs in order to help the City plan for and meet its target <br />of accommodating just over 7,000 dwelling units in Redwood City by 2031. The proposed Zoning Code <br />and Municipal Code amendments would implement key tasks within the Housing Element and, consistent <br />with the City Council’s strategic priority of meeting the Redwood City community’s housing needs, would <br />streamline development review to facilitate housing production. <br />PROJECT DESCRIPTION & ANALYSIS <br />As noted, the proposed updates to the Zoning Code, Municipal Code, and Engineering Standards (the <br />“Amendments”) fall under three categories: development review streamlining, Housing Element <br />implementation, and code maintenance. Each is described below. <br />Development Streamlining <br />City staff have identified strategies to promote the streamlined processing of development applications, <br />especially for residential projects, to help address the regional and statewide housing crisis and to increase <br />opportunities for construction of affordable housing, benefiting lower-income households. The following <br />proposed amendments would implement development review streamlining strategies: <br />1.Ministerial Review of 100% Affordable Housing – The City currently requires 100% affordable housing <br />projects above 35 feet in height to be reviewed by the Architectural Advisory Committee (AAC) and <br />approved by the Planning Commission at public hearings. Due to the urgent need to build more <br />affordable housing in Redwood City, the proposed amendments would streamline the approval of <br />100% affordable housing projects by eliminating the requirement for AAC and Planning Commission <br />review for all 100% affordable housing projects. Streamlining through the reduction of public hearings <br />can help: 1) bring new affordable housing online faster; 2) make development more affordable by <br />reducing holding and consultant costs, and; 3) increase the amount of time affordable housing <br />projects are eligible for competitive grants, which are typically critical for project financing. In <br />8.B. - Page 2 of 212 <br />317